No Arabic abstract
NGC 6823 is a young open cluster that lies at a distance of ~2 kpc in the Vulpecula OB1 association. Previous studies using CCD photometry and spectroscopy have identified a Trapezium system of bright O- and B-type stars at its center. We present optical, near-infrared and Spitzer photometric observations of the cluster. Our survey reaches down to I~22 mag and Ks~18 mag. There is significant differential reddening within the cluster. We find a bimodal distribution for Av, with a peak at ~3 mag and a broader peak at ~10 mag. We find a ~20% fraction of Class I/Class II young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cluster, while a large 80% fraction of the sources have a Class III classification. We have made use of the IPHAS survey in order to probe the strength in Halpha emission for this large population of Class III sources. Nearly all of the Class III objects have photospheric (r-Halpha) colors, implying an absence of Halpha in emission. This large population of Class III sources is thus likely the extincted field star population rather than the diskless YSOs in the cluster. There is a higher concentration of the Class I/II systems in the eastern region of the cluster and close to the central Trapezium. The western part of the cluster mostly contains Class III/field stars and seems devoid of disk sources. We find evidence of a pre-main sequence population in NGC 6823, in addition to an upper main-sequence population. The pre-main sequence population mainly consists of young disk sources with ages between ~1-5 Myr, and at lower masses of ~0.1-0.4 Msun. There may be a possible mass dependent age spread in the cluster, with the older stars being more massive than the younger ones. The presence of young disk sources in NGC 6823 indicates similar star formation properties in the outer regions of the Galaxy as observed for young clusters in the solar neighborhood.
We present multiwavelength linear polarimetric observations of 104 stars towards the region of young open cluster NGC 6823. The polarization towards NGC 6823 is dominated by foreground dust grains and we found the evidence for the presence of several layers of dust towards the line of sight. The first layer of dust is located approximately within 200 pc towards the cluster, which is much closer to the Sun than the cluster (~ 2.1 kpc). The radial distribution of the position angles for the member stars are found to show a systematic change while the polarization found to reduce towards the outer parts of the cluster and the average position angle of coronal region of the cluster is very close to the inclination of the Galactic parallel (~ 32 degree). The size distribution of the grains within NGC 6823 is similar to those in general interstellar medium. The patchy distribution of foreground dust grains are suggested to be mainly responsible for the both differential reddening and polarization towards NGC 6823. The majority of the observed stars do not show the evidence of intrinsic polarization in their light.
Episodic accretion-driven outbursts are an extreme manifestation of accretion variability. It has been proposed that the development of gravitational instabilities in the proto-circumstellar medium of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) can lead to such luminous bursts, when clumps of fragmented accretion discs migrate onto the star. We simulate the early evolution of MYSOs formed by the gravitational collapse of rotating 100 M pre-stellar cores and analyze the characteristics of the bursts that episodically accompany their strongly time-variable protostellar lightcurve. We predict that MYSOs spend ~ 10^3 yr (~ 1.7%) of their modelled early 60 kyr experiencing eruptive phases, during which the peak luminosity exceeds the quiescent pre-burst values by factors from 2.5 to more than 40. Throughout these short time periods, they can acquire a substential fraction (up to ~ 50 %) of their zero-age-main sequence mass. Our findings show that fainter bursts are more common than brighter ones. We discuss our results in the context of the known bursting MYSOs, e.g. NGC6334I-MM1 and S255IR-NIRS3, and propose that these monitored bursts are part of a long-time ongoing series of eruptions, which might, in the future, be followed by other luminous flares.
Jets and outflows are ubiquitous in the process of formation of stars since outflow is intimately associated with accretion. Free-free (thermal) radio continuum emission is associated with these jets. This emission is relatively weak and compact, and sensitive radio interferometers are required to study it. Observations in the cm range are most useful to trace the base of the ionized jets, close to the central protostar, where optical or near-IR imaging is made difficult by the high extinction present. Radio recombination lines in jets (in combination with proper motions) should provide their 3D kinematics at very small scale. Future instruments such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) will be crucial to perform this kind of sensitive observations. Thermal jets are associated with both high and low mass protostars and possibly even with substellar objects. The ionizing mechanism of these radio jets appears to be related to shocks in the associated outflows, as suggested by the observed correlation between the cm luminosity and the outflow momentum rate. Some protostellar jets show indications of non-thermal emission in their lobes. Linearly polarized synchrotron emission has been found in the jet of HH 80-81, allowing one to map the jet magnetic field, a key ingredient to determine the collimation and ejection mechanisms. As only a fraction of the emission is polarized, very sensitive observations such as those that will be feasible with the interferometers previously mentioned are required to perform studies in a large sample of sources. Jets are present in many kinds of astrophysical scenarios. Characterizing radio jets in young stars, where thermal emission allows one to determine their physical conditions, would also be useful in understanding acceleration and collimation mechanisms in all kinds of astrophysical jets.
We present spectral observations of 130 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Serpens Cloud Core and NGC 1333 embedded clusters. The observations consist of near-IR spectra in the H and K-bands, from SpeX on the IRTF and far-red spectra (6000 - 9000 A) from Hectospec on the MMT. These YSOs were identified in previous Spitzer and Chandra observations, and the evolutionary classes of the YSOs were determined from the Spitzer mid-IR photometry. With these spectra, we search for corroborating evidence for the pre-main sequence nature of the objects, study the properties of the detected emission lines as a function of evolutionary class, and obtain spectral types for the observed YSOs. By comparing the positions of the YSOs in the HR diagrams with the pre-main sequence tracks of Baraffe (1998), we determine ages of the embedded sources and study the relative ages of the YSOs with and without optically thick circumstellar disks. The apparent isochronal ages of the YSOs in both clusters range from less than 1 Myr to 10 Myr, with most objects below 3 Myr. The observed distribution of ages for the Class II and Class III objects are statistically indistinguishable. We examine the spatial distribution and extinction of the YSOs as a function of their isochronal ages. We find the sources < 3 Myr to be concentrated in the molecular cloud gas while the older sources are spatially dispersed and are not deeply embedded. Nonetheless, the sources with isochronal ages > 3 Myr show all the characteristics of young stellar objects in their spectra, their IR spectral energy distributions, and their X-ray emission.
We have updated our publicly available dust radiative transfer code (HOCHUNK3D) to include new emission processes and various 3-D geometries appropriate for forming stars. The 3-D geometries include warps and spirals in disks, accretion hotspots on the central star, fractal clumping density enhancements, and misaligned inner disks. Additional axisymmetric (2-D) features include gaps in disks and envelopes, puffed-up inner rims in disks, multiple bipolar cavity walls, and iteration of disk vertical structure assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. We include the option for simple power-law envelope geometry, which combined with fractal clumping, and bipolar cavities, can be used to model evolved stars as well as protostars. We include non-thermal emission from PAHs and very small grains, and external illumination from the interstellar radiation field. The grid structure was modified to allow multiple dust species in each cell; based on this, a simple prescription is implemented to model dust stratification. We describe these features in detail, and show example calculations of each. Some of the more interesting results include the following: 1) Outflow cavities may be more clumpy than infalling envelopes. 2) PAH emission in high-mass stars may be a better indicator of evolutionary stage than the broadband SED slope; and related to this, 3) externally illuminated clumps and high-mass stars in optically thin clouds can masquerade as YSOs. 4) Our hydrostatic equilibrium models suggest that dust settling is likely ubiquitous in T Tauri disks, in agreement with previous observations.