46 research outputs found
Ammonia Imaging of the Disks in the NGC 1333 IRAS 4A Protobinary System
The NGC 1333 IRAS 4A protobinary was observed in the ammonia (2, 2) and (3,
3) lines and in the 1.3 cm continuum with a high resolution (about 1.0 arcsec).
The ammonia maps show two compact sources, one for each protostar, and they are
probably protostellar accretion disks. The disk associated with IRAS 4A2 is
seen nearly edge-on and shows an indication of rotation. The A2 disk is
brighter in the ammonia lines but dimmer in the dust continuum than its sibling
disk, with the ammonia-to-dust flux ratios different by about an order of
magnitude. This difference suggests that the twin disks have surprisingly
dissimilar characters, one gas-rich and the other dusty. The A2 disk may be
unusually active or hot, as indicated by its association with water vapor
masers. The existence of two very dissimilar disks in a binary system suggests
that the formation process of multiple systems has a controlling agent lacking
in the isolated star formation process and that stars belonging to a multiple
system do not necessarily evolve in phase with each other
Precessing Jet and Large Dust Grains in the V380 Ori NE Star-forming Region
The V380 Ori NE bipolar outflow was imaged in the SiO and CO J = 1 - 0 lines,
and dense cores in L1641 were observed in the 2.0-0.89 mm continuum. The highly
collimated SiO jet shows point-symmetric oscillation patterns in both position
and velocity, which suggests that the jet axis is precessing and the driving
source may belong to a non-coplanar binary system. By considering the position
and velocity variabilities together, accurate jet parameters were derived. The
protostellar system is viewed nearly edge-on, and the jet has a flow speed of
35 km/s and a precession period of 1600 years. The CO outflow length gives a
dynamical timescale of 6300 years, and the protostar must be extremely young.
The inferred binary separation of 6-70 au implies that this protobinary system
may have been formed through the disk instability process. The continuum
spectra of L1641 dense cores indicate that the emission comes from dust, and
the fits with modified blackbody functions give emissivity power indices of
beta = 0.3-2.2. The emissivity index shows a positive correlation with the
molecular line width, but no strong correlation with bolometric luminosity or
temperature. V380 Ori NE has a particularly low value of beta = 0.3, which
tentatively suggests the presence of millimeter-sized dust grains. Because the
dust growth takes millions of years, much longer than the protostellar age,
this core may have produced large grains in the starless core stage. HH 34 MMS
and HH 147 MMS also have low emissivity indices.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie
Honeycomb oxide heterostructure: a new platform for Kitaev quantum spin liquid
Kitaev quantum spin liquid, massively quantum entangled states, is so scarce
in nature that searching for new candidate systems remains a great challenge.
Honeycomb heterostructure could be a promising route to realize and utilize
such an exotic quantum phase by providing additional controllability of
Hamiltonian and device compatibility, respectively. Here, we provide epitaxial
honeycomb oxide thin film Na3Co2SbO6, a candidate of Kitaev quantum spin liquid
proposed recently. We found a spin glass and antiferromagnetic ground states
depending on Na stoichiometry, signifying not only the importance of Na vacancy
control but also strong frustration in Na3Co2SbO6. Despite its classical ground
state, the field-dependent magnetic susceptibility shows remarkable scaling
collapse with a single critical exponent, which can be interpreted as evidence
of quantum criticality. Its electronic ground state and derived spin
Hamiltonian from spectroscopies are consistent with the predicted Kitaev model.
Our work provides a unique route to the realization and utilization of Kitaev
quantum spin liquid
Mid- CO Line Observations of Protostellar Outflows in the Orion Molecular Clouds
Ten protostellar outflows in the Orion molecular clouds were mapped in the
CO/CO and CO
lines. The maps of these mid- CO lines have an angular resolution of about
10 and a typical field size of about 100. Physical parameters of the
molecular outflows were derived, including mass transfer rates, kinetic
luminosities, and outflow forces. The outflow sample was expanded by
re-analyzing archival data of nearby low-luminosity protostars, to cover a wide
range of bolometric luminosities. Outflow parameters derived from other
transitions of CO were compared. The mid- () and
low- () CO line wings trace essentially the same outflow
component. By contrast, the high- (up to )
line-emission luminosity of CO shows little correlation with the kinetic
luminosity from the line, which suggests that they trace
distinct components. The low/mid- CO line wings trace long-term outflow
behaviors while the high- CO lines are sensitive to short-term activities.
The correlations between the outflow parameters and protostellar properties are
presented, which shows that the strengths of molecular outflows increase with
bolometric luminosity and envelope mass.Comment: 31 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ
Spitzer and HHT observations of starless cores: masses and environments
We present Spitzer observations of a sample of 12 starless cores selected to
have prominent 24 micron shadows. The Spitzer images show 8 and 24 micron
shadows and in some cases 70 micron shadows; these spatially resolved
absorption features trace the densest regions of the cores. We have carried out
a 12CO (2-1) and 13CO (2-1) mapping survey of these cores with the Heinrich
Hertz Telescope (HHT). We use the shadow features to derive optical depth maps.
We derive molecular masses for the cores and the surrounding environment; we
find that the 24 micron shadow masses are always greater than or equal to the
molecular masses derived in the same region, a discrepancy likely caused by CO
freeze--out onto dust grains. We combine this sample with two additional cores
that we studied previously to bring the total sample to 14 cores. Using a
simple Jeans mass criterion we find that ~ 2/3 of the cores selected to have
prominent 24 micron shadows are collapsing or near collapse, a result that is
supported by millimeter line observations. Of this subset at least half have
indications of 70 micron shadows. All cores observed to produce absorption
features at 70 micron are close to collapse. We conclude that 24 micron
shadows, and even more so the 70 micron ones, are useful markers of cloud cores
that are approaching collapse.Comment: 41 pages, 28 figures, 5 tables; accepted by Ap
Submillimeter Continuum Variability in Planck Galactic Cold Clumps
In the early stages of star formation, a protostar is deeply embedded in an optically thick envelope such that it is not directly observable. Variations in the protostellar accretion rate, however, will cause luminosity changes that are reprocessed by the surrounding envelope and are observable at submillimeter wavelengths. We searched for submillimeter flux variability toward 12 Planck Galactic Cold Clumps detected by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)-SCUBA-2 Continuum Observations of Pre-protostellar Evolution (SCOPE) survey. These observations were conducted at 850 mu m using the JCMT/SCUBA-2. Each field was observed three times over about 14 months between 2016 April and 2017 June. We applied a relative flux calibration and achieved a calibration uncertainty of similar to 3.6% on average. We identified 136 clumps across 12 fields and detected four sources with flux variations of similar to 30%. For three of these sources, the variations appear to be primarily due to large-scale contamination, leaving one plausible candidate. The flux change of the candidate may be associated with low- or intermediate-mass star formation assuming a distance of 1.5 kpc, although we cannot completely rule out the possibility that it is a random deviation. Further studies with dedicated monitoring would provide a better understanding of the detailed relationship between submillimeter flux and accretion rate variabilities while enhancing the search for variability in star-forming clumps farther away than the Gould Belt.Peer reviewe
The JCMT BISTRO Survey: A Spiral Magnetic Field in a Hub-filament Structure, Monoceros R2
We present and analyze observations of polarized dust emission at 850 μm toward the central 1
7 1 pc hub-filament structure of Monoceros R2 (Mon R2). The data are obtained with SCUBA-2/POL-2 on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) as part of the B-fields in Star-forming Region Observations survey. The orientations of the magnetic field follow the spiral structure of Mon R2, which are well described by an axisymmetric magnetic field model. We estimate the turbulent component of the magnetic field using the angle difference between our observations and the best-fit model of the underlying large-scale mean magnetic field. This estimate is used to calculate the magnetic field strength using the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi method, for which we also obtain the distribution of volume density and velocity dispersion using a column density map derived from Herschel data and the C18O (J = 3 - 2) data taken with HARP on the JCMT, respectively. We make maps of magnetic field strengths and mass-to-flux ratios, finding that magnetic field strengths vary from 0.02 to 3.64 mG with a mean value of 1.0 \ub1 0.06 mG, and the mean critical mass-to-flux ratio is 0.47 \ub1 0.02. Additionally, the mean Alfv\ue9n Mach number is 0.35 \ub1 0.01. This suggests that, in Mon R2, the magnetic fields provide resistance against large-scale gravitational collapse, and the magnetic pressure exceeds the turbulent pressure. We also investigate the properties of each filament in Mon R2. Most of the filaments are aligned along the magnetic field direction and are magnetically subcritical
The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Studying the Complex Magnetic Field of L43
We present observations of polarized dust emission at 850 μm from the L43 molecular cloud, which sits in the Ophiuchus cloud complex. The data were taken using SCUBA-2/POL-2 on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as a part of the BISTRO large program. L43 is a dense (NH 10
22 2 ~ –1023 cm−2) complex molecular cloud with a submillimeter-bright starless core and two protostellar sources. There appears to be an evolutionary gradient along the isolated filament that L43 is embedded within, with the most evolved source closest to the Sco OB2 association. One of the protostars drives a CO outflow that has created a cavity to the southeast. We see a magnetic field that appears to be aligned with the cavity walls of the outflow, suggesting interaction with the outflow. We also find a magnetic field strength of up to ∼160 ± 30 μG in the main starless core and up to ∼90 ± 40 μG in the more diffuse, extended region. These field strengths give magnetically super- and subcritical values, respectively, and both are found to be roughly trans-Alfvénic. We also present a new method of data reduction for these denser but fainter objects like starless cores