Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998apj...502..661w&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal v.502, p.661
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
18
Stars: Circumstellar Matter, Ism: Jets And Outflows, Stars: Mass Loss, Stars: Pre-Main-Sequence
Scientific paper
The driving sources of optical jets and molecular outflows may be accreting protostars. Accordingly, we consider the interaction of a spherical, protostellar wind with the time-dependent infall from a rotating parent cloud. The two flows collide in a shocked shell, whose evolution we follow numerically. Both wind and infall material enter the shell and flow down toward an equatorial disk. We assume that the shell is axisymmetric and evolves quasi-steadily, i.e., over a period long compared to the crossing time of the transverse flow. At early times, no shell exists, as infall crushes the wind against the protostellar surface. When a steady state shell does first appear, it is roughly spherical, with radius r ~ 1013 cm. Gradually, the surface both swells and elongates in the direction of the cloud's rotational axis. This elongation is a response to the increasing centrifugal distortion of the infall. On the other hand, the main force confining the shell is not the infall ram pressure but stellar gravity. Elongation continues until the polar radius extends to about 1016 cm, at which point our quasi-steady assumption breaks down. This event, which typically occurs some 105 yr after the start of infall, marks the breakout of the wind. Comparing our theoretical results to observed outflow sources, we find that both the initial appearance and disruption of our shell occur too late after formation of the central protostar. We speculate that a fully time-dependent calculation will yield a phase of periodic advance and retreat of the shell, leading eventually to breakout.
Stahler Steven W.
Wilkin Francis P.
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