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Magnetic subcriticality refers to a mass-to-flux ratio below its critical mass-to-flux ratio. For an idealized thin layer threaded by a uniform frozen-in perpendicular magnetic field, define in SI unitsHere $\Sigma$ is the surface density and $B_{z0}$ the perpendicular magnetic field. The magnetically subcritical case has $\lambda <1$, or $B_{z0}^2>\pi G{\mu }_0{\Sigma }^2$. In the specified ideal layer, magnetic support prevents the linear gravitational collapse studied by Takenori Nakano and Takashi Nakamura. Their original Gaussian-unit threshold is $\Sigma /|B_{z0}|<1/(2\pi \sqrt{G})$. The numerical coefficient is tied to geometry and field assumptions.^[ref]

A complementary sufficient-contraction result applies to an isolated cold initially resting razor-thin disk. If $B_{z0}^2<\pi G{\mu }_0{\Sigma }^2$ pointwise, the absolute gravity-equivalent magnetic surface density is smaller than the actual surface density. The positive-kernel comparison of thin-disk fields then makes the integrand in the horizontal virial balance of a cold magnetized fluid negative above and below the disk. Its radial second moment therefore begins to decrease. This weak-field inequality is on the magnetically supercritical disk side of the mass-to-flux convention.

The second-moment conclusion is global. It does not establish inward acceleration of every fluid element, and it does not prove unlimited subsequent collapse. Pressure, rotation, magnetic flux loss and different boundary-field configurations require their own analysis.

The hypothesis is $|{\Sigma }_M|<\Sigma$, with the physical surface density nonnegative. At height $z>0$, the vertical derivative of an isolated thin-disk gravitational potential has a strictly positive kernel:The same formula with ${\Sigma }_M$ represents ${\partial }_z{\Phi }_M$. The triangle inequality and the strict surface density bound therefore give the positive-kernel comparison of thin-disk fieldsUse ${\partial }_z{\Phi }_M=-\sqrt{4\pi G/{\mu }_0}{B}_z$. The integrand in part (c) is then $({\partial }_z{\Phi }_M{)}^2-({\partial }_z\Phi {)}^2<0$ in the upper vacuum region. Reflection symmetry gives the same result below; the infinitesimally thin disk has zero three-dimensional volume. Thus, with the finite-integral assumptions of the tensor virial theorem,Since the disk starts at rest, ${\dot{I}}_{\perp }=0$ initially and its radial second moment begins to decrease. This is magnetic subcriticality of a razor-thin disk: magnetic support cannot prevent initial contraction in the global virial sense. The conclusion concerns the mass-weighted radial size, and does not by itself prove that every fluid element accelerates inward or that contraction continues indefinitely.