A 1000 AU Scale Molecular Outflow Driven by a Protostar with an age of <4000 Years

To shed light on the early phase of a low-mass protostar formation process, we conducted interferometric observations towards a protostar GF9-2 using the CARMA and SMA. The observations have been carried out in the CO J=3-2 line and in the continuum emission at the wavelengths of 3 mm, 1 mm and 850 micron. All the continuum images detected a single point-like source with a radius of 250+/-80 AU at the center of the previously known ~3 Msun molecular cloud core. A compact emission is detected towards the object at the Spitzer MIPS and IRAC bands as well as the four bands at the WISE. Our spectroscopic imaging of the CO line revealed that the continuum source is driving a 1000 AU scale molecular outflow, including a pair of lobes where a collimated "higher" velocity red lobe exists inside a poorly collimated "lower" velocity red lobe. These lobes are rather young and the least powerful ones so far detected. A protostellar mass of M~<0.06 Msun was estimated using an upper limit of the protostellar age of (4+/-1)x10^3 yrs and an inferred non-spherical steady mass accretion rate of ~10^{-5} Msun/yr. Together with results from an SED analysis, we discuss that the outflow system is driven by a protostar whose surface temperature of~3,000K, and that the natal cloud core is being dispersed by the outflow.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

The Initial Conditions for Gravitational Collapse of a Core: An Extremely Young Low-Mass Class 0 Protostar GF9-2

We present a study of the natal core harboring the class 0 protostar GF9-2 in the filamentary dark cloud GF 9 (d = 200 pc). GF9-2 stands unique in the sense that it shows H2O maser emission, a clear signpost of protostar formation, whereas it does not have a high-velocity large-scale molecular outflow evidenced by our deep search for CO wing emission. These facts indicate that GF9-2 core is early enough after star formation so that it still retains some information of initial conditions for collapse. Our 350 um dust continuum emission image revealed the presence of a protostellar envelope in the center of a molecular core. The mass of the envelope is ~0.6 Msun from the 350 um flux density, while LTE mass of the core is ~3 Msun from moleuclar line observations. Combining visibility data from the OVRO mm-array and the 45m telescope, we found that the core has a radial density profile of $\rho(r)\propto r^{-2}$ for 0.003 < r/pc < 0.08 region. Molecular line data analysis revealed that the velocity width of the core gas increases inward,while the outermost region maintains a velocity dispersion of a few times of the ambient sound speed. The broadened velocity width can be interpreted as infall. Thus, the collapse in GF9-2 is likely to be described by an extension of the Larson-Penston solution for the period after formation of a central star. We derived the current mass accretion rate of ~3E-05 Msun/year from infall velocity of ~ 0.3 km/s at r~ 7000 AU. All results suggest that GF9-2 core has been undergoing gravitational collapse for ~ 5000 years since the formation of central protostar(s), and that the unstable state initiated the collapse ~2E+05 years (the free-fall time) ago.Comment: ApJ Accepted. The preprint including figures with the original quality is available at http://subarutelescope.org/staff/rsf/publication.htm

High-velocity Molecular Outflow in CO J = 7-6 Emission from the Orion Hot Core

Using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory 10.4 m telescope, we performed sensitive mapping observations of ^(12)CO J = 7-6 emission at 807 GHz toward Orion IRc2. The image has an angular resolution of 10", which is the highest angular resolution data toward the Orion Hot Core published for this transition. In addition, thanks to the on-the-fly mapping technique, the fidelity of the new image is rather high, particularly in comparison with previous images. We have succeeded in mapping the northwest-southeast high-velocity molecular outflow, whose terminal velocity is shifted by ~70-85 km s^(–1) with respect to the systemic velocity of the cloud. This yields an extremely short dynamical time scale of ~900 years. The estimated outflow mass loss rate shows an extraordinarily high value, on the order of 10^(–3) M_⊙ yr^(–1). Assuming that the outflow is driven by Orion IRc2, our result agrees with the picture so far obtained for a 20 M_⊙ (proto)star in the process of formation

Low-Mass Star Forming Cores in the GF9 Filament

We carried out an unbiased mapping survey of dense molecular cloud cores traced by the NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) inversion lines in the GF9 filament which contains an extremely young low-mass protostar GF9-2 (Furuya et al. 2006, ApJ, 653, 1369). The survey was conducted using the Nobeyama 45m telescope over a region of ~1.5 deg with an angular resolution of 73". The large-scale map revealed that the filament contains at least 7 dense cores, as well as 3 possible ones, located at regular intervals of ~0.9 pc. Our analysis shows that these cores have kinetic temperatures of $\lesssim$ 10 K and LTE-masses of 1.8 -- 8.2 Msun, making them typical sites of low-mass star formation. All the identified cores are likely to be gravitationally unstable because their LTE-masses are larger than their virial masses. Since the LTE-masses and separations of the cores are consistent with the Jeans masses and lengths, respectively, for the low-density ambient gas, we argue that the identified cores have formed via the gravitational fragmentation of the natal filamentary cloud.Comment: accepted by pas

Warm Extended Dense Gas Lurking At The Heart Of A Cold Collapsing Dense Core

In order to investigate when and how the birth of a protostellar core occurs, we made survey observations of four well-studied dense cores in the Taurus molecular cloud using CO transitions in submillimeter bands. We report here the detection of unexpectedly warm (~ 30 - 70 K), extended (radius of ~ 2400 AU), dense (a few times 10^{5} cm^{-3}) gas at the heart of one of the dense cores, L1521F (MC27), within the cold dynamically collapsing components. We argue that the detected warm, extended, dense gas may originate from shock regions caused by collisions between the dynamically collapsing components and outflowing/rotating components within the dense core. We propose a new stage of star formation, "warm-in-cold core stage (WICCS)", i.e., the cold collapsing envelope encases the warm extended dense gas at the center due to the formation of a protostellar core. WICCS would constitutes a missing link in evolution between a cold quiescent starless core and a young protostar in class 0 stage that has a large-scale bipolar outflow.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

SMA Imaging of the Maser Emission from the H30α\alpha Radio Recombination Line in MWC349A

We used the Submillimeter Array to map the angular distribution of the H30$\alpha$ recombination line (231.9 GHz) in the circumstellar region of the peculiar star MWC349A. The resolution was 1\farcs2, but because of high signal-to-noise ratio we measured the positions of all maser components to accuracies better than 0\farcs01, at a velocity resolution of $1 kms$. The two strongest maser components (called high velocity components) at velocities near -14 and $32 kms$ are separated by 0\farcs048 \pm 0\farcs001 (60 AU) along a position angle of 102 \pm 1\arcdeg. The distribution of maser emission at velocities between and beyond these two strongest components were also provided. The continuum emission lies at the center of the maser distribution to within 10 mas. The masers appear to trace a nearly edge-on rotating disk structure, reminiscent of the water masers in Keplerian rotation in the nuclear accretion disk of the galaxy NGC4258. However, the maser components in MWC349A do not follow a simple Keplerian kinematic prescription with $v \sim r^{-1/2}$, but have a larger power law index. We explore the possibility that the high velocity masers trace spiral density or shock waves. We also emphasize caution in the interpretation of relative centroid maser positions where the maser is not clearly resolved in position or velocity, and we present simulations that illustrate the range of applicability of the centroiding method.Comment: 23 pages with 9 figures (two of these figures are vertically aligned as Figure 4) submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

High Velocity Outflow in CO J=7-6 from the Orion Hot Core

Using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory 10.4-meter telescope, we performed sensitive mapping observations of 12CO J=7-6 emission at 807 GHz towards Orion IRc2. The image has an angular resolution of 10", which is the highest angular resolution data toward the Orion Hot Core published for this transition. In addition, thanks to the on-the-fly mapping technique, the fidelity of the new image is rather high, particularly in comparison to previous images. We have succeeded in mapping the northwest-southeast high-velocity molecular outflow, whose terminal velocity is shifted by ~70-85 km/s with respect to the systemic velocity of the cloud. This yields an extremely short dynamical time scale of ~900 years. The estimated outflow mass loss rate shows an extraordinarily high value, on the order of 10^{-3} Msun/yr. Assuming that the outflow is driven by Orion IRc2, our result agrees with the picture so far obtained for a 20 Msun (proto)star in the process of formation.Comment: accepted by ApJ main journal, 13 pages 5 color figure

IRC+10216's Innermost Envelope -- The eSMA's View

We used the Extended Submillimeter Array (eSMA) in its most extended configuration to investigate the innermost (within a radius of 290 R* from the star) circumstellar envelope (CSE) of IRC+10216. We imaged the CSE using HCN and other molecular lines with a beam size of 0."22 x 0."46, deeply into the very inner edge (15 R*) of the envelope where the expansion velocity is only 3 km/s. The excitation mechanism of hot HCN and KCl maser lines is discussed. HCN maser components are spatially resolved for the first time on an astronomical object. We identified two discrete regions in the envelope: a region with a radius of . 15 R*, where molecular species have just formed and the gas has begun to be accelerated (region I) and a shell region (region II) with a radius of 23 R* and a thickness of 15 R*, whose expansion velocity has reached up to 13 km/s, nearly the terminal velocity of 15 km/s. The Si$^{34}$S line detected in region I shows a large expansion velocity of 16 km/s due to strong wing components, indicating that the emission may arise from a shock region in the innermost envelope. In region II, the P.A. of the most copious mass loss direction was found to be 120 +/- 10 degrees, which may correspond to the equatorial direction of the star. Region II contains a torus-like feature. These two regions may have emerged due to significant differences in the size distributions of the dust particles in the two regions.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Please find the pdf at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~hs/astroph/0904.0280.pdf and the ps file at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~hs/astroph/0904.0280.p