The acceleration of molecular hydrogen to high velocities in time-dependent fast J-shocks

Details The acceleration of molecular hydrogen to high velocities in time-dependent fast J-shocks The acceleration of molecular hydrogen to high velocities in time-dependent fast J-shocks

Sep 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002mnras.335..817l&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 335, Issue 3, pp. 817-824.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

19

Stars: Formation, Stars: Winds, Outflows, Ism: Jets And Outflows, Ism: Kinematics And Dynamics, Ism: Lines And Bands, Ism: Molecules

Scientific paper

It is a well known but puzzling result that zones within star formation regions sometimes show molecular hydrogen emission at very high (~100 km s-1) velocities. These kinds of observations are somewhat difficult to explain because non-magnetized, J-type shock waves of velocities above ~20 km s-1 mostly dissociate the molecules present in the preshock medium, and therefore produce almost no H2 emission. We quantify this result by presenting models of steady shock waves moving into a molecular environment, which show that the H2 molecules are indeed dissociated in the immediate postshock region for higher shock velocities. We argue that the total destruction of molecules by high-velocity shocks is a direct result of the assumption of an instantaneous `turning on' of the flow that is generally done in computing shock models. We present models in which a shock wave gradually accelerates over a period of ~1000 yr as would be expected, for example, from the `turning on' of an outflow from a young star. We find that such shock waves are indeed able to accelerate significant masses of molecular material to velocities of ~100 km s-1, and are a plausible explanation for widely observed high-velocity H2 emission.

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