  Hydrodynamical calculations in three space dimensions of the collapse of an
isothermal, rotating 1 M\sol protostellar cloud are presented. The initial
density stratification is a power law with density $\rho \propto r^{-p}$, with
$p=1$. The case of the singular isothermal sphere ($p=2$) is not considered;
however $p=1$ has been shown observationally to be a good representation of the
density distribution in molecular cloud cores just before the beginning of
collapse. The collapse is studied with two independent numerical methods, an
SPH code with 200,000 particles, and a finite-difference code with nested grids
which give high spatial resolution in the inner regions. Although previous
numerical studies have indicated that such a power-law distribution would not
result in fragmentation into a binary system, both codes show, in contrast,
that multiple fragmentation does occur in the central regions of the protostar.
Thus the process of binary formation by fragmentation is shown to be consistent
with the fact that a large fraction of young stars are observed to be in binary
or multiple systems.
