A Detached Protostellar Disk around a $\sim$0.2$M_{\odot}$ protostar in a Possible Site of a Multiple Star Formation in a Dynamical Environment in Taurus
We report ALMA observations in 0.87 mm continuum and 12CO (J = 3--2) toward a very low-luminosity (<0.1 L⊙) protostar, which is deeply embedded in one of the densest core MC27/L1521F, in Taurus with an indication of multiple star formation in a highly dynamical environment. The beam size corresponds to ∼20 AU, and we have clearly detected blueshifted/redshifted gas in 12CO associated with the protostar. The spatial/velocity distributions of the gas show there is a rotating disk with a size scale of ∼10 AU, a disk mass of ∼10−4M⊙ and a central stellar mass of ∼0.2 M⊙. The observed disk seems to be detached from the surrounding dense gas, although it is still embedded at the center of the core whose density is ∼106 cm−3. The current low-outflow activity and the very low luminosity indicate that the mass accretion rate onto the protostar is extremely low in spite of a very early stage of star formation. We may be witnessing the final stage of the formation of ∼0.2 M⊙ protostar. However, we cannot explain the observed low luminosity with the standard pre-main-sequence evolutionary track unless we assume cold accretion with an extremely small initial radius of the protostar (∼0.65 R⊙). These facts may challenge our current understanding of the low mass star formation, in particular the mass accretion process onto the protostar and the circumstellar disk.
@article{arxiv.1709.07113,
title = {A Detached Protostellar Disk around a $\sim$0.2$M_{\odot}$ protostar in a Possible Site of a Multiple Star Formation in a Dynamical Environment in Taurus},
author = {Kazuki Tokuda and Toshikazu Onishi and Kazuya Saigo and Takashi Hosokawa and Tomoaki Matsumoto and Shu-ichiro Inutsuka and Masahiro N. Machida and Kengo Tomida and Masanobu Kunitomo and Akiko Kawamura and Yasuo Fukui and Kengo Tachihara},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.07113},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal