No Arabic abstract
We present 16 GHz (1.9 cm) deep radio continuum observations made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) of a sample of low-mass young stars driving jets. We combine these new data with archival information from an extensive literature search to examine spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for each source and calculate both the radio and sub-mm spectral indices in two different scenarios: (1) fixing the dust temperature (Td) according to evolutionary class; (2) allowing Td to vary. We use the results of this analysis to place constraints on the physical mechanisms responsible for the radio emission. From AMI data alone, as well as from model fitting to the full SED in both scenarios, we find that 80 per cent of the objects in this sample have spectral indices consistent with free-free emission. We find an average spectral index in both Td scenarios consistent with free-free emission. We examine correlations of the radio luminosity with bolometric luminosity, envelope mass, and outflow force and find that these data are consistent with the strong correlation with envelope mass seen in lower luminosity samples. We examine the errors associated with determining the radio luminosity and find that the dominant source of error is the uncertainty on the opacity index, beta. We examine the SEDs for variability in these young objects, and find evidence for possible radio flare events in the histories of L1551 IRS 5 and Serpens SMM 1.
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.
This article represents a short review of the variability characteristics of young stellar objects. Variability is a key property of young stars. Two major origins may be distinguished: a scaled-up version of the magnetic activity seen on main-sequence stars and various processes related to circumstellar disks, accretion and outflows.
We review some aspects of the bipolar molecular outflow phenomenon. In particular, we compare the morphological properties, energetics and velocity structures of outflows from high and low-mass protostars and investigate to what extent a common source model can explain outflows from sources of very different luminosities. Many flow properties, in particular the CO spatial and velocity structure, are broadly similar across the entire luminosity range, although the evidence for jet-entrainment is still less clear cut in massive flows than in low-mass systems. We use the correlation of flow momentum deposition rate with source luminosity to estimate the ratio f of mass ejection to mass accretion rate. From this analysis, it appears that a common driving mechanism could operate across the entire luminosity range. However, we stress that for the high-mass YSOs, the detailed physics of this mechanism and how the ejected wind/jet entrains ambient material remain to be addressed. We also briefly consider the alternative possibility that high-mass outflows can be explained by the recently proposed circulation models, and discuss several shortcomings of those models. Finally, we survey the current evidence on the nature of the shocks driven by YSOs during their pre-main-sequence evolution.
We present high-resolution observations made with the Very Large Array (VLA) in its A configuration at frequencies between 5 and 43 GHz of a sample of five massive young stellar objects (YSOs): LkHa101, NGC2024-IRS2, S106-IR, W75N and S140-IRS1. The resolution varied from 0.04 arcsec (at 43 GHz) to 0.5 arcsec (at 5 GHz), corresponding to a linear resolution as high as 17 AU for our nearest source. A MERLIN observation of S106-IR at 23 GHz with 0.03-arcsec resolution is also presented. S106-IR and S140-IRS1 are elongated at 43 GHz perpendicular to their large scale bipolar outflows. This confirms the equatorial wind picture for these sources seen previously in MERLIN 5 GHz observations. The other sources are marginally resolved at 43 GHz. The spectral indices we derive for the sources in our sample range from +0.2 to +0.8, generally consistent with ionized stellar winds. We have modelled our sources as uniform, isothermal spherical winds, with LkHa101 and NGC2024-IRS2 yielding the best fits. However, in all cases our fits give wind temperatures of only 2000 to 5000 K, much less than the effective temperatures of main-sequence stars of the same luminosity, a result which is likely due to the clumpy nature of the winds.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3 mm observations of four young, eruptive star-disk systems at 0.4 resolution: two FUors (V582 Aur and V900 Mon), one EXor (UZ Tau E) and one source with an ambiguous FU/EXor classification (GM Cha). The disks around GM Cha, V900 Mon and UZ Tau E are resolved. These observations increase the sample of FU/EXors observed at sub-arcsecond resolution by 15%. The disk sizes and masses of FU/EXors objects observed by ALMA so far suggest that FUor disks are more massive than Class 0/I disks in Orion and Class II disks in Lupus of similar size. EXor disks in contrast do not seem to be distinguishable from these two populations. We reach similar conclusions when comparing the FU/EXor sample to the Class I and Class II disks in Ophiuchus. FUor disks around binaries are host to more compact disks than those in single-star systems, similar to non-eruptive young disks. We detect a wide-angle outflow around GM Cha in $^{12}$CO emission, wider than typical Class I objects and more similar to those found around some FUor objects. We use radiative transfer models to fit the continuum and line data of the well-studied disk around UZ Tau E. The line data is well described by a keplerian disk, with no evidence of outflow activity (similar to other EXors). The detection of wide-angle outflows in FUors and not in EXors support to the current picture in which FUors are more likely to represent an accretion burst in the protostellar phase (Class I), while EXors are smaller accretion events in the protoplanetary (Class II) phase.