No Arabic abstract
(Abridged) The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the physical and chemical structure of Class I low-mass protostellar sources on protoplanetary disc scales. We present a study of the dust and gas emission towards a representative sample of 12 Class I protostars from the Ophiuchus molecular cloud with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The continuum at 0.87 mm and molecular transitions from C17O, C34S, H13CO+, CH3OH, SO2 , and C2H were observed at high angular resolution (0.4, ~60 au diameter) towards each source. Disc and stellar masses are estimated from the continuum flux and position-velocity diagrams, and six of the sources show disc-like structures. Towards the more luminous sources, compact emission and large line widths are seen for transitions of SO2 that probe warm gas (Eu ~200 K). In contrast, C17O emission is detected towards the least evolved and less luminous systems. No emission of CH3OH is detected towards any of the continuum peaks, indicating an absence of warm CH3OH gas towards these sources. A power-law relation is seen between the stellar mass and the bolometric luminosity, corresponding to a mass accretion rate of (2.4 +/- 0.6) x 10^-7 Msun/year for the Class I sources. This mass accretion rate is lower than the expected value if the accretion is constant in time and rather points to a scenario of accretion occurring in bursts. The differentiation between C17O and SO2 suggests that they trace different physical components: C17O traces the densest and colder regions of the disc-envelope system, while SO2 may be associated with regions of higher temperature, such as accretion shocks. The lack of warm CH3OH emission suggests that there is no hot-core-like region around any of the sources and that the CH3OH column density averaged over the disc is low.
We present results from the first radiation non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of low-mass star cluster formation that resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit. We model 50~M$_odot$ turbulent clouds initially threaded by a uniform magnetic field with strengths of 3, 5 10 and 20 times the critical mass-to-magnetic flux ratio, and at each strength, we model both an ideal and non-ideal (including Ohmic resistivity, ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect) MHD cloud. Turbulence and magnetic fields shape the large-scale structure of the cloud, and similar structures form regardless of whether ideal or non-ideal MHD is employed. At high densities ($10^6 lesssim n_{rm H} lesssim 10^{11}$~cm$^{-3}$), all models have a similar magnetic field strength versus density relation, suggesting that the field strength in dense cores is independent of the large-scale environment. Albeit with limited statistics, we find no evidence for the dependence of the initial mass function on the initial magnetic field strength, however, the star formation rate decreases for models with increasing initial field strengths; the exception is the strongest field case where collapse occurs primarily along field lines. Protostellar discs with radii $gtrsim 20$~au form in all models, suggesting that disc formation is dependent on the gas turbulence rather than on magnetic field strength. We find no evidence for the magnetic braking catastrophe, and find that magnetic fields do not hinder the formation of protostellar discs.
The physical and chemical conditions in Class 0/I protostars are fundamental in unlocking the protostellar accretion process and its impact on planet formation. The aim is to determine which physical components are traced by different molecules at sub-arcsecond scales (100 - 400 au). We use a suite of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) datasets in Band 6 (1 mm), Band 5 (1.8 mm) and Band 3 (3 mm) at spatial resolutions 0.5 - 3 for 16 protostellar sources. The protostellar envelope is well traced by C$^{18}$O, DCO$^+$ and N$_2$D$^+$, with the freeze-out of CO governing the chemistry at envelope scales. Molecular outflows are seen in classical shock tracers like SiO and SO, but ice-mantle products such as CH$_3$OH and HNCO released with the shock are also observed. The molecular jet is prominent not only in SiO and SO but also occasionally in H$_2$CO. The cavity walls show tracers of UV-irradiation such as C$_2$H c-C$_3$H$_2$ and CN. The hot inner envelope, apart from showing emission from complex organic molecules (COMs), also presents compact emission from small molecules like H$_2$S, SO, OCS and H$^{13}$CN, most likely related to ice sublimation and high-temperature chemistry. Sub-arcsecond millimeter-wave observations allow to identify those (simple) molecules that best trace each of the physical components of a protostellar system. COMs are found both in the hot inner envelope (high excitation lines) and in the outflows (lower-excitation lines) with comparable abundances. COMs can coexist with hydrocarbons in the same protostellar sources, but they trace different components. In the near future, mid-IR observations with JWST-MIRI will provide complementary information about the hottest gas and the ice mantle content, at unprecedented sensitivity and at resolutions comparable to ALMA for the same sources.
Wolf-Rayet ([WR]) and weak emission-line ($wels$) central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) have hydrogen-deficient atmospheres, whose origins are not well understood. In the present study, we have conducted plasma diagnostics and abundance analyses of 18 Galactic PNe surrounding [WR] and $wels$ nuclei, using collisionally excited lines (CELs) and optical recombination lines (ORLs) measured with the Wide Field Spectrograph on the ANU 2.3-m telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory complemented with optical archival data. Our plasma diagnostics imply that the electron densities and temperatures derived from CELs are correlated with the intrinsic nebular H$beta$ surface brightness and excitation class, respectively. Self-consistent plasma diagnostics of heavy element ORLs of N${}^{2+}$ and O${}^{2+}$ suggest that a small fraction of cool ($lesssim 7000$ K), dense ($sim 10^4-10^5$ cm$^{-3}$) materials may be present in some objects, though with large uncertainties. Our abundance analyses indicate that the abundance discrepancy factors (ADF$equiv$ORLs/CELs) of O${}^{2+}$ are correlated with the dichotomies between forbidden-line and He I temperatures. Our results likely point to the presence of a tiny fraction of cool, oxygen-rich dense clumps within the diffuse warm ionized nebulae. Moreover, our elemental abundances derived from CELs are mostly consistent with AGB models in the range of initial masses from 1.5 to 5M$_{odot}$. Further studies are necessary to understand better the origins of abundance discrepancies in PNe around [WR] and $wels$ stars.
We present high resolution spectroscopy of mid-infrared molecular emission from two very active T Tauri stars, AS 205 N and DR Tau. In addition to measuring high signal-to-noise line profiles of water, we report the first spectrally resolved mid-infrared line profiles of HCN emission from protoplanetary disks. The similar line profiles and temperatures of the HCN and water emission indicate that they arise in the same volume of the disk atmosphere, within 1-2AU of the star. The results support the earlier suggestion that the observed trend of increasing HCN/water emission with disk mass is a chemical fingerprint of planetesimal formation and core accretion in action. In addition to directly constraining the emitting radii of the molecules, the high resolution spectra also help to break degeneracies between temperature and column density in deriving molecular abundances from low resolution mid-infrared spectra. As a result, they can improve our understanding of the extent to which inner disks are chemically active. Contrary to predictions from HCN excitation studies carried out for AS 205 N, the mid-infrared and near-infrared line profiles of HCN are remarkably similar. The discrepancy may indicate that HCN is not abundant beyond a couple of AU or that infrared pumping of HCN does not dominate at these distances.
Hot corino chemistry and warm carbon chain chemistry (WCCC) are driven by gas-grain interactions in star-forming cores: radical-radical recombination reactions to form complex organic molecules (COMs) in the ice mantle, sublimation of CH$_4$ and COMs, and their subsequent gas-phase reactions. These chemical features are expected to depend on the composition of ice mantle which is set in the prestellar phase. We calculated the gas-grain chemical reaction network considering a layered ice-mantle structure in star-forming cores, to investigate how the hot corino chemistry and WCCC depend on the physical condition of the static phase before the onset of gravitational collapse. We found that WCCC becomes more active, if the temperature is lower, or the visual extinction is lower in the static phase, or the static phase is longer. Dependence of hot corino chemistry on the static-phase condition is more complex. While CH$_3$OH is less abundant in the models with warmer static phase, some COMs are formed efficiently in those warm models, since there are various formation paths of COMs. If the visual extinction is lower, photolysis makes COMs less abundant in the static phase. Once the collapse starts and visual extinction increases, however, COMs can be formed efficiently. Duration of the static phase does not largely affect COM abundances. Chemical diversity between prototypical hot corinos and hybrid sources, in which both COMs and carbon chains are reasonably abundant, can be explained by the variation of prestellar conditions. Deficiency of gaseous COMs in prototypical WCCC sources is, however, hard to reproduce within our models.