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We present a statistical characterization of circumstellar disk orientations toward 12 protostellar multiple systems in the Perseus molecular cloud using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at Band 6 (1.3 mm) with a resolution of ∼25 mas (∼8 au). This exquisite resolution enabled us to resolve the compact inner-disk structures surrounding the components of each multiple system and to determine the projected 3D orientation of the disks (position angle and inclination) to high precision. We performed a statistical analysis on the relative alignment of disk pairs to determine whether the disks are preferentially aligned or randomly distributed. We considered three subsamples of the observations selected by the companion separationsa< 100 au,a> 500 au, anda< 10,000 au. We found for the compact (<100 au) subsample, the distribution of orientation angles is best described by an underlying distribution of preferentially aligned sources (within 30°) but does not rule out distributions with 40% misaligned sources. The wide companion (>500 au) subsample appears to be consistent with a distribution of 40%–80% preferentially aligned sources. Similarly, the full sample of systems with companions (a< 10,000 au) is most consistent with a fractional ratio of at most 80% preferentially aligned sources and rules out purely randomly aligned distributions. Thus, our results imply the compact sources (<100 au) and the wide companions (>500 au) are statistically different.

 

Abstract We report high-resolution ALMA observations toward a massive protostellar core C1-Sa (∼30 M ⊙ ) in the Dragon infrared dark cloud. At the resolution of 140 au, the core fragments into two kernels (C1-Sa1 and C1-Sa2) with a projected separation of ∼1400 au along the elongation of C1-Sa, consistent with a Jeans length scale of ∼1100 au. Radiative transfer modeling using RADEX indicates that the protostellar kernel C1-Sa1 has a temperature of ∼75 K and a mass of 0.55 M ⊙ . C1-Sa1 also likely drives two bipolar outflows, one being parallel to the plane of the sky. C1-Sa2 is not detected in line emission and does not show any outflow activity but exhibits ortho-H 2 D + and N 2 D + emission in its vicinity; thus it is likely still starless. Assuming a 20 K temperature, C1-Sa2 has a mass of 1.6 M ⊙ . At a higher resolution of 96 au, C1-Sa1 begins to show an irregular shape at the periphery, but no clear sign of multiple objects or disks. We suspect that C1-Sa1 hosts a tight binary with inclined disks and outflows. Currently, one member of the binary is actively accreting while the accretion in the other is significantly reduced. C1-Sa2 shows hints of fragmentation into two subkernels with similar masses, which requires further confirmation with higher sensitivity. 

Abstract We present a Spitzer/Herschel focused survey of the Aquila molecular clouds ( d ∼ 436 pc) as part of the eHOPS (extension of the Herschel orion protostar survey, or HOPS, Out to 500 ParSecs) census of nearby protostars. For every source detected in the Herschel/PACS bands, the eHOPS-Aquila catalog contains 1–850 μ m SEDs assembled from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, Spitzer, Herschel, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope/SCUBA-2 data. Using a newly developed set of criteria, we classify objects by their SEDs as protostars, pre-main-sequence stars with disks, and galaxies. A total of 172 protostars are found in Aquila, tightly concentrated in the molecular filaments that thread the clouds. Of these, 71 (42%) are Class 0 protostars, 54 (31%) are Class I protostars, 43 (25%) are flat-spectrum protostars, and four (2%) are Class II sources. Ten of the Class 0 protostars are young PACS bright red sources similar to those discovered in Orion. We compare the SEDs to a grid of radiative transfer models to constrain the luminosities, envelope densities, and envelope masses of the protostars. A comparison of the eHOPS-Aquila to the HOPS protostars in Orion finds that the protostellar luminosity functions in the two star-forming regions are statistically indistinguishable, the bolometric temperatures/envelope masses of eHOPS-Aquila protostars are shifted to cooler temperatures/higher masses, and the eHOPS-Aquila protostars do not show the decline in luminosity with evolution found in Orion. We briefly discuss whether these differences are due to biases between the samples, diverging star formation histories, or the influence of environment on protostellar evolution. 

Abstract We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the ∼10,000 au environment surrounding 21 protostars in the Orion A molecular cloud tracing outflows. Our sample is composed of Class 0 to flat-spectrum protostars, spanning the full ∼1 Myr lifetime. We derive the angular distribution of outflow momentum and energy profiles and obtain the first two-dimensional instantaneous mass, momentum, and energy ejection rate maps using our new approach: the pixel flux-tracing technique. Our results indicate that by the end of the protostellar phase, outflows will remove ∼2–4 M ⊙ from the surrounding ∼1 M ⊙ low-mass core. These high values indicate that outflows remove a significant amount of gas from their parent cores and continuous core accretion from larger scales is needed to replenish core material for star formation. This poses serious challenges to the concept of cores as well-defined mass reservoirs , and hence to the simplified core-to-star conversion prescriptions. Furthermore, we show that cavity opening angles, and momentum and energy distributions all increase with protostar evolutionary stage. This is clear evidence that even garden-variety protostellar outflows: (a) effectively inject energy and momentum into their environments on 10,000 au scales, and (b) significantly disrupt their natal cores, ejecting a large fraction of the mass that would have otherwise fed the nascent star. Our results support the conclusion that protostellar outflows have a direct impact on how stars get their mass, and that the natal sites of individual low-mass star formation are far more dynamic than commonly accepted theoretical paradigms. 

The unprecedented angular resolution and sensitivity of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array make it possible to unveil disk populations in distant (>2 kpc), embedded young cluster environments. We have conducted an observation toward the central region of the massive protocluster G286.21+0.16 at 1.3 mm. With a spatial resolution of 23 mas and a sensitivity of 15μJy beam⁻¹, we detect a total of 38 protostellar disks. These disks have dust masses ranging from about 53 to 1825M_⊕, assuming a dust temperature of 20 K. This sample is not closely associated with previously identified dense cores, as would be expected for disks around Class 0 protostars. Thus, we expect our sample, being flux-limited, to be mainly composed of Class I/flat-spectrum source disks, since these are typically more massive than Class II disks. Furthermore, we find that the distributions of disk masses and radii are statistically indistinguishable from those of the Class I/flat-spectrum objects in the Orion molecular cloud, indicating that similar processes are operating in G286.21+0.16 to regulate disk formation and evolution. The cluster center appears to host a massive protostellar system composed of three sources within 1200 au, including a potential binary with 600 au projected separation. Relative to this center, there is no evidence for widespread mass segregation in the disk population. We do find a tentative trend of increasing disk radius versus distance from the cluster center, which may point to the influence of dynamical interactions being stronger in the central regions.

 

Abstract We present Markov Chain Monte Carlo radiative transfer modeling of a joint ALMA 345 GHz and spectral energy distribution data set for a sample of 97 protostellar disks from the VLA and ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity Survey of Orion Protostars. From this modeling, we derive disk and envelope properties for each protostar, allowing us to examine the bulk properties of a population of young protostars. We find that disks are small, with a median dust radius of 29.4 − 2.7 + 4.1 au and a median dust mass of 5.8 − 2.7 + 4.6 M ⊕ . We find no statistically significant difference between most properties of Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum sources with the exception of envelope dust mass and inclination. The distinction between inclination is an indication that the Class 0/I/flat-spectrum system may be difficult to tie uniquely to the evolutionary state of protostars. When comparing with Class II disk dust masses in Taurus from similar radiative transfer modeling, we further find that the trend of disk dust mass decreasing from Class 0 to Class II disks is no longer present, though it remains unclear whether such a comparison is fair owing to differences in star-forming region and modeling techniques. Moreover, the disks we model are broadly gravitationally stable. Finally, we compare disk masses and radii with simulations of disk formation and find that magnetohydrodynamical effects may be important for reproducing the observed properties of disks. 

Abstract The water snowline in circumstellar disks is a crucial component in planet formation, but direct observational constraints on its location remain sparse owing to the difficulty of observing water in both young embedded and mature protoplanetary disks. Chemical imaging provides an alternative route to locate the snowline, and HCO + isotopologues have been shown to be good tracers in protostellar envelopes and Herbig disks. Here we present ∼0.″5 resolution (∼35 au radius) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of HCO + J = 4 − 3 and H 13 CO + J = 3 − 2 toward the young (Class 0/I) disk L1527 IRS. Using a source-specific physical model with the midplane snowline at 3.4 au and a small chemical network, we are able to reproduce the HCO + and H 13 CO + emission, but for HCO + only when the cosmic-ray ionization rate is lowered to 10 −18 s −1 . Even though the observations are not sensitive to the expected HCO + abundance drop across the snowline, the reduction in HCO + above the snow surface and the global temperature structure allow us to constrain a snowline location between 1.8 and 4.1 au. Deep observations are required to eliminate the envelope contribution to the emission and to derive more stringent constraints on the snowline location. Locating the snowline in young disks directly with observations of H 2 O isotopologues may therefore still be an alternative option. With a direct snowline measurement, HCO + will be able to provide constraints on the ionization rate. 

We present the results from an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3 mm continuum and¹²CO (J= 2 − 1) line survey spread over 10 deg²in the Serpens star-forming region of 320 young stellar objects, 302 of which are likely members of Serpens (16 Class I, 35 flat-spectrum, 235 Class II, and 16 Class III). From the continuum data, we derive disk dust masses and show that they systematically decline from Class I to flat-spectrum to Class II sources. Grouped by stellar evolutionary state, the disk mass distributions are similar to other young (<3 Myr) regions, indicating that the large-scale environment of a star-forming region does not strongly affect its overall disk dust mass properties. These comparisons between populations reinforce previous conclusions that disks in the Ophiuchus star-forming region have anomalously low masses at all evolutionary stages. Additionally, we find a single deeply embedded protostar that has not been documented elsewhere in the literature and, from the CO line data, 15 protostellar outflows, which we catalog here.

 

Abstract Constraining the physical and chemical structure of young embedded disks is crucial for understanding the earliest stages of planet formation. As part of the Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Large Program, we present high spatial resolution (∼0.″1 or ∼15 au) observations of the 1.3 mm continuum and 13 CO J = 2–1, C 18 O J = 2–1, and SO J N = 6 5 –5 4 molecular lines toward the disk around the Class I protostar L1489 IRS. The continuum emission shows a ring-like structure at 56 au from the central protostar and tenuous, optically thin emission extending beyond ∼300 au. The 13 CO emission traces the warm disk surface, while the C 18 O emission originates from near the disk midplane. The coincidence of the radial emission peak of C 18 O with the dust ring may indicate a gap-ring structure in the gaseous disk as well. The SO emission shows a highly complex distribution, including a compact, prominent component at ≲30 au, which is likely to originate from thermally sublimated SO molecules. The compact SO emission also shows a velocity gradient along a direction tilted slightly (∼15°) with respect to the major axis of the dust disk, which we interpret as an inner warped disk in addition to the warp around ∼200 au suggested by previous work. These warped structures may be formed by a planet or companion with an inclined orbit, or by a gradual change in the angular momentum axis during gas infall. 

We present Very Large Array observations toward the Class 0 protostar L1157 MMS at 6.8 and 9 mm with a resolution of ∼0.″04 (14 au). We detect two sources within L1157 MMS and interpret these sources as a binary protostar with a separation of ∼16 au. The material directly surrounding the binary system within the inner 50 au radius of the system has an estimated mass of 0.11M_☉, calculated from the observed dust emission. We interpret the observed binary system in the context of previous observations of its flattened envelope structure, low rates of envelope rotation from 5000 to 200 au scales, and an ordered, poloidal magnetic field aligned with the outflow. Thus, L1157 MMS is a prototype system for magnetically regulated collapse, and the presence of a compact binary within L1157 MMS demonstrates that multiple star formation can still occur within envelopes that likely have dynamically important magnetic fields.