| 1. |
- Tobin, John J., et al.
(author)
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The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. II. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and Class i Protostellar Disks
- 2020
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 890:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have conducted a survey of 328 protostars in the Orion molecular clouds with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at 0.87 mm at a resolution of ∼0.″1 (40 au), including observations with the Very Large Array at 9 mm toward 148 protostars at a resolution of ∼0.″08 (32 au). This is the largest multiwavelength survey of protostars at this resolution by an order of magnitude. We use the dust continuum emission at 0.87 and 9 mm to measure the dust disk radii and masses toward the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars, characterizing the evolution of these disk properties in the protostellar phase. The mean dust disk radii for the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars are 44.9-3.4+5.8, 37.0-3.0+4.9, and 28.5-2.3+3.7 au, respectively, and the mean protostellar dust disk masses are 25.9-4.0+7.7, 14.9-2.2+3.8, 11.6-1.9+3.5 M⊙, respectively. The decrease in dust disk masses is expected from disk evolution and accretion, but the decrease in disk radii may point to the initial conditions of star formation not leading to the systematic growth of disk radii or that radial drift is keeping the dust disk sizes small. At least 146 protostellar disks (35% of 379 detected 0.87 mm continuum sources plus 42 nondetections) have disk radii greater than 50 au in our sample. These properties are not found to vary significantly between different regions within Orion. The protostellar dust disk mass distributions are systematically larger than those of Class II disks by a factor of >4, providing evidence that the cores of giant planets may need to at least begin their formation during the protostellar phase.
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| 2. |
- Tobin, J. J., et al.
(author)
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A triple protostar system formed via fragmentation of a gravitationally unstable disk
- 2016
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 538:7626, s. 483-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Binary and multiple star systems are a frequent outcome of the star formation process(1,2) and as a result almost half of all stars with masses similar to that of the Sun have at least one companion star(3). Theoretical studies indicate that there are two main pathways that can operate concurrently to form binary/multiple star systems: large-scale fragmentation of turbulent gas cores and filaments(4,5) or smaller-scale fragmentation of a massive protostellar disk due to gravitational instability(6,7). Observational evidence for turbulent fragmentation on scales of more than 1,000 astronomical units has recently emerged(8,9). Previous evidence for disk fragmentation was limited to inferences based on the separations of more-evolved pre-main sequence and protostellar multiple systems(10-13). The triple protostar system L1448 IRS3B is an ideal system with which to search for evidence of disk fragmentation as it is in an early phase of the star formation process, it is likely to be less than 150,000 years old(14) and all of the protostars in the system are separated by less than 200 astronomical units. Here we report observations of dust and molecular gas emission that reveal a disk with a spiral structure surrounding the three protostars. Two protostars near the centre of the disk are separated by 61 astronomical units and a tertiary protostar is coincident with a spiral arm in the outer disk at a separation of 183 astronomical units(13). The inferred mass of the central pair of protostellar objects is approximately one solar mass, while the disk surrounding the three protostars has a total mass of around 0.30 solar masses. The tertiary protostar itself has a minimum mass of about 0.085 solar masses. We demonstrate that the disk around L1448 IRS3B appears susceptible to disk fragmentation at radii between 150 and 320 astronomical units, overlapping with the location of the tertiary protostar. This is consistent with models for a protostellar disk that has recently undergone gravitational instability, spawning one or two companion stars.
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