Cooling and instabilities in colliding flows

Collisional self-interactions occurring in protostellar jets give rise to strong shocks, the structure of which can be affected by radiative cooling within the flow. To study such colliding flows, we use the AstroBEAR AMR code to conduct hydrodynamic simulations in both one and three dimensions with a power law cooling function. The characteristic length and time scales for cooling are temperature dependent and thus may vary as shocked gas cools. When the cooling length decreases sufficiently rapidly the system becomes unstable to the radiative shock instability, which produces oscillations in the position of the shock front; these oscillations can be seen in both the one and three dimensional cases. Our simulations show no evidence of the density clumping characteristic of a thermal instability, even when the cooling function meets the expected criteria. In the three-dimensional case, the nonlinear thin shell instability (NTSI) is found to dominate when the cooling length is sufficiently small. When the flows are subjected to the radiative shock instability, oscillations in the size of the cooling region allow NTSI to occur at larger cooling lengths, though larger cooling lengths delay the onset of NTSI by increasing the oscillation period.

Particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in massive young stellar object jets

Synchrotron radio emission from non-relativistic jets powered by massive protostars has been reported, indicating the presence of relativistic electrons and magnetic fields of strength ∼0.3 −5 mG. We study diffusive shock acceleration and magnetic field amplification in protostellar jets with speeds between 300 and 1500 km s−1. We show that the magnetic field in the synchrotron emitter can be amplified by the non-resonant hybrid (Bell) instability excited by the cosmic-ray streaming. By combining the synchrotron data with basic theory of Bell instability we estimate the magnetic field in the synchrotron emitter and the maximum energy of protons. Protons can achieve maximum energies in the range 0.04 − 0.65 TeV and emit γ rays in their interaction with matter fields. We predict detectable levels of γ rays in IRAS 16547-5247 and IRAS 16848-4603. The γ ray flux can be significantly enhanced by the gas mixing due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The detection of this radiation by the Fermi satellite in the GeV domain and the forthcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array at higher energies may open a new window to study the formation of massive stars, as well as diffusive acceleration and magnetic field amplification in shocks with velocities of about 1000 km s−1.

Parameter study for the burst mode of accretion in massive star formation

ABSTRACT It is now a widely held view that, in their formation and early evolution, stars build up mass in bursts. The burst mode of star formation scenario proposes that the stars grow in mass via episodic accretion of fragments migrating from their gravitationally unstable circumstellar discs, and it naturally explains the existence of observed pre-main-sequence bursts from high-mass protostars. We present a parameter study of hydrodynamical models of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) that explores the initial masses of the collapsing clouds (Mc = 60–$200\, \rm M_{\odot }$) and ratio of rotational-to-gravitational energies (β = 0.005–0.33). An increase in Mc and/or β produces protostellar accretion discs that are more prone to develop gravitational instability and to experience bursts. We find that all MYSOs have bursts even if their pre-stellar core is such that β ≤ 0.01. Within our assumptions, the lack of stable discs is therefore a major difference between low- and high-mass star formation mechanisms. All our disc masses and disc-to-star mass ratios Md/M⋆ > 1 scale as a power law with the stellar mass. Our results confirm that massive protostars accrete about $40\, -\, 60{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of their mass in the burst mode. The distribution of time periods between two consecutive bursts is bimodal: there is a short duration ($\sim 1\, -\, 10~\rm yr$) peak corresponding to the short, faintest bursts and a long-duration peak (at $\sim 10^{3}\, -\, 10^{4} \rm yr$) corresponding to the long, FU-Orionis-type bursts appearing in later disc evolution, i.e. around $30\, \rm kyr$ after disc formation. We discuss this bimodality in the context of the structure of massive protostellar jets as potential signatures of accretion burst history.

Super-rotating protostellar jets

Protostellar jets are most striking phenomena in star-forming regions and considered to be an essential ingredient in the star formation process. Stars form in gravitationally collapsing clouds. The mass of protostar at its birth is equivalent to Jovian mass or 0.1 percent of the solar mass. After the birth, the protostar acquires its mass by accreting material from a surrounding rotation disk embedded in an infalling envelope that is a remnant of the natal cloud of the star. Protostellar jets are believed to expel the excess angular momentum from the circumstellar region that allows accretion on to the star. Here, we report the detection of super-rotating jets driven from a protostar FIR 6b (HOPS 60) in Orion Molecular Cloud-2. The jet rotation velocity exceeds 20kms-1 and the specific angular momentum of the jet is as large as ∼ 1022cm2s-1, which hitherto are the largest that have been observed in protostellar jets. The extraordinary large rotation velocity and specific angular momentum can be explained by a magnetohydrodynamic disk wind. This is clear evidence that magnetic fields play a crucial role for protostellar evolution and that angular momentum is removed by protostellar jets.

Discovery of a jet from the single HAe/Be star HD 100546

Young accreting stars drive outflows that collimate into jets, which can be seen hundreds of au from their driving sources. Accretion and outflow activity cease with system age, and it is believed that magneto-centrifugally launched disk winds are critical agents in regulating accretion through the protoplanetary disk. Protostellar jets are well studied in classical T Tauri stars (M⋆ ≲ 2 M⊙), while few nearby (d ≲ 150 pc) intermediate-mass stars (M⋆ = 2−10 M⊙), known as Herbig Ae/Be stars, have detected jets. We report VLT/MUSE observations of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD 100546 and the discovery of a protostellar jet. The jet is similar in appearance to jets driven by low-mass stars and compares well with the jet of HD 163296, the only other known optical jet from a nearby Herbig Ae/Be star. We derive a (one-sided) mass-loss rate in the jet of log Ṁjet ∼ −9.5 (in M⊙ yr−1) and a ratio of outflow to accretion of roughly 3 × 10−3, which is lower than that of CTTS jets. The discovery of the HD 100546 jet is particularly interesting because the protoplanetary disk around HD 100546 shows a large radial gap, spiral structure, and might host a protoplanetary system. A bar-like structure previously seen in Hα with VLT/SPHERE shares the jet position angle, likely represents the base of the jet, and suggests a jet-launching region within about 2 au. We conclude that the evolution of the disk at radii beyond a few au does not affect the ability of the system to launch jets.

Misalignment of Magnetic Fields, Outflows and Discs in Star-forming Clouds

Using resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations, the propagation of protostellar jets, the formation of circumstellar discs and the configuration of magnetic fields are investigated from the prestellar cloud phase until ∼500 yr after protostar formation. As the initial state, we prepare magnetized rotating clouds, in which the rotation axis is misaligned with the global magnetic field by an angle θ0. We calculate the cloud evolution for nine models with different θ0( = 0, 5, 10, 30, 45, 60, 80, 85, 90○). Our simulations show that there is no significant difference in the physical quantities of the protostellar jet, such as the mass and momentum, among the models except for the model with θ0 = 90○. On the other hand, the directions of the jet, disc normal and magnetic field are never aligned with each other during the early phase of star formation except for the model with θ0 = 0○. Even when the rotation axis of the prestellar cloud is slightly inclined to the global magnetic field, the directions of the jet, disc normal and local magnetic field differ considerably, and they randomly change over time. Our results indicate that it is very difficult to extract any information from the observations of the directions of the outflow, disc and magnetic field at the scale of $\lesssim$1000 au. Thus, we cannot use such observations to derive any restrictions on the star formation process.

Molecules in the Cep E-mm jet: evidence for shock-driven photochemistry?

ABSTRACT The chemical composition of protostellar jets and its origin are still badly understood. More observational constraints are needed to make progress. With that objective, we have carried out a systematic search for molecular species in the jet of Cep E-mm, a template for intermediate-mass Class 0 protostars, associated with a luminous, high-velocity outflow. We made use of an unbiased spectral line survey in the range 72–350 GHz obtained with the IRAM 30-m telescope, complementary observations of the CO J = 3–2 transition with the JCMT, and observations at 1 arcsec angular resolution of the CO J = 2–1 transition with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. In addition to CO, we have detected rotational transitions from SiO, SO, H2CO, CS, HCO+, and HCN. A strong chemical differentiation is observed in the southern and northern lobes of the jet. Radiative transfer analysis in the large velocity gradient approximation yields typical molecular abundances of the order of 10−8 for all molecular species other than CO. Overall, the jets exhibit an unusual chemical composition, as CS, SO, and H2CO are found to be the most abundant species, with a typical abundance of (3–4)× 10−8. The transverse size of the CO jet emission estimated from interferometric observations is about 1000 au, suggesting that we are detecting emission from a turbulent layer of gas entrained by the jet in its propagation and not the jet itself. We propose that some molecular species could be the signatures of the specific photochemistry driven by the UV radiation field generated in the turbulent envelope.