A 3D view of protostellar jets and outflows.

Supervisor: Odysseas Dionatos

Contact information: odysseas.dionatos@univie.ac.at 

Expected duration: 9 months

Project description & Goals:

The formation of stars is regulated by the interplay between, the main mass reservoir deposited in the envelope, the accretion disk transferring mass to the central accreting source and the ejecta abducting mass and angular momentum away from the system.  While all components  detected by their dust/continuum emission have been studied in detail, the role of ejecta, revealed in a multitude of physical appearances through line emission from atoms and molecules, remains yet enigmatic. This project aims to provide a first physical link between atomic and molecular jets, high velocity bullets and large scale outflows, and moreover the link of all these appearances to the properties of the envelope, the disk and the protostellar source.  To this end, multi-epoch ALMA data of the molecular jet and outflow of SMM1b in Serpens main will be analyzed in order to derive the real 3D structure of the protostellar ejecta which will be then associated with the orbital properties of the source.

Working plan & Milestones (including final thesis):

1. Introduction to the SMM1 system (literature) and methodology
2. Multi-epoch ALMA observations, line identification and structure identification.
3. 3D structure of the SMM1b system
4. Momentum transfer between molecular jets and outflows.
5. Linking episodic ejection events to the geometry and the orbital properties of the SMM1b system.
6. Thesis writeup

Requirements / special skills: 

Background in star formation, some background in working with ALMA data will be an asset.