Formation of unipolar outflow and protostellar rocket effect\textit{protostellar rocket effect} in magnetized turbulent molecular cloud cores

Observed protostellar outflows exhibit a variety of asymmetrical features, including remarkable unipolar outflows and bending outflows. Revealing the formation and early evolution of such asymmetrical protostellar outflows, especially the unipolar outflows, is essential for a better understanding of the star and planet formation because they can dramatically change the mass accretion and angular momentum transport to the protostars and protoplanetary disks. Here, we perform the three-dimensional non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations to investigate the formation and early evolution of the asymmetrical protostellar outflows in magnetized turbulent isolated molecular cloud cores. We find, for the first time to our knowledge, that the unipolar outflow forms even in the single low-mass protostellar system. The results show that the unipolar outflow is driven in the weakly magnetized cloud cores with the dimensionless mass-to-flux ratios of $\mu=8$ and $16$. Furthermore, we find the $\textit{protostellar rocket effect}$ of the unipolar outflow, which is similar to the launch and propulsion of a rocket. The unipolar outflow ejects the protostellar system from the central dense region to the outer region of the parent cloud core, and the ram pressure caused by its ejection suppresses the driving of additional new outflows. In contrast, the bending bipolar outflow is driven in the moderately magnetized cloud core with $\mu=4$. The ratio of the magnetic to turbulent energies of a parent cloud core may play a key role in the formation of asymmetrical protostellar outflows.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Evolution of the Angular Momentum of Molecular Cloud Cores Formed from Filament Fragmentation

The angular momentum of molecular cloud cores plays an important role in the process of star formation. However, the time evolution of the angular momentum of molecular cloud cores is still unclear. In this paper, we perform three-dimensional simulations to investigate the time evolution of the angular momentum of molecular cloud cores formed through filament fragmentation. As a result, we find that most of the cores rotate perpendicular to the filament axis. The mean angular momentum of the cores changes by only around 30% during the initial stage of their formation process and then remains almost constant. In addition, we analyze the internal angular momentum structure of the cores. Although the cores gain angular momentum with various directions from the initial turbulent velocity fluctuations of their parent filaments, the angular momentum profile in each core converges to the self-similar solution. We also show that the degree of complexity of the angular momentum structure in a core decreases slightly with time. Moreover, we perform synthetic observations and show that the angular momentum profile measured from the synthetic mean velocity map is compatible with the observations when the filament inclination is taken into account. The present study suggests a theory of core formation from filament fragmentation where the angular momentum structures of the cores are determined by the velocity fluctuation along the filaments and both are compatible with the observations. This theory also provides new insights into the core properties that could be tested observationally

Evolution of the Angular Momentum of Molecular Cloud Cores in Magnetized Molecular Filaments

The angular momentum of molecular cloud cores plays a key role in the star formation process. However, the evolution of the angular momentum of molecular cloud cores formed in magnetized molecular filaments is still unclear. In this paper, we perform 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations to reveal the effect of the magnetic field on the evolution of the angular momentum of molecular cloud cores formed through filament fragmentation. As a result, we find that the angular momentum decreases by 30% and 50% at the mass scale of 1 M _⊙ in the case of weak and strong magnetic field, respectively. By analyzing the torques exerted on fluid elements, we identify the magnetic tension as the dominant process for angular momentum transfer for mass scales ≲3 M _⊙ for the strong magnetic field case. This critical mass scale can be understood semianalytically as the timescale of magnetic braking. We show that the anisotropy of the angular momentum transfer due to the presence of a strong magnetic field changes the resultant angular momentum of the core only by a factor of 2. We also find that the distribution of the angle between the rotation axis and the magnetic field does not show strong alignment even just before the first core formation. Our results also indicate that the variety of the angular momentum of the cores is inherited from the difference in the phase of the initial turbulent velocity field. The variety could contribute to the diversity in size and other properties of protoplanetary disks recently reported by observations

Formation of Unipolar Outflow and Protostellar Rocket Effect in Magnetized Turbulent Molecular Cloud Cores

Observed protostellar outflows exhibit a variety of asymmetrical features, including remarkable unipolar outflows and bending outflows. Revealing the formation and early evolution of such asymmetrical protostellar outflows, especially the unipolar outflows, is essential for a better understanding of the star and planet formation because they can dramatically change the mass accretion and angular momentum transport to the protostars and protoplanetary disks. Here we perform three-dimensional nonideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations to investigate the formation and early evolution of the asymmetrical protostellar outflows in magnetized turbulent isolated molecular cloud cores. We find, for the first time to our knowledge, that the unipolar outflow forms even in the single low-mass protostellar system. The results show that the unipolar outflow is driven in the weakly magnetized cloud cores with the dimensionless mass-to-flux ratios of μ = 8 and 16. Furthermore, we find the protostellar rocket effect of the unipolar outflow, which is similar to the launch and propulsion of a rocket. The unipolar outflow ejects the protostellar system from the central dense region to the outer region of the parent cloud core, and the ram pressure caused by its ejection suppresses the driving of additional new outflows. In contrast, the bending bipolar outflow is driven in the moderately magnetized cloud core with μ = 4. The ratio of the magnetic to turbulent energies of a parent cloud core may play a key role in the formation of asymmetrical protostellar outflows

Velocity structure of the 50 pc-long NGC 6334 filamentary cloud: Hints of multiple compressions and their impact on the cloud properties?

[Abridged] The interstellar medium is observed to be organised in filamentary structures, as well as neutral (HI) and ionized (HII) bubbles. The expanding nature of these bubbles makes them shape their surroundings and possibly play a role in the formation and evolution of interstellar filaments. We present APEX $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O(2-1) observations of the NGC 6334 molecular cloud. We investigate the gas velocity structure along and across the 50 pc-long cloud and towards 75 identified velocity-coherent-filaments (VCFs). We measure a wealth of velocity gradients along the VCFs. We derive the column density and velocity power spectra of the VCFs. These power spectra are well represented with power laws showing similar slopes for both quantities (with a mean of about -2), albeit some differ by up to a factor of two. The position velocity diagrams perpendicular to three VCFs show the V-shaped velocity pattern, corresponding to a bent structure in velocity space with the filament at the tip of the V surrounded by an extended structure connected to it with a velocity gradient. This velocity structure is qualitatively similar to that resulting from numerical simulations of filament formation from large-scale compression from propagating shock fronts. In addition, the radial profiles perpendicular to these VCFs hint to small-scale internal impacts from neighbouring HII bubbles. The observed opposite curvature in velocity space towards the VCFs points to various origins of large-scale external compressions from propagating HI bubbles. This suggests the plausible importance of multiple HI compressions, separated in space and time, in the formation and evolution of molecular clouds and their star formation history. These latter atomic compressions due to past and distant star formation events are complemented by the impact of HII bubbles from present time and local star formation activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic