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Register a new userInterpreting observations of edge-on gravitationally unstable accretion flows
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Hauyu Baobab Liu Mr.
Publication date
2016
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Hauyu Baobab Liu
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Gravitational collapse of molecular cloud or cloud core/clump may lead to the formation of geometrically flattened, rotating accretion flow surrounding the new born star or star cluster. Gravitational instability may occur in such accretion flow when the gas to stellar mass ratio is high (e.g. over $sim$10%). This paper takes the OB cluster-forming region G10.6-0.4 as an example. We introduce the enclosed gas mass around its central ultra compact (UC) Htextsc{ii} region, addresses the gravitational stability of the accreting gas, and outline the observed potential signatures of gravitational instability. The position-velocity (PV) diagrams of various molecular gas tracers on G10.6-0.4 consistently show asymmetry in the spatial and the velocity domain. We deduce the morphology of the dense gas accretion flow by modeling velocity distribution of the azimuthally asymmetric gas structures, and by directly de-projecting the PV diagrams. We found that within the 0.3 pc radius, an infall velocity of 1-2 km,s$^{-1}$ may be required to explain the observed PV diagrams. In addition, the velocity distribution traced in the PV diagrams can be interpreted by spiral arm-like structures, which may be connected with exterior infalling gas filaments. The morphology of dense gas structures we propose appears very similar to the spatially resolved gas structures around the OB cluster-forming region G33.92+0.11 with similar gas mass and size, which however is likely to be approximately in a face-on projection. The dense gas accretion flow around G10.6-0.4 appears to be Toomre unstable, which is consistent with the existence of large-scale spiral arm-like structures, and the formation of localize gas condensations.
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We report on the first birds-eye view of the innermost accretion disk around the high-mass protostellar object G353.273+0.641, taken by Atacama Large Millimter/submillimeter Array long-baselines. The disk traced by dust continuum emission has a radius of 250 au, surrounded by the infalling rotating envelope traced by thermal CH$_3$OH lines. This disk radius is consistent with the centrifugal radius estimated from the specific angular momentum in the envelope. The lower-limit envelope mass is $sim$5-7 M$_{odot}$ and accretion rate onto the stellar surface is 3 $times$ 10$^{-3}$ M$_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ or higher. The expected stellar age is well younger than 10$^{4}$ yr, indicating that the host object is one of the youngest high-mass objects at present. The disk mass is 2-7 M$_{odot}$, depending on the dust opacity index. The estimated Toomres $Q$ parameter is typically 1-2 and can reach 0.4 at the minimum. These $Q$ values clearly satisfy the classical criteria for the gravitational instability, and are consistent with the recent numerical studies. Observed asymmetric and clumpy structures could trace a spiral arm and/or disk fragmentation. We found that 70$%$ of the angular momentum in the accretion flow could be removed via the gravitational torque in the disk. Our study has indicated that the dynamical nature of a self-gravitating disk could dominate the early phase of high-mass star formation. This is remarkably consistent with the early evolutionary scenario of a low-mass protostar.
Binary and multiple star systems are a frequent outcome of the star formation process, and as a result, almost half of all sun-like stars have at least one companion star. Theoretical studies indicate that there are two main pathways that can operate concurrently to form binary/multiple star systems: large scale fragmentation of turbulent gas cores and filaments or smaller scale fragmentation of a massive protostellar disk due to gravitational instability. Observational evidence for turbulent fragmentation on scales of $>$1000~AU has recently emerged. Previous evidence for disk fragmentation was limited to inferences based on the separations of more-evolved pre-main sequence and protostellar multiple systems. The triple protostar system L1448 IRS3B is an ideal candidate to search for evidence of disk fragmentation. L1448 IRS3B is in an early phase of the star formation process, likely less than 150,000 years in age, and all protostars in the system are separated by $<$200~AU. Here we report observations of dust and molecular gas emission that reveal a disk with spiral structure surrounding the three protostars. Two protostars near the center of the disk are separated by 61 AU, and a tertiary protostar is coincident with a spiral arm in the outer disk at a 183 AU separation. The inferred mass of the central pair of protostellar objects is $sim$1 M$_{sun}$, while the disk surrounding the three protostars has a total mass of $sim$0.30 M$_{sun}$. The tertiary protostar itself has a minimum mass of $sim$0.085 M$_{sun}$. We demonstrate that the disk around L1448 IRS3B appears susceptible to disk fragmentation at radii between 150~AU and 320~AU, overlapping with the location of the tertiary protostar. This is consistent with models for a protostellar disk that has recently undergone gravitational instability, spawning one or two companion stars.
We demonstrate the formation of gravitationally unstable discs in magnetized molecular cloud cores with initial mass-to-flux ratios of 5 times the critical value, effectively solving the magnetic braking catastrophe. We model the gravitational collapse through to the formation of the stellar core, using Ohmic resistivity, ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect and using the canonical cosmic ray ionization rate of $zeta_text{cr} = 10^{-17}$ s$^{-1}$. When the magnetic field and rotation axis are initially aligned, a $lesssim1$~au disc forms after the first core phase, whereas when they are anti-aligned, a gravitationally-unstable 25~au disc forms during the first core phase. The aligned model launches a 3~km~s$^{-1}$ first core outflow, while the anti-aligned model launches only a weak $lesssim 0.3$~km~s$^{-1}$ first core outflow. Qualitatively, we find that models with $zeta_text{cr} = 10^{-17}$ s$^{-1}$ are similar to purely hydrodynamical models if the rotation axis and magnetic field are initially anti-aligned, whereas they are qualitatively similar to ideal magnetohydrodynamical models if initially aligned.
Planets form in the discs of gas and dust that surround young stars. It is not known whether gas giant planets on wide orbits form the same way as Jupiter or by fragmentation of gravitationally unstable discs. Here we show that a giant planet, which has formed in the outer regions of a protostellar disc, initially migrates fast towards the central star (migration timescale ~10,000 yr) while accreting gas from the disc. However, in contrast with previous studies, we find that the planet eventually opens up a gap in the disc and the migration is essentially halted. At the same time, accretion-powered radiative feedback from the planet, significantly limits its mass growth, keeping it within the planetary mass regime (i.e. below the deuterium burning limit) at least for the initial stages of disc evolution. Giant planets may therefore be able to survive on wide orbits despite their initial fast inward migration, shaping the environment in which terrestrial planets that may harbour life form.
We investigated the boundary between stable and unstable regimes of accretion and its dependence on different parameters. Simulations were performed using a cubed sphere code with high grid resolution (244 grid points in the azimuthal direction), which is twice as high as that used in our earlier studies. We chose a very low viscosity value, with alpha-parameter alpha=0.02. We observed from the simulations that the boundary strongly depends on the ratio between magnetospheric radius r_m (where the magnetic stress in the magnetosphere matches the matter stress in the disk) and corotation radius r_cor (where the Keplerian velocity in the disk is equal to the angular velocity of the star). For a small misalignment angle of the dipole field, Theta=5 degrees, accretion is unstable if r_cor/r_m>1.35, and is stable otherwise. In cases of a larger misalignment angle of the dipole, Theta=20 degrees, instability occurs at slightly larger values, r_cor/r_m>1.41.
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