Precessing Jets and Molecular Outflows: A 3-D Numerical Study

Abstract

We present 3-D numerical hydrodynamical simulations of precessing supersonic heavy jets to explore how well they serve as a model for generating molecular outflows from Young Stellar Objects. The dynamics are studied with a number of high resolution simulations on a Cartesian grid (128x128x128 zones) using a high order finite difference method. A range of cone angles and precession rates were included in the study. Two higher resolution runs (256x256x256 zones) were made for comparison in order to confirm numerical convergence of global flow characteristics. Morphological, kinematical and dynamical characteristics of precessing jets are described and compared to important properties of straight jets and also to observations of YSOs. In order to examine the robustness of precessing jets as a mean to produce molecular outflows around Young Stellar Objects, ``synthetic observations'' of the momentum distributions of the simulated precessing jets are compared to observations of molecular outflows. It is found that precessing jets match better the morphology, highly forward driven momentum and momentum distributions along the long axis of molecular outflows than do wind-driven or straight jet-driven flow models.

Accepted by ApJ, 31 pages, using aasms.sty, Also available in postscript with figures via a gzipped tar file at ftp://s1.msi.umn.edu/pub/afrank/3DJet/3DJet.tar.gz . For information contact [email protected]

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Observational Implications of Precessing Protostellar Discs and Jets
• The Episodic, Precessing Giant Molecular Outflow from IRAS 04239+2436 (HH 300)
• Three Dimensional Magneto-Hydrodynamical Modeling of Planetary Nebuale ~ II: The Formation of Bipolar and Elliptical Nebulae with Point-Symmetric Structures and Collimated Outflows
• A detailed study of G35.2-0.7N: collimated outflows in a cluster of high-mass young stellar objects
• Bipolar Outflows and the Evolution of Stars
• A precessing molecular jet signaling an obscured, growing supermassive black hole in NGC1377?
• The kinematics in the pc-scale jets of AGN The case of S5 1803+784
• Bow shocks, Wiggling Jets, and Wide-Angle Winds: A High Resolution Study of the Entrainment Mechanism of the PV Ceph Molecular (CO) Outflow
• Outflows from the high-mass protostars NGC 7538 IRS1/2 observed with bispectrum speckle interferometry -- Signatures of flow precession
• Collimated Outflow Formation via Binary Stars. 3-D Simulations of AGB Wind and Disk Wind Interactions
• High-mass star formation at sub-50AU scales
• 3-D Photoionization Structure and Distances of Planetary Nebulae IV. NGC 40
• 3-D Photoionization Structure and Distances of Planetary Nebulae I. NGC6369
• Curved jet motion. I. Orbiting and precessing jets
• Discovery of a New Molecular Bubble-Outflow Structure in the Taurus B18 Cloud