skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Hofner, Peter"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract We present Very Large Array 1.3 cm continuum and 22.2 GHz H2O maser observations of the high-mass protostellar object IRAS 19035+0641 A. Our observations unveil an elongated bipolar 1.3 cm continuum structure at scales ≲500 au, which, together with a rising in-band spectral index, strongly suggests that the radio emission toward IRAS 19035+0641 A arises from an ionized jet. In addition, eight individual water maser spots well aligned with the jet axis were identified. The StokesVspectrum of the brightest H2O maser line (∼100 Jy) shows a possible Zeeman splitting and is well represented by the derivatives of two Gaussian components fitted to the StokesIprofile. The measuredBlosare 123 (±27) and 156 (±8) mG, translating to a preshock magnetic field of ≈7 mG. Subsequent observations to confirm the Zeeman splitting showed intense variability in all the water maser spots, with the brightest maser completely disappearing. The observed variability in a 1 yr timescale could be the result of an accretion event. These findings strengthen our interpretation of IRAS 19035+0641 A as a high-mass protostar in an early accretion/outflow evolutionary phase. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract G34.26 + 0.15 is a region of high-mass star formation that contains a broad range of young stellar objects in different stages of evolution, including a hot molecular core, hypercompact Hiiregions, and a prototypical cometary ultracompact Hiiregion. Previous high-sensitivity single-dish observations by our group resulted in the detection of broad 6035 MHz OH absorption in this region; the line showed a significant blueshifted asymmetry indicative of molecular gas expansion. We present high-sensitivity Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the 6035 MHz OH line conducted to image the absorption and investigate its origin with respect to the different star formation sites in the region. In addition, we report detection of 6030 MHz OH absorption with the VLA and further observations of 4.7 GHz and 6.0 GHz OH lines obtained with the Arecibo Telescope. The 6030 MHz OH line shows a very similar absorption profile as the 6035 MHz OH line. We found that the 6035 MHz OH line absorption region is spatially unresolved at ∼2″ scales, and it is coincident with one of the bright ionized cores of the cometary Hiiregion that shows broad radio recombination line emission. We discuss a scenario where the OH absorption is tracing the remnants of a pole-on molecular outflow that is being ionized inside-out by the ultracompact Hiiregion. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract We report Very Large Array observations in theQband toward 10 ionized jet candidates to search for SiO emission, a well-known shocked gas tracer. We detected 7 mm continuum counterparts toward 90% of the jet candidates. In most cases, the jet candidate is located toward the center of the 7 mm core, and the high masses (≈100M) and densities (≈107cm−3) of the cores suggest that the central objects are very young high-mass protostars. We detected SiOJ= 1–0 emission associated with six target sources. In all cases, the morphology and spectrum of the emission is consistent with what is expected for molecular jets along an outflow axis, thus confirming the jet nature of 60% of our sample. Our data suggest a positive correlation between the SiO luminosityLSiO, and both the bolometric luminosityLBoland the radio luminositySνd2of the driving sources. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract We present Very Large Array C- , X- , and Q -band continuum observations, as well as 1.3 mm continuum and CO(2-1) observations with the Submillimeter Array toward the high-mass protostellar candidate ISOSS J23053+5953 SMM2. Compact centimeter continuum emission was detected near the center of the SMM2 core with a spectral index of 0.24(± 0.15) between 6 and 3.6 cm, and a radio luminosity of 1.3(±0.4) mJy kpc 2 . The 1.3 mm thermal dust emission indicates a mass of the SMM2 core of 45.8 (±13.4) M ⊙ , and a density of 7.1 (±1.2)× 10 6 cm −3 . The CO(2-1) observations reveal a large, massive molecular outflow centered on the SMM2 core. This fast outflow (>50 km s −1 from the cloud systemic velocity) is highly collimated, with a broader, lower-velocity component. The large values for outflow mass (45.2 ± 12.6 M ⊙ ) and momentum rate (6 ± 2 × 10 −3 M ⊙ km s −1 yr −1 ) derived from the CO emission are consistent with those of flows driven by high-mass YSOs. The dynamical timescale of the flow is between 1.5 and 7.2 × 10 4 yr. We also found from the C 18 O to thermal dust emission ratio that CO is depleted by a factor of about 20, possibly due to freeze-out of CO molecules on dust grains. Our data are consistent with previous findings that ISOSS J23053 + 5953 SMM2 is an emerging high-mass protostar in an early phase of evolution, with an ionized jet and a fast, highly collimated, and massive outflow. 
    more » « less
  5. null (Ed.)