Synthetic observations of first hydrostatic cores in collapsing low-mass dense cores II. Simulated ALMA dust emission maps

First hydrostatic cores are predicted by theories of star formation, but their existence has never been demonstrated convincingly by (sub)millimeter observations. Furthermore, the multiplicity at the early phases of the star formation process is poorly constrained. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we seek to provide predictions of ALMA dust continuum emission maps from early Class 0 objects. Second, we show to what extent ALMA will be able to probe the fragmentation scale in these objects. Following our previous paper (Commer\c{c}on et al. 2012, hereafter paper I), we post-process three state-of-the-art radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic 3D adaptive mesh refinement calculations to compute the emanating dust emission maps. We then produce synthetic ALMA observations of the dust thermal continuum from first hydrostatic cores. We present the first synthetic ALMA observations of dust continuum emission from first hydrostatic cores. We analyze the results given by the different bands and configurations and we discuss for which combinations of the two the first hydrostatic cores would most likely be observed. We also show that observing dust continuum emission with ALMA will help in identifying the physical processes occurring within collapsing dense cores. If the magnetic field is playing a role, the emission pattern will show evidence of a pseudo-disk and even of a magnetically driven outflow, which pure hydrodynamical calculations cannot reproduce. The capabilities of ALMA will enable us to make significant progress towards understanding fragmentation at the early Class 0 stage and discovering first hydrostatic cores.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Physical conditions for dust grain alignment in Class 0 protostellar cores II. The role of the radiation field in models aligning/disrupting dust grains

The polarized dust emission observed in Class 0 protostellar cores at high angular resolution with ALMA has raised several concerns about the grain alignment conditions in these regions. We aim to study the role of the radiation field on the grain alignment mechanisms occurring in the interior (<1000 au) of Class 0 protostars. We produce synthetic observations of the polarized dust emission from a MHD model of protostellar formation, using the POLARIS dust radiative transfer tool, which includes dust alignment with Radiative Torques Alignment (RATs). We test how the polarized dust emission from the model core depends on the irradiation conditions in the protostellar envelope, by varying the radiation due to accretion luminosity propagating from the central protostellar embryo throughout the envelope. The level of grain alignment efficiency obtained in the radiative transfer models is then compared to (sub-) millimeter ALMA dust polarization observations of Class 0 protostars. Our radiative transfer calculations have a central irradiation that reproduces the protostellar luminosities typically observed towards low- to intermediate-mass protostars, as well as super-paramagnetic grains, and grains >10 micron, which are required to bring the dust grain alignment efficiencies of the synthetic observations up to observed levels. Our radiative transfer calculations show that irradiation plays an important role in the mechanisms that dictate the size range of aligned grains in Class 0 protostars. Regions of the envelope that are preferentially irradiated harbor strong polarized dust emission but can be affected by the rotational disruption of dust grains. Episodes of high luminosity could affect grain alignment and trigger grain disruption mechanisms. [abridged

Characterizing Magnetic Field Morphologies in Three Serpens Protostellar Cores with ALMA

With the aim of characterizing the dynamical processes involved in the formation of young protostars, we present high-angular-resolution ALMA dust polarization observations of the Class 0 protostellar cores Serpens SMM1, Emb 8(N), and Emb 8. With spatial resolutions ranging from 150 to 40 au at 870 μm, we find unexpectedly high values of the polarization fraction along the outflow cavity walls in Serpens Emb 8(N). We use 3 mm and 1 mm molecular tracers to investigate outflow and dense-gas properties and their correlation with the polarization. These observations allow us to investigate the physical processes involved in the radiative alignment torques (RATs) acting on dust grains along the outflow cavity walls, which experience irradiation from accretion processes and outflow shocks. The inner core of SMM1-a presents a polarization pattern with a poloidal magnetic field at the bases of the two lobes of the bipolar outflow. To the south of SMM1-a we see two polarized filaments, one of which seems to trace the redshifted outflow cavity wall. The other may be an accretion streamer of material infalling onto the central protostar. We propose that the polarized emission we see at millimeter wavelengths along the irradiated cavity walls can be reconciled with the expectations of RAT theory if the aligned grains present at <500 au scales in Class 0 envelopes have grown larger than the 0.1 μm size of dust grains in the interstellar medium. Our observations allow us to constrain the magnetic field morphologies of star-forming sources within the central cores, along the outflow cavity walls, and in possible accretion streamers

Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds - a departure from the "hot mode" accretion model - although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z=0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities can precipitate from this hot gas, producing a rain of cold clouds that fall toward the galaxy's centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that inhabits its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing "shadows" cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole in the galaxy centre, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it

Protostellar disk formation by a nonrotating, nonaxisymmetric collapsing cloud: model and comparison with observations

International audienceContext. Planet-forming disks are fundamental objects that are thought to be inherited from large scale rotation through the conservation of angular momentum during the collapse of a prestellar dense core.Aims. We investigate the possibility for a protostellar disk to be formed from a motionless dense core that contains nonaxisymmetric density fluctuations. The rotation is thus generated locally by the asymmetry of the collapse.Methods. We study the evolution of the angular momentum in a nonaxisymmetric collapse of a dense core from an analytical point of view. To test the theory, we performed three-dimensional simulations of a collapsing prestellar dense core using adaptative mesh refinement. We started from a nonaxisymmetrical situation, considering a dense core with random density perturbations that follow a turbulence spectrum. We analyzed the emerging disk by comparing the angular momentum it contains with the one expected from our analytic development. We studied the velocity gradients at different scales in the simulation as is done with observations.Results. We show that the angular momentum in the frame of a stellar object, which is not located at the center of mass of the core, is not conserved due to inertial forces. Our simulations of such nonaxisymmetrical collapse quickly produce accretion disks at the small scales in the core. The analysis of the kinematics at different scales in the simulated core reveals projected velocity gradients of amplitudes similar to the ones observed in protostellar cores and for which directions vary, sometimes even reversing when small and large scales are compared. These complex kinematics patterns appear in recent observations and could be a discriminating feature with models where rotation is inherited from large scales. Our results from simulations without initial rotation are more consistent with these recent observations than when solid-body rotation is initially imprinted. Lastly, we show that the disks that formed in this scenario of nonaxisymmetrical gravitational collapse grow to reach sizes larger than those that are observed, and then fragment. We show that including a magnetic field in these simulations reduces the size of the outcoming disks and it prevents them from fragmenting, as is shown by previous studies.Conclusions. We show that in a nonaxisymmetrical collapse, the formation of a disk can be induced by small perturbations of the initial density field in the core, even in the absence of global large-scale rotation of the core. In this scenario, large disks are generic features that are natural consequences of the hydrodynamical fluid interactions and self-gravity. Since recent observations have shown that most disks are significantly smaller and have a size of a few tens of astronomical units, our study suggests that magnetic braking is the most likely explanation. The kinematics of our model are consistent with typically observed values of velocity gradients and specific angular momentum in protostellar cores. These results open a new avenue in which our understanding of the early phases of disk formation can be explored since they suggest that a fraction of the protostellar disks could be the product of nonaxisymmetrical collapse, rather than directly resulting from the conservation of preexisting large scale angular momentum in rotating cores

Probing Velocity Structures of Protostellar Envelopes: Infalling and Rotating Envelopes within Turbulent Dense Cores

We have observed the three low-mass protostars, IRAS 15398−3359, L1527 IRS, and TMC-1A, with the ALMA 12 m array, the ACA 7 m array, and the IRAM-30 m and APEX telescopes in the C ^18 O J = 2–1 emission. Overall, the C ^18 O emission shows clear velocity gradients at radii of ∼100–1000 au, which likely originate from the rotation of envelopes, while velocity gradients are less clear and velocity structures are more perturbed on scales of ∼1000–10,000 au. IRAS 15398−3359 and L1527 IRS show a break at radii of ∼1200 and ∼1700 au in the radial profile of the peak velocity, respectively. The peak velocity is proportional to r ^−1.38 or r ^−1.7 within the break radius, which can be interpreted as indicating the rotational motion of the envelope with a degree of contamination by gas motions on larger spatial scales. The peak velocity follows v _peak ∝ r ^0.68 or v _peak ∝ r ^0.46 outside the break radius, which is similar to the J / M – R relation of dense cores. TMC-1A exhibits a radial profile of the peak velocity that is not consistent with the rotational motion of the envelope nor the J / M – R relation. The origin of the relation of v _peak ∝ r ^0.46 – r ^0.68 is investigated by examining correlations of the velocity deviation ( δ v ) and the spatial scale ( τ ) in the two sources. The obtained spatial correlations, δ v ∝ τ ^∼0.6 , are consistent with the scaling law predicted by turbulence models, which may suggest that large-scale velocity structures originate from turbulence

Which Part of Dense Cores Feeds Material to Protostars? The Case of L1489 IRS

International audienceWe have conducted mapping observations (~2' × 2') of the Class I protostar L1489 IRS using the 7 m array of the Atacama Compact Array and the IRAM 30 m telescope in C18O 2-1 emission to investigate the gas kinematics on 1000-10,000 au scales. The C18O emission shows a velocity gradient across the protostar in a direction almost perpendicular to the outflow. The radial profile of the peak velocity was measured from a C18O position-velocity diagram cut along the disk major axis. The measured peak velocity decreases with radius at radii of ~1400-2900 au, but increases slightly or is almost constant at radii of r ≳ 2900 au. Disk-and-envelope models were compared with the observations to understand the nature of the radial profile of the peak velocity. The measured peak velocities are best explained by a model where the specific angular momentum is constant within a radius of 2900 au but increases with radius outside 2900 au. We calculated the radial profile of the specific angular momentum from the measured peak velocities and compared it to analytic models of core collapse. The analytic models reproduce well the observed radial profile of the specific angular momentum and suggest that material within a radius of ~4000-6000 au in the initial dense core has accreted to the central protostar. Because dense cores are typically ~10,000-20,000 au in radius, and as L1489 IRS is close to the end of its mass accretion phase, our result suggests that only a fraction of a dense core eventually forms a star

CALYPSO: An IRAM Plateau de Bure Survey of Class 0 Protostars

The physics of the youngest protostars, e.g. Class 0 objects, remains poorly understood. For instance, the processes by which the angular momentum present in the parent core is conserved during the main collapse phase, e.g. during the formation of the protostar in the inner envelope, are still largely unknown. Solving this long-standing "angular momentum problem" is of paramount importance for our understanding of solar-type star formation. To this end, we started a comprehensive study of a large sample of Class 0 protostars, observed with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. The CALYPSO (Continuum And Line Young ProtoStellar Object) survey aims at characterizing 17 nearby protostars and is the most complete sub-arcsecond resolution survey of Class 0 objects carried out so far in the millimeter bands. Here, we describe the details of this ambitious observing program

Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds - a departure from the "hot mode" accretion model - although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z=0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities can precipitate from this hot gas, producing a rain of cold clouds that fall toward the galaxy's centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that inhabits its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing "shadows" cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole in the galaxy centre, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it