We present a study of the stellar and circumstellar properties of Class I sources using low-resolution (R~1000) near-infrared K- and L-band spectroscopy. We measure prominent spectral lines and features in 8 objects and use fits to standard star spectra to determine spectral types, visual extinctions, K-band excesses, and water ice optical depths. Four of the seven systems studied are close binary pairs; only one of these systems, Haro 6-10, was angularly resolvab le. For certain stars some properties found in our analysis differ substantially from published values; we analyze the origin of these differences. We determine extinction to each source using three different methods and compare and discuss the resulting values. One hypothesis that we were testing, that extinction dominates over the K-band excess in obscuration of the stellar photospheric absorption lines, appears not to be true. Accretion luminosities and mass accretion rates calculated for our targets are highly uncertain, in part the result of our inexact knowledge of extinction. For the six targets we were able to place on an H-R diagram, our age estimates, <2 Myr, are somewhat younger than those from comparable studies. Our results underscore the value of low-resolution spectroscopy in the study of protostars and their environments; however, the optimal approach to the study of Class I sources likely involves a combination of high- and low-resolution near-infrared, mid-infrared, and millimeter wavelength observations. Accurate and precise measurements of extinction in Class I protostars will be key to improving our understanding of these objects.
The formation and evolution of the circumstellar disk in the collapsing molecular cloud is investigated from the prestellar stage resolving both the molecular cloud core and the protostar itself. In the collapsing cloud, the first adiabatic core appears prior to the protostar formation. Reflecting the thermodynamics of the collapsing gas, the first core is much more massive than the protostar. When the molecular cloud has no angular momentum, the first core falls onto the protostar and disappears a few years after the protostar formation. On the other hand, when the molecular cloud has an angu…
The formation and evolution of the circumstellar disk in unmagnetized molecular clouds is investigated using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations from the prestellar core until the end of the main accretion phase. In collapsing clouds, the first (adiabatic) core with a size of ~10AU forms prior to the formation of the protostar. At its formation, the first core has a thick disk-like structure, and is mainly supported by the thermal pressure. After the protostar formation, it decreases the thickness gradually, and becomes supported by the centrifugal force. We found that the first core is…
The formation and evolution of a circumstellar disk in magnetized cloud cores is investigated from prestellar core stage until sim 10^4 yr after protostar formation. In the circumstellar disk, fragmentation first occurs due to gravitational instability in a magnetically inactive region, and substellar-mass objects appear. The substellar-mass objects lose their orbital angular momenta by gravitational interaction with the massive circumstellar disk and finally fall onto the protostar. After this fall, the circumstellar disk increases its mass by mass accretion and again induces fragmentation. T…
We examine eight young stellar objects in the OMC-2 star forming region based on observations from the SOFIA/FORCAST early science phase, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Herschel Space Observatory, 2MASS, APEX, and other results in the literature. We show the spectral energy distributions of these objects from near-infrared to millimeter wavelengths, and compare the SEDs with those of sheet collapse models of protostars and circumstellar disks. Four of the objects can be modelled as protostars with infalling envelopes, two as young stars surrounded by disks, and the remaining two objects have…
We present new observations of near-infrared molecular hydrogen (H2) line emission in a sample of 18 Class I and flat-spectrum low mass protostars, primarily in the Tau- Aur and ρ Oph dark clouds. The line emission is extended by up to several arcseconds (several hundred AU) for most objects, and there is little night-to-night variation in line strength coincident with the continuum point source. Flux ratios of H2 v = 2 - 1 S(1) and v = 1 - 0 S(1) lines are consistent with this emission arising in jets or winds in many objects. However, most objects have only small offsets (under 10 km s-1) be…
The majority of stars are part of gravitationally bound stellar systems, such as binaries. Observations of protobinary systems constrain the conditions that lead to stellar multiplicity and subsequent orbital evolution. We report high-angular resolution observations of the circumbinary disk around [BHB2007] 11, a young binary protostar system. The two protostars are embedded in circumstellar disks that have radii of 2 to 3 astronomical units and probably contain a few Jupiter masses. These systems are surrounded by a complex structure of filaments connecting to the larger circumbinary disk. We…
We have carried out hydro-dynamical simulations to investigate the formation and evolution of protostar and circumstellar disks from the prestellar cloud. As the initial state, we adopt the molecular cloud core with two non-dimensional parameters representing the thermal and rotational energies. With these parameters, we make 17 models and calculate the cloud evolution ~ 10^4 years after the protostar formation. We find that early evolution of the star-disk system can be qualitatively classified into four modes: the massive disk, early fragmentation, late fragmentation, and protostar dominant …
We investigate the formation and evolution of a first core, protostar, and circumstellar disc with a three-dimensional non-ideal (including both Ohmic and ambipolar diffusion) radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulation. We found that the magnetic flux is largely removed by magnetic diffusion in the first core phase and that the plasma $β$ of the centre of the first core becomes large, $β>10^4$. Thus, proper treatment of first core phase is crucial in investigating the formation of protostar and disc. On the other hand, in an ideal simulation, $β\sim 10$ at the centre of the first core. The simu…
We present the evolution of rotational directions of circumstellar disks in a triple protostar system simulated from a turbulent molecular cloud core with no magnetic field. We find a new formation pathway of a counter-rotating circumstellar disk in such triple systems. The tertiary protostar forms via the circumbinary disk fragmentation and the initial rotational directions of all the three circumstellar disks are almost parallel to that of the orbital motion of the binary system. Their mutual gravito-hydrodynamical interaction for the subsequent $\sim10^4\thinspace\rm{yr}$ greatly disturbs t…
We report new Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of a circumstellar disk around Source I in Orion KL, an archetype of massive protostar candidate. We detected two ortho-H$_{2}$O lines at 321 GHz ($10_{2,9}$-$9_{3,6}$) and 336 GHz ($ν_{2}=1, 5_{2,3}$-$6_{1,6}$) for the first time in Source I. The latter one is in vibrationally excited state at the lower state energy of 2939 K, suggesting an evidence of hot molecular gas close to Source I. The integrated intensity map of the 321 GHz line is elongated along the bipolar outflow while the 336 GHz line map is unresolved…
Massive protostars grow and evolve under the effect of rapid accretion of circumstellar gas and dust, falling at high rates ($\ge 10^{-4}$-$10^{-3}\, \rm M_{\odot}\, \rm yr^{-1}$). This mass infall has been shown, both numerically and observationally, to be episodically interspersed by accretion of dense gaseous clumps migrating through the circumstellar disc to the protostellar surface, causing sudden accretion and luminous bursts. Using numerical gravito-radiation-hydrodynamics and stellar evolution calculations, we demonstrate that, in addition to the known bloating of massive protostars, v…
We investigate the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks in turbulent cloud cores until several 104 years after protostar formation using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) calculations. The formation and evolution process of circumstellar disk in turbulent cloud cores differs substantially from that in rigidly rotating cloud cores. In turbulent cloud cores, a filamentary structure appears before the protostar formation and the protostar forms in the filament. If the turbulence is initially sufficiently strong, the remaining filament twists around the protostar and directly becomes…
EC53 is an embedded protostar with quasi-periodic emission in the near-IR and sub-mm. We use ALMA high-resolution observations of continuum and molecular line emission to describe the circumstellar environment of EC 53. The continuum image reveals a disk with a flux that suggests a mass of 0.075 Msun, much less than the estimated mass in the envelope, and an in-band spectral index that indicates grain growth to centimeter sizes. Molecular lines trace the outflow cavity walls, infalling and rotating envelope, and/or the Keplerian disk. The rotation profile of the C17O 3-2 line emission cannot i…
We present new high-angular resolution observations toward the driving source of the HH 80-81 jet (IRAS 18162-2048). Continuum emission was observed with the Very Large Array at 7 mm and 1.3 cm, and with the Submillimeter Array at 860 microns, with angular resolutions of ~0"1 and ~0"8 respectively. Submillimeter observations of the sulfur oxide (SO) molecule are reported as well. At 1.3 cm the emission traces the well-known radio jet, while at 7 mm the continuum morphology is quadrupolar and seems to be produced by a combination of free-free and dust emission. An elongated structure perpendicu…
We investigate the possibility of the growth of magnetorotational instability (MRI) in disks around Class 0 protostars. We construct a disk model and calculate the chemical reactions of neutral and charged atoms, molecules and dust grains to derive the abundance of each species and the ionization degree of the disk. Then, we estimate the diffusion coefficients of non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics effects such as ohmic dissipation, ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect. Finally, we evaluate the linear growth rate of MRI in each area of the disk. We investigate the effect of changes in the streng…
Recent observations uncover various phenomena around the protostar such as misalignment between the outflow and magnetic field, precession of the jet, and time variability of the ejected clumps, whose origins are under debate. We perform a three-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulation of the protostar formation in a star-forming core whose rotation axis is tilted at an angle $45^\circ$ with respect to the initial magnetic field, in which the protostar is resolved with a spatial resolution of $0.01\,$au. In low-dense outer region, the prestellar core contracts along the magnetic f…
Velocity Structure of Circumstellar Environment around Class 0/I Protostars: Uncertainty in the Protostellar Mass Estimation Using Circumstellar Velocities
We present the first resolved observations of the 1.3mm polarized emission from the disk-like structure surrounding the high-mass protostar Cepheus A HW2. These CARMA data partially resolve the dust polarization, suggesting an uniform morphology of polarization vectors with an average position angle of 57 degrees and an average polarization fraction of 2.0%. The distribution of the polarization vectors can be attributed to (1) the direct emission of magnetically aligned grains of dust by a uniform magnetic field, or (2) the pattern produced by the scattering of an inclined disk. We show that b…
An FUor-like Outbursting Class I Protostar in NGC 7538
China Three Gorges University（三峡大学）；National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
NGC 7538 MIR展现巨大亮度爆发和持续高亮度状态，其近红外光变曲线分为爆发前、爆发和爆发后三个阶段，揭示原恒星早期阶段类似FUor的吸积事件的重要性。
We present a near-infrared $K$-band $R \simeq 1500$ Keck spectrum of S68N, a Class 0 protostar in the Serpens molecular cloud. The spectrum shows a very red continuum, CO absorption bands, weak or non-existent atomic metal absorptions, and H$_2$ emission lines. The near-IR H$_2$ emission is consistent with excitation in shocks or by X-rays but not by UV radiation. We model the absorption component as a stellar photosphere plus circumstellar continuum emission with wavelength-dependent extinction. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis shows that the most likely model parameters are consistent wit…
In star forming regions, we can observe different evolutionary stages of various objects and phenomena such as molecular clouds, protostellar jets and outflows, circumstellar disks, and protostars. However, it is difficult to directly observe the star formation process itself, because it is veiled by the dense infalling envelope. Numerical simulations can unveil the star formation process in the collapsing gas cloud. Recently, some studies showed protostar formation from the prestellar core stage, in which both molecular clouds and protostars are resolved with sufficient spatial resolution. Th…
The evolution of protostellar outflow is investigated with resistive magneto-hydrodynamic nested-grid simulations that cover a wide range of spatial scales (\sim 1AU - 1pc). We follow cloud evolution from the pre-stellar core stage until the infalling envelope dissipates long after the protostar formation. We also calculate protostellar evolution to derive protostellar luminosity with time-dependent mass accretion through a circumstellar disk. The protostellar outflow is driven by the first core prior to protostar formation and is directly driven by the circumstellar disk after protostar forma…
Studies of the evolution of massive protostars and the evolution of their host molecular cloud cores are commonly treated as separate problems. However, interdependencies between the two can be significant. Here, we study the simultaneous evolution of massive protostars and their host molecular cores using a multi-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics code that incorporates the effects of the thermal pressure and radiative acceleration feedback of the centrally forming protostar. The evolution of the massive protostar is computed simultaneously using the stellar evolution code STELLAR, modified …
Archival optical spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey of two optically faint flat spectrum protostars, IRAS 04369+2539 and IRAS 05451+0037, show strong emission-line features including -- notably -- clear and broad emission across several molecular bands of TiO and VO. The molecular emission is indicative of dense, warm circumstellar gas and has been seen previously in only one object: the flat spectrum protostar IRAS 20496+4354 during a strong optical outburst (PTF 10nvg; Covey et al. 2011). The presence of broad molecular emission features in two additional objects having similar mid-in…
Strong stellar magnetic fields are believed to truncate the inner accretion disks around young stars, redirecting the accreting material to the high latitude regions of the stellar surface. In the past few years, observations of strong stellar fields on T Tauri stars with field strengths in general agreement with the predictions of magnetospheric accretion theory have bolstered this picture. Currently, nothing is known about the magnetic field properties of younger, more embedded Class I young stellar objects (YSOs). It is believed that protostars accrete much of their final mass during the Cl…
The 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission, a tracer of forming massive stars, sometimes shows enigmatic periodic flux variations over several 10-100 days. In this Letter, we propose that this periodic variations could be explained by the pulsation of massive protostars growing under rapid mass accretion with rates of Mdot > 10^-3 Msun/yr. Our stellar evolution calculations predict that the massive protostars have very large radius exceeding 100 Rsun at maximum, and we here study the pulsational stability of such the bloated protostars by way of the linear stability analysis. We show that the protost…
We have observed the massive protostar AFGL 2136 IRS 1 in multiple wavelength windows in the near-to-mid-infrared at high ($\sim3$ km s$^{-1}$) spectral resolution using VLT+CRIRES, SOFIA+EXES, and Gemini North+TEXES. There is an abundance of H$_2$O absorption lines from the $ν_1$ and $ν_3$ vibrational bands at 2.7 $μ$m, from the $ν_2$ vibrational band at 6.1 $μ$m, and from pure rotational transitions near 10-13 $μ$m. Analysis of state-specific column densities derived from the resolved absorption features reveals that an isothermal absorbing slab model is incapable of explaining the relative …
We explore the role of the modified Eddington limit due to rapid rotation (the so-called $ΩΓ-$limit) in the formation of Population III stars. We performed one-dimensional stellar evolution simulations of mass-accreting zero-metallicity protostars at a very high rate ($\dot{M} \sim 10^{-3}~\mathrm{M_\odot~yr^{-1}}$) and dealt with stellar rotation as a separate post-process. The protostar would reach the Keplerian rotation very soon after the onset of mass accretion, but mass accretion would continue as stellar angular momentum is transferred outward to the accretion disk by viscous stress. Th…
For the Class 0 protostar, L1527, we compare 131 polarization vectors from SCUPOL/JCMT, SHARP/CSO and TADPOL/CARMA observations with the corresponding model polarization vectors of four ideal-MHD, non-turbulent, cloud core collapse models. These four models differ by their initial magnetic fields before collapse; two initially have aligned fields (strong and weak) and two initially have orthogonal fields (strong and weak) with respect to the rotation axis of the L1527 core. Only the initial weak orthogonal field model produces the observed circumstellar disk within L1527. This is a characteris…
Classical T Tauri stars are low mass young forming stars that are surrounded by a circumstellar accretion disc from which they gain mass. Despite this accretion and their own contraction that should both lead to their spin up, these stars seem to conserve instead an almost constant rotational period as long as the disc is maintained. Several scenarios have been proposed in the literature in order to explain this puzzling "disc-locking" situation: either deposition in the disc of the stellar angular momentum by the stellar magnetosphere or its ejection through winds, providing thereby an explan…
The Class 0 protostar IRAS 16293$-$2422 Source A is known to be a binary system (A1 and A2) or even a multiple system, which processes a complex outflow structure. We have observed this source in the C$^{34}$S, SO, and OCS lines at 3.1 mm with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). A substructure of this source is traced by our high angular-resolution observation (0\farcs12; 20 au) of the continuum emission. The northwest-southeast (NW-SE) outflow on a 2\arcsec\ scale is detected in the SO ($J_N$ = $2_2$--$1_1$) line. Based on the morphology of the SO distribution, this bipol…
We report the first interferomteric detection of 183 GHz water emission in the low-mass protostar Serpens SMM1 using the Submillimeter Array with a resolution of 3$"$ and rms of $\sim$7 Jy in a 3 km s$^{-1}$ bin. Due to the small size and high brightnessof more than 240 Jy/beam, it appears to be maser emission. In total three maser spots were detected out to $\sim$ 700 AU from the central protostar, lying along the red-shifted outflow axis, outside the circumstellar disk but within the envelope region as evidenced by the continuum measurements. Two of the maser spots appear to be blue-shifted …
We calculate the evolution of a star-forming cloud core using a three-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulation, treating dust grains as Lagrangian particles, to investigate the dust motion in the early star formation stage. We prepare six different-sized set of dust particles in the range $a_{\rm d}=0.01$--$1000\,μ$m, where $a_{\rm d}$ is the dust grain size. In a gravitationally collapsing cloud, a circumstellar disk forms around a protostar and drives a protostellar outflow. Almost all the small dust grains ($a_{\rm d} \lesssim 10$--$100\,μ$m) initially distributed in the region…
Aims: Jets are excellent signposts for very young embedded protostars, so we want to identify jet-driving protostars as a tracer of the currently forming generation of stars in the Carina Nebula, which is one of the most massive galactic star-forming regions and which is characterised by particularly high levels of massive-star feedback on the surrounding clouds. Methods: We used archive data to construct large (> 2 deg x 2 deg) Spitzer IRAC mosaics of the Carina Nebula and performed a spatially complete search for objects with excesses in the 4.5 micron band, typical of shock-excited molecula…
We present observations at 7 mm that fully resolve the two circumstellar disks, and a reanalyses of archival observations at 3.5 cm that resolve along their major axes the two ionized jets, of the class I binary protostellar system L1551 NE. We show that the two circumstellar disks are better fit by a shallow inner and steep outer power-law than a truncated power-law. The two disks have very different transition radii between their inner and outer regions of $\sim$18.6 AU and $\sim$8.9 AU respectively. Assuming that they are intrinsically circular and geometrically thin, we find that the two c…
Magnetic fields can regulate disk formation, accretion and jet launching. Until recently, it has been difficult to obtain high resolution observations of the magnetic fields of the youngest protostars in the critical region near the protostar. The VANDAM survey is observing all known protostars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. Here we present the polarization data of IRAS 4A. We find that with ~ 0.2'' (50 AU) resolution at λ = 8.1 and 10.3 mm, the inferred magnetic field is consistent with a circular morphology, in marked contrast with the hourglass morphology seen on larger scales. This morpho…
Following our recent work devoted to the effect of accretion on the pre-main-sequence evolution of low-mass stars, we perform a detailed analysis of episodic excursions of low-mass protostars in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram triggered by strong mass accretion bursts typical of FU Orionis-type objects (FUors). These excursions reveal themselves as sharp increases in the stellar total luminosity and/or effective temperature of the protostar and can last from hundreds to a few thousands of years, depending on the burst strength and characteristics of the protostar. During the excursions, …
Aims: Very Long Baseline Interferometry yields physical constraints on the compact radio emission of young stellar objects. At the same time, such measurements can be used for precise astrometric measurements of parallaxes and proper motions. Here, we aimed to make the first detections of very compact radio emission from class I protostars in the Corona Australis star-forming region. Methods: We have used the Long Baseline Array (LBA) to observe the protostars IRS 5 and IRS 7 in the Corona Australis star-forming region in three separate epochs Results: We report the first firm radio detection …
The early pre-main sequence phase during which they are still likely surrounded by an accretion disk represents a puzzling stage of the rotational evolution of solar-mass stars. While they are still accreting and contracting they do not seem to spin-up substantially. It is usually assumed that the magnetospheric star-disk interaction tends to maintain the stellar rotation period constant (disklocking), but this hypothesis has never been thoroughly verified. Our aim is to investigate the impact of the star-disk interaction mechanism on the stellar spin evolution during the accreting pre-main se…
Stars collect most of their mass during the protostellar stage, yet the accretion luminosity and stellar parameters, which are needed to compute the mass accretion rate, are poorly constrained for the youngest sources. The aim of this work is to fill this gap, computing the stellar properties and the accretion rates for a large sample of Class I protostars located in nearby (< 500 pc) star-forming regions and analysing their interplay. We used a self-consistent method to provide accretion and stellar parameters using SED modeling and veiling information from near-IR observations, when possible…
A model of protostar mass and luminosity evolution in clusters gives new estimates of cluster age, protostar birthrate, accretion rate and mean accretion time. The model assumes constant protostar birthrate, core-clump accretion, and equally likely accretion stopping. Its parameters are set to reproduce the initial mass function, and to match protostar luminosity distributions in nearby star-forming regions. It obtains cluster ages and birthrates from the observed numbers of protostars and pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, and from the modal value of the protostar luminosity. In 31 embedded clust…
The properties of unresolved protostars and their local environment are frequently inferred from spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using radiative transfer modeling. We perform synthetic observations of realistic star formation simulations to evaluate the accuracy of properties inferred from fitting model SEDs to observations. We use ORION, an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) three-dimensional gravito-radiation-hydrodynamics code, to simulate low-mass star formation in a turbulent molecular cloud including the effects of protostellar outflows. To obtain the dust temperature distribution and S…
Water is present during all stages of star formation: as ice in the cold outer parts of protostellar envelopes and dense inner regions of circumstellar disks, and as gas in the envelopes close to the protostars, in the upper layers of circumstellar disks and in regions of powerful outflows and shocks. In this paper we probe the mechanism regulating the warm gas-phase water abundance in the innermost hundred AU of deeply embedded (Class~0) low-mass protostars, and investigate its chemical relationship to other molecular species during these stages. Millimeter wavelength thermal emission from th…
The effects of the stellar rotation and the consequent azimuthal stellar wind flow in Parker's [9] hydrodynamic stellar wind model are discussed. Of special interest is the emergence of a whole new hydrodynamic physics via a new critical point in the stellar wind flow, which supersedes the critical point in Parker's [9] hydrodynamic model. The effect of the stellar rotation is shown to cause the new critical point to occur lower in the corona, so the stellar wind experiences a stronger afterburner (as in an aircraft jet engine) action in the corona. For strong rotators, the new critical point …
Theories of massive star formation predict that massive protostars accrete gas through circumstellar disks. Although several cases have been found already thanks to high-angular resolution interferometry, it remains unknown the internal physical structure of these disks and, in particular, whether they present warps or internal holes as observed in low-mass proto-planetary disks. Here, we report very high angular resolution observations of the H21alpha radio recombination line carried out in Band 9 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (beam of 80 mas x 60 mas, or 70 au x 50 au…
The wind interaction with the dusty environment of the classical T Tauri star RY Tau has been investigated. During two seasons of 2013-2015 we carried out a spectroscopic and photometric (BVR) monitoring of the star. A correlation between the stellar brightness and the radial velocity of the wind determined from the H-alpha and Na D line profiles has been found for the first time. The irregular stellar brightness variations are shown to be caused by extinction in a dusty disk wind at a distance of about 0.2 AU from the star. We suppose, that variations of the circumstellar extinction results f…
Recent high angular resolution ($\sim$0.2") ALMA observations of the 1.1 mm continuum and of HCO+ J=3-2 and HCN J=3-2 gas towards the binary protostar IRS 43 reveal multiple Keplerian disks which are significantly misaligned ($\gt$ 60$^\circ$), both in inclination and position angle and also with respect to the binary orbital plane. Each stellar component has an associated circumstellar disk while the binary is surrounded by a circumbinary disk. Together with archival VLA measurements of the stellar positions over 25 years, and assuming a circular orbit, we use our continuum measurements to de…
The formation of spectroscopic binaries (SB) may be a natural byproduct of star formation. The early dynamical evolution of multiple stellar systems after the initial fragmentation of molecular clouds leaves characteristic imprints on the properties of young, multiple stars. The discovery and the characterization of the youngest SB will allow us to infer the mechanisms and timescales involved in their formation. Our work aims to find spectroscopic companions around young stellar objects (YSO). We present a near-IR high-resolution (R ~ 60000) multi-epoch radial velocity survey of 7 YSO in the s…
We present dual-wavelength observations and modeling of the nearly edge-on Class 0 young stellar object L1157-mm. Using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, a nearly spherical structure is seen from the circumstellar envelope at the size scale of 10^2 to 10^3 AU in both 1 mm and 3 mm dust emission. Radiative transfer modeling is performed to compare data with theoretical envelope models, including a power-law envelope model and the Terebey-Shu-Cassen model. Bayesian inference is applied for parameter estimation and information criteria is used for model selection. The …
We have surveyed 84 Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars in mid-infrared [Si II], [Fe II] and [S I] line emission, and 11 of these in far-infrared [O I] emission. We use the results to derive their mass outflow rates. Thereby we observe a strong correlation of mass outflow rates with bolometric luminosity, and with the inferred mass accretion rates of the central objects, which continues through the Class 0 range the trend observed in Class II young stellar objects. Along this trend from large to small mass-flow rates, the different classes of young stellar objects lie in the sequenc…
W33A is a well-known example of a high-mass young stellar object showing evidence of a circumstellar disc. We revisited the $K$-band NIFS/Gemini North observations of the W33A protostar using principal components analysis tomography and additional post-processing routines. Our results indicate the presence of a compact rotating disc based on the kinematics of the CO absorption features. The position-velocity diagram shows that the disc exhibits a rotation curve with velocities that rapidly decrease for radii larger than 0\farcs1 ($\sim$250 AU) from the central source, suggesting a structure ab…
In the list of young stellar objects compiled by Megeath et al. (2012) for the Orion A molecular cloud, only 44 out of 1208 sources found projected onto low extinction (Ak<0.8 mag) gas are identified as protostars. These objects are puzzling because protostars are not typically expected to be associated with extended low extinction material. Here, we use high resolution extinction maps generated from Herschel data, optical/infrared and Spitzer Space Telescope photometry and spectroscopy of the low extinction protostellar candidate sources to determine if they are likely true protostellar sourc…
The key question about early protostellar evolution is how matter is accreted from the large-scale molecular cloud, through the circumstellar disk onto the central star. A sample of 20 Class 0 and I protostars has been observed in continuum at (sub)millimeter wavelengths at high angular resolution with the Submillimeter Array. Using detailed dust radiative transfer models, we have developed a framework for disentangling the continuum emission from the envelopes and disks, and from that estimated their masses. For the Class I sources in the sample, HCO+ 3-2 line emission has furthermore been ob…
The Massive Young Star Forming Complex in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project provides a new census on stellar members of massive star forming regions within 4 kpc. Here the MYStIX Infrared Excess catalog (MIRES) and Chandra-based X-ray photometric catalogs are mined to obtain high-quality samples of Class I protostars using criteria designed to reduce extragalactic and Galactic field star contamination. A total of 1,109 MYStIX Candidate Protostars (MCPs) are found in 14 star forming regions. Most are selected from protoplanetary disk infrared excess emission, but 20% are found from their ultr…
Direct collapse of supermassive stars (SMSs) is a possible pathway for generating supermassive black holes in the early universe. It is expected that an SMS could form via very rapid mass accretion with Mdot ~ 0.1 - 1 Msun/yr during the gravitational collapse of an atomic-cooling primordial gas cloud. In this paper we study how stars would evolve under such extreme rapid mass accretion, focusing on the early evolution until the stellar mass reaches 1000 Msun. To this end we numerically calculate the detailed interior structure of accreting stars with primordial element abundances. Our results …
