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Register a new userMeasuring Magnetic Fields from Water Masers in the Synchrotron Protostellar Jet in W3(H$_2$O)
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We report full polarimetric VLBA observations of water masers towards the Turner-Welch Object in the W3(OH) high-mass star forming complex. This object drives a synchrotron jet, which is quite exceptional for a high-mass protostar, and is associated with a strongly polarized water maser source, W3(H$_2$O), making it an optimal target to investigate the role of magnetic fields on the innermost scales of protostellar disk-jet systems. The linearly polarized emission from water masers provides clues on the orientation of the local magnetic field, while the measurement of the Zeeman splitting from circular polarization provides its strength. The water masers trace a bipolar, biconical outflow at the center of the synchrotron jet. Although on scales of a few thousand AU the magnetic field inferred from the masers is on average orientated along the flow axis, on smaller scales (10s to 100s of AU), we have revealed a misalignment between the magnetic field and the velocity vectors, which arises from the compression of the field component along the shock front. Our measurements support a scenario where the magnetic field would evolve from having a dominant component parallel to the outflow velocity in the pre-shock gas, with field strengths of the order of a few tens of mG (at densities of $10^7$ cm$^{-3}$), to being mainly dominated by the perpendicular component of order of a few hundred of mG in the post-shock gas where the water masers are excited (at densities of $10^9$ cm$^{-3}$). The general implication is that in the undisturbed (i.e. not-shocked) circumstellar gas, the flow velocities would follow closely the magnetic field lines, while in the gas shocked by the prostostellar jet the magnetic field would be re-configured to be parallel to the shock front.
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We present a model in which the 22 GHz H$_2$O masers observed in star-forming regions occur behind shocks propagating in dense regions (preshock density $n_0 sim 10^6 - 10^8$ cm$^{-3}$). We focus on high-velocity ($v_s > 30$ km s$^{-1}$) dissociative J shocks in which the heat of H$_2$ re-formation maintains a large column of $sim 300-400$ K gas; at these temperatures the chemistry drives a considerable fraction of the oxygen not in CO to form H$_2$O. The H$_2$O column densities, the hydrogen densities, and the warm temperatures produced by these shocks are sufficiently high to enable powerful maser action. The observed brightness temperatures (generally $sim 10^{11} - 10^{14}$ K) are the result of coherent velocity regions that have dimensions in the shock plane that are 10 to 100 times the shock thickness of $sim 10^{13}$ cm. The masers are therefore beamed towards the observer, who typically views the shock edge-on, or perpendicular to the shock velocity; the brightest masers are then observed with the lowest line of sight velocities with respect to the ambient gas. We present numerical and analytic studies of the dependence of the maser inversion, the resultant brightness temperature, the maser spot size and shape, the isotropic luminosity, and the maser region magnetic field on the shock parameters and the coherence path length; the overall result is that in galactic H$_2$O 22 GHz masers these observed parameters can be produced in J shocks with $n_0sim 10^6 - 10^8$ cm$^{-3}$ and $v_s sim 30 -200$ km s$^{-1}$. A number of key observables such as maser shape, brightness temperature, and global isotropic luminosity depend only on the particle flux into the shock, $j=n_0v_s$, rather than on $n_0$ and $v_s$ separately.
We present results of a multi-epoch monitoring program on variability of 6$,$cm formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) masers in the massive star forming region NGC$,$7538$,$IRS$,$1 from 2008 to 2015 conducted with the GBT, WSRT, and VLA. We found that the similar variability behaviors of the two formaldehyde maser velocity components in NGC$,$7538$,$IRS$,$1 (which was pointed out by Araya and collaborators in 2007) have continued. The possibility that the variability is caused by changes in the maser amplification path in regions with similar morphology and kinematics is discussed. We also observed 12.2$,$GHz methanol and 22.2$,$GHz water masers toward NGC$,$7538$,$IRS$,$1. The brightest maser components of CH$_3$OH and H$_2$O species show a decrease in flux density as a function of time. The brightest H$_2$CO maser component also shows a decrease in flux density and has a similar LSR velocity to the brightest H$_2$O and 12.2$,$GHz CH$_3$OH masers. The line parameters of radio recombination lines and the 20.17 and 20.97$,$GHz CH$_3$OH transitions in NGC$,$7538$,$IRS$,$1 are also reported. In addition, we observed five other 6$,$cm formaldehyde maser regions. We found no evidence of significant variability of the 6$,$cm masers in these regions with respect to previous observations, the only possible exception being the maser in G29.96$-$0.02. All six sources were also observed in the H$_2^{13}$CO isotopologue transition of the 6$,$cm H$_2$CO line; H$_2^{13}$CO absorption was detected in five of the sources. Estimated column density ratios [H$_2^{12}$CO]/[H$_2^{13}$CO] are reported.
We discovered new high-velocity components of H$_2$O maser emission in one of the water fountain sources, IRAS~18286$-$0959, which has been monitored using the Nobeyama 45 m telescope in the new FLASHING (Finest Legacy Acquisitions of SiO- and H$_2$O-maser Ignitions by Nobeyama Generation) project since 2018 December. The maser spectra show new, extremely high expansion velocities ($>$200~km~s$^{-1}$ projected in the line of sight) components, some of which are located symmetrically in the spectrum with respect to the systemic velocity. They were also mapped with KaVA (KVN and VERA Combined Array) in 2019 March. We located some of these maser components closer to the central stellar system than other high velocity components (50--200~km~s$^{-1}$) that have been confirmed to be associated with the known bipolar outflow. The new components would flash in the fast collimated jet at a speed over 300~km~s$^{-1}$ (soon) after 2011 when they had not been detected. The fastest of the new components seem to indicate rapid deceleration in these spectra, however our present monitoring is still too sparse to unambiguously confirm it (up to 50~km~s$^{-1}$yr$^{-1}$) and too short to reveal their terminal expansion velocity, which will be equal to the expansion velocity that has been observed ($v_{rm exp}sim$120~km~s$^{-1}$). Future occurrences of such extreme velocity components may provide a good opportunity to investigate possible recurrent outflow ignitions. Thus sculpture of the parental envelope will be traced by the dense gas that is entrained by the fast jet and exhibits spectacular distributions of the relatively stable maser features.
We present a magnetic field mapping of water maser clouds in the star-forming region W3 IRS5, which has been made on the basis of the linear polarization VLBI observation. Using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 22.2 GHz, 16 of 61 detected water masers were found to be linearly polarized with polarization degrees up to 13%. Although 10 polarized features were widely distributed in the whole W3 IRS5 water maser region, they had similar position angles of the magnetic field vectors (~75 deg from the north). The magnetic field vectors are roughly perpendicular to the spatial alignments of the maser features. They are consistent with the hourglass model of the magnetic field, which was previously proposed to explain the magnetic field in the whole W3 Main region (r~0.1 pc). They are, on the other hand, not aligned to the directions of maser feature proper motions observed previously. This implies that the W3 IRS5 magnetic field was controlled by a collapse of the W3 Main molecular cloud rather than the outflow originated from W3 IRS5.
Previous numerical studies have shown that in protostellar outflows, the mass-velocity distribution $m(v)$ can be well described by a broken power law $propto v^{- gamma}$. On the other hand, recent observations of a sample of outflows show that the CO intensity-velocity distribution, closely related to $m(v)$, follows an exponential law $propto exp(-v/v_0)$. In the present work, we revisit the physical origin of the mass-velocity relationship $m(v)$ in jet-driven protostellar outflows. We investigate the respective contributions of the different regions of the outflow, from the swept-up ambient gas to the jet. We performed 3D numerical simulations of a protostellar jet propagating into a molecular cloud using the hydrodynamical code Yguazu-a. The code takes into account atomic and ionic species and was modified to include the H$_2$ gas. We find that by excluding the jet contribution, $m(v)$ is satisfyingly fitted with a single exponential law, with $v_0$ well in the range of observational values. The jet contribution results in additional components in the mass-velocity relationship. This empirical mass-velocity relationship is found to be valid locally in the outflow. The exponent $v_0$ is almost constant in time and for a given level of mixing between the ambient medium and the jet material. In general, $v_0$ displays only a weak spatial dependence. A simple modeling of the L1157 outflow successfully reproduces the various components of the observed CO intensity-velocity relationship. Our simulations indicate that these components trace the outflow cavity of swept-up gas and the material entrained along the jet, respectively. The CO intensity-velocity exponential law is naturally explained by the jet-driven outflow model. The entrained material plays an important role in shaping the mass-velocity profile.
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