EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
Jets and Outflows from Massive Protostars

Anders Koelligan
U Tübingen, Tübingen, DE
Direct observations of massive protostars are hindered due to the fact that they are embedded in dense, dusty, and, therefore, highly opaque clouds of gas and dust. The best source of information on the central regions where they are formed are their large scale jets and outflows. Hence, these outflows and their underlying accretion processes represent a topic of great scientific interest and there are numerous observational studies and large amounts of data available. Still, theoretically they have been only barely addressed. We model the long term evolution of magnetized, massive prestellar cores from their initial gravitational collapse through the formation of accretion disks, the launching of fast collimated jets and wide angle winds to the final cloud dispersal. Our simulations resolve a high dynamic range from core scales down to the jet launching regions. Thus, they enable us to analyze the physical mechanism(s) of the jet launching (magneto-centrifugal acceleration) in detail, investigate feedback properties of the jet and distinguish quantitatively various effects leading to outflow broadening in time (magnetic pressure, radiation pressure, entrainment, rain-out of the envelope). In summary, we present results from high resolution simulations of magnetized, massive prestellar cores for large dynamic ranges and long time evolution and put our findings into context of recent observations of maser emission and line observations.
Caption: Overview of physical quantities during the collapse of a massive prestellar core after one freefall time: comparison of forces and velocity distribution for a jet(left) and densities in the disk with magnetic field lines (right) (Vectors are scaled such that an increase in length by a factor of two mean an increase in force-magnitude by a factor of ten, and the Lorentz acceleration is further scaled down by a factor of 100)
Collaborators:
R. Kuiper, U Tübingen, DE
D. Meyer, U Tübingen, DE
N. Kee, U Tübingen, DE
C. Fendt, MPIA, DE
A. Sanna, MPIfR, DE
Suggested Session: Massive Star Formation