No Arabic abstract
Recent high-angular resolution (40 mas) ALMA observations at 1.14 mm resolve a compact (R~200 au) flattened dust structure perpendicular to the HH 80-81 jet emanating from the GGD 27-MM1 high-mass protostar, making it a robust candidate for a true accretion disk. The jet/disk system (HH 80-81 / GGD 27-MM1) resemble those found in association with low- and intermediate-mass protostars. We present radiative transfer models that fit the 1.14 mm ALMA dust image of this disk which allow us to obtain its physical parameters and predict its density and temperature structure. Our results indicate that this accretion disk is compact (Rdisk~170 au) and massive (5Msun), about 20% of the stellar mass of 20 Msun. We estimate the total dynamical mass of the star-disk system from the molecular line emission finding a range between 21 and 30 Msun, which is consistent with our model. We fit the density and temperature structures found by our model with power law functions. These results suggest that accretion disks around massive stars are more massive and hotter than their low-mass siblings, but they still are quite stable. We also compare the temperature distribution in the GGD 27-MM1 disk with that found in low- and intermediate-mass stars and discuss possible implications on the water snow line. We have also carried about a study of the distance based on Gaia DR2 data and the population of young stellar objects (YSOs) in this region, and from the extinction maps. We conclude that the source distance is in within 1.2 and 1.4 kpc, closer than what was derived in previous studies (1.7 kpc).
We used ALMA to observe the star-forming region GGD27 at 1.14 mm with an unprecedented angular resolution, 40 mas (56 au) and sensitivity (0.002 Msun). We detected a cluster of 25 continuum sources, most of which are likely tracing disks around Class 0/I protostars. Excluding the two most massive objects, disks masses are in the range 0.003-0.05 Msun. The analysis of the cluster properties indicates that GGD27 displays moderate subclustering. This result combined with the dynamical timescale of the radio jet (10000 years) suggests the youthfulness of the cluster. The lack of disk mass segregation signatures may support this too. We found a clear paucity of disks with Rdisk >100 au. The median value of the radius is 34 au, smaller than the median of 92 au for Taurus but comparable to the value found in Ophiuchus and in the Orion Nebula Cluster. In GGD27 there is no evidence of a distance-dependent disk mass distribution (i. e., disk mass depletion due to external photoevaporation), most likely due to the cluster youth. There is a clear deficit of disks for distances <0.02 pc. Only for distances >0.04 pc stars can form larger and more massive disks, suggesting that dynamical interactions far from the cluster center are weaker, although the small disks found could be the result of disk truncation. This work demonstrates the potential to characterize disks from low-mass YSOs in distant and massive (still deeply embedded) clustered environments.
We present new spectral line observations of the CH3CN molecule in the accretion disk around the massive protostar IRAS 20126+4104 with the Submillimeter Array that for the first time measure the disk density, temperature, and rotational velocity with sufficient resolution (0.37, equivalent to ~600 AU) to assess the gravitational stability of the disk through the Toomre-Q parameter. Our observations resolve the central 2000 AU region that shows steeper velocity gradients with increasing upper state energy, indicating an increase in the rotational velocity of the hotter gas nearer the star. Such spin-up motions are characteristics of an accretion flow in a rotationally supported disk. We compare the observed data with synthetic image cubes produced by three-dimensional radiative transfer models describing a thin flared disk in Keplerian motion enveloped within the centrifugal radius of an angular-momentum-conserving accretion flow. Given a luminosity of 1.3x10^4 Lsun, the optimized model gives a disk mass of 1.5 Msun and a radius of 858 AU rotating about a 12.0 Msun protostar with a disk mass accretion rate of 3.9x10^{-5} Msun/yr. Our study finds that, in contrast to some theoretical expectations, the disk is hot and stable to fragmentation with Q > 2.8 at all radii which permits a smooth accretion flow. These results put forward the first constraints on gravitational instabilities in massive protostellar disks, which are closely connected to the formation of companion stars and planetary systems by fragmentation.
We present deep high angular resolution observations of the high-mass protostar NGC 7538S, which is in the center of a cold dense cloud core with a radius of 0.5 pc and a mass of ~2,000 Msun. These observations show that NGC 7538S is embedded in a compact elliptical core with a mass of 85 - 115 Msun. The star is surrounded by a rotating accretion disk, which powers a very young, hot molecular outflow approximately perpendicular to the rotating accretion disk. The accretion rate is very high, ~ 1.4 - 2.8 10^-3 Msun yr^-1. Evidence for rotation of the disk surrounding the star is seen in all largely optically thin molecular tracers, H13CN J = 1-0, HN13C J = 1-0, H13CO+ J = 1-0, and DCN J = 3-2. Many molecules appear to be affected by the hot molecular outflow, including DCN and H13CO+. The emission from CH3CN, which has often been used to trace disk rotation in young high-mass stars, is dominated by the outflow, especially at higher K-levels. Our new high-angular resolution observations show that the rotationally supported part of the disk is smaller than we previously estimated. The enclosed mass of the inner, rotationally supported part of the disk (D ~ 5, i.e 14,000 AU) is ~ 14 - 24 Msun.
We present a characterization of the protostar embedded within the BHR7 dark cloud, based on both photometric measurements from the near-infrared to millimeter and interferometric continuum and molecular line observations at millimeter wavelengths. We find that this protostar is a Class 0 system, the youngest class of protostars, measuring its bolometric temperature to be 50.5~K, with a bolometric luminosity of 9.3~L$_{odot}$. The near-infrared and textit{Spitzer} imaging show a prominent dark lane from dust extinction separating clear bipolar outflow cavities. Observations of $^{13}$CO ($J=2rightarrow1$), C$^{18}$O ($J=2rightarrow1$), and other molecular lines with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) exhibit a clear rotation signature on scales $<$1300~AU. The rotation can be traced to an inner radius of $sim$170~AU and the rotation curve is consistent with an R$^{-1}$ profile, implying that angular momentum is being conserved. Observations of the 1.3~mm dust continuum with the SMA reveal a resolved continuum source, extended in the direction of the dark lane, orthogonal to the outflow. The deconvolved size of the continuum indicates a radius of $sim$100~AU for the continuum source at the assumed distance of 400~pc. The visibility amplitude profile of the continuum emission cannot be reproduced by an envelope alone and needs a compact component. Thus, we posit that the resolved continuum source could be tracing a Keplerian disk in this very young system. If we assume that the continuum radius traces a Keplerian disk (R$sim$120~AU) the observed rotation profile is consistent with a protostar mass of 1.0~$M_{odot}$.
We present high-resolution sub/millimeter interferometric imaging of the Class 0 protostar L1527 IRS (IRAS 04368+2557) at 870 micron and 3.4 mm from the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA). We detect the signature of an edge-on disk surrounding the protostar with an observed diameter of 180 AU in the sub/millimeter images. The mass of the disk is estimated to be 0.007 M_sun, assuming optically thin, isothermal dust emission. The millimeter spectral index is observed to be quite shallow at all the spatial scales probed; alpha ~ 2, implying a dust opacity spectral index beta ~ 0. We model the emission from the disk and surrounding envelope using Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes, simultaneously fitting the sub/millimeter visibility amplitudes, sub/millimeter images, resolved Larcmin image, spectral energy distribution, and mid-infrared spectrum. The best fitting model has a disk radius of R = 125 AU, is highly flared (H ~ R^1.3), has a radial density profile rho ~ R^-2.5, and has a mass of 0.0075 M_sun. The scale height at 100 AU is 48 AU, about a factor of two greater than vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. The resolved millimeter observations indicate that disks may grow rapidly throughout the Class 0 phase. The mass and radius of the young disk around L1527 is comparable to disks around pre-main sequence stars; however, the disk is considerably more vertically extended, possibly due to a combination of lower protostellar mass, infall onto the disk upper layers, and little settling of ~1 micron-sized dust grains.