Self-initiated star formation, the  <i>B</i> –ρ relation, ambipolar diffusion, and other unnecessary controversies

ABSTRACT Recent papers: (i) present results as new, when in fact those results had been obtained much earlier; (ii) credit results to papers in which they are nowhere to be found, or to papers that used or obtained the results without attribution to their original discovery; and (iii) present provably incorrect concepts and equations. We discuss some of the above cases, chosen according to two criteria: (a) that it be straightforward for any reader to verify that those results are not original, and (b) the errors in some concepts and equations/results be demonstrated easily and clearly. Most prominent among them are claims that the relation between magnetic field and gas density, $B \propto \rho ^{\kappa }$ with $\kappa$ = 1/2, is new or ‘universal’; that observations show $\kappa$ = 2/3 and that this value is not unique to spherical, isotropic contraction, but is also achievable in homologous contraction; that the proportionality constant in the B–$\rho$ relation involves a ‘critical’ density; that the mass-to-flux ratio can increase by motions along field lines while the magnetic flux remains frozen in the matter; that, in non-gravitating media, B depends on both $\rho$ and the turbulent velocity is a new and general result; that ambipolar diffusion can be characterized by a lengthscale; that clouds form rapidly by colliding streams of turbulent gas; and that the self-initiated star formation theory ‘assumes’ the existence of low-mass fragments (or, cores) and can form only low-mass stars. New results are presented based on the theory of self-initiated star formation.