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Abstract Precise estimates of protostellar masses are crucial to characterize the formation of stars of low masses down to brown dwarfs (BDs;M*< 0.08M☉). The most accurate estimation of protostellar mass uses the Keplerian rotation in the circumstellar disk around the protostar. To apply the Keplerian rotation method to a protostar at the low-mass end, we have observed the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16253-2429 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the 1.3 mm continuum at an angular resolution of 0.″07 (10 au), and in the12CO, C18O,13CO (J= 2–1), and SO (JN= 65−54) molecular lines, as part of the ALMA Large Program Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks project. The continuum emission traces a nonaxisymmetric, disk-like structure perpendicular to the associated12CO outflow. The position–velocity (PV) diagrams in the C18O and13CO lines can be interpreted as infalling and rotating motions. In contrast, the PV diagram along the major axis of the disk-like structure in the12CO line allows us to identify Keplerian rotation. The central stellar mass and the disk radius are estimated to be ∼0.12–0.17M☉and ∼13–19 au, respectively. The SO line suggests the existence of an accretion shock at a ring (r∼ 28 au) surrounding the disk and a streamer from the eastern side of the envelope. IRAS 16253-2429 is not a proto-BD but has a central stellar mass close to the BD mass regime, and our results provide a typical picture of such very-low-mass protostars.
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Centrifugal barrier and super-Keplerian rotation in protostellar disc formation
ABSTRACT With the advent of ALMA, it is now possible to observationally constrain how discs form around deeply embedded protostars. In particular, the recent ALMA C3H2 line observations of the nearby protostar L1527 have been interpreted as evidence for the so-called ‘centrifugal barrier,’ where the protostellar envelope infall is gradually decelerated to a stop by the centrifugal force in a region of super-Keplerian rotation. To test the concept of centrifugal barrier, which was originally based on angular momentum conserving-collapse of a rotating test particle around a fixed point mass, we carry out simple axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations of protostellar disc formation including a minimum set of ingredients: self-gravity, rotation, and a prescribed viscosity that enables the disc to accrete. We find that a super-Keplerian region can indeed exist when the viscosity is relatively large but, unlike the classic picture of centrifugal barrier, the infalling envelope material is not decelerated solely by the centrifugal force. The region has more specific angular momentum than its surrounding envelope material, which points to an origin in outward angular momentum transport in the disc (subject to the constraint of disc expansion by the infalling envelope), rather than the spin-up of the envelope material envisioned in the classic picture as it falls closer to the centre in order to conserve angular momentum. For smaller viscosities, the super-Keplerian rotation is weaker or non-existing. We conclude that, despite the existence of super-Keplerian rotation in some parameter regime, the classic picture of centrifugal barrier is not supported by our simulations.
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- PAR ID:
- 10373197
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 517
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 213-221
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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