Michael S. Connelley

A NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF CLASS I PROTOSTARS

We present the results of a near-IR spectroscopic survey of 110 Class I protostars observed from 0.80 μm to 2.43 μm at a spectroscopic resolution of R = 1200. This survey is unique in its selection of targets from the whole sky, its sample size, wavelength coverage, depth, and sample selection. We find that Class I objects exhibit a wide range of lines and the continuum spectroscopic features. Eighty-five percent of Class I protostars exhibit features indicative of mass accretion, and we found that the veiling excess, CO emission, and Br γ emission are closely related. We modeled the spectra to estimate the veiling excess (rk ) and extinction to each target. We also used near-IR colors and emission line ratios, when available, to also estimate extinction. In the course of this survey, we observed the spectra of 10 FU Orionis-like objects, including 2 new ones, as well as 3 Herbig Ae-type stars among our Class I young stellar objects. We used photospheric absorption lines, when available, to estimate the spectral type of each target. Although most targets are late-type stars, there are several A- and F-type stars in our sample. Notably, we found no A or F class stars in the Taurus-Auriga or Perseus star-forming regions. There are several cases where the observed CO and/or water absorption bands are deeper than expected from the photospheric spectral type. We find a correlation between the appearance of the reflection nebula, which traces the distribution of material on very large scales, and the near-IR spectrum, which probes smaller scales. All of the FU Orionis-like objects are associated with reflection nebulae. The spectra of the components of spatially resolved protostellar binaries tend to be very similar. In particular both components tend to have similar veiling and H2 emission, inconsistent with random selection from the sample as a whole. There is a strong correlation between [Fe II] and H2 emission, supporting previous results showing that H2 emission in the spectra of young stars is usually shock excited by stellar winds.

The Evolution of the Multiplicity of Embedded Protostars. II. Binary Separation Distribution and Analysis

We present the Class I protostellar binary separation distribution based on the data tabulated in a companion paper. We verify the excess of Class I binary stars over solar-type main-sequence stars in the separation range from 500 AU to 4500 AU. Although our sources are in nearby star-forming regions distributed across the entire sky (including Orion), none of our objects are in a high stellar density environment. A log-normal function, used by previous authors to fit the main-sequence and T Tauri binary separation distributions, poorly fits our data, and we determine that a log-uniform function is a better fit. Our observations show that the binary separation distribution changes significantly during the Class I phase, and that the binary frequency at separations greater than 1000 AU declines steadily with respect to spectral index. Despite these changes, the binary frequency remains constant until the end of the Class I phase, when it drops sharply. We propose a scenario to account for the changes in the Class I binary separation distribution. This scenario postulates that a large number of companions with a separation greater than ~1000 AU were ejected during the Class 0 phase, but remain gravitationally bound due to the significant mass of the Class I envelope. As the envelope dissipates, these companions become unbound and the binary frequency at wide separations declines. Circumstellar and circumbinary disks are expected to play an important role in the orbital evolution at closer separations. This scenario predicts that a large number of Class 0 objects should be non-hierarchical multiple systems, and that many Class I young stellar objects (YSOs) with a widely separated companion should also have a very close companion. We also find that Class I protostars are not dynamically pristine, but have experienced dynamical evolution before they are visible as Class I objects. Our analysis shows that the Class I binary frequency and the binary separation distribution strongly depend on the star-forming environment.

Infrared Nebulae around Young Stellar Objects

We present a K-band atlas of 106 reflection nebulae, 41 of which are new discoveries. We observed these nebulae with the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope in the course of an imaging survey of 197 objects that were selected as nearby young Class I sources. K-band images and flux-calibrated surface brightness contour plots of each nebula are presented. We found that the near-IR luminosities and physical sizes of the nebulae increase with the bolometric luminosity of the illuminating sources. Only 22 nebulae, about 10% of these candidate Class I sources, have indications of shocked H2 emission. The great variety of nebulae that we observed prevented us from classifying them based on morphology. However, we note that as the spectral index decreases, the central star is more frequently visible at K band, and the flux from the central star tends to be dominant over the flux from the nebula. For objects that have a higher spectral index, most of the K-band flux is from the reflection nebula, and the central star is less frequently visible. The nebula around IRAS 05450+0019 has a unique morphology, and we speculate that it may be an example of a disk shadow being projected into the surrounding cloud. We present J-, H-, and K-band images of this object with surface brightness contours, as well as its spectral energy distribution from 1.2 to 100 μm.

V733 Cep (Persson's Star): A New FU Orionis Object in Cepheus

Persson recently found that a faint star had appeared in a cloud in Cepheus. A CCD image shows a R ~ 17.3 nebulous star, now known as V733 Cep, located in the L1216 = Cep F cloud at the apex of a cavity in the cloud. Infrared photometry indicates a modest infrared excess. Optical spectroscopy shows a well-defined Li I λ6707 line, and blueshifted absorption troughs at the Hα and Na I D lines extending to at least 200 km s-1, indicative of a massive fast wind. An infrared 1-4 μm spectrum of V733 Cep shows the presence of strong water vapor features, and is almost identical to a similar IR spectrum of FU Ori that is reddened by AV = 8 mag. Assuming an intrinsic energy distribution similar to that of FU Ori, V733 Cep has a luminosity of about 135 L⊙ at the assumed distance of 800 pc. The star was detected by the Midcourse Space Experiment satellite at 8.3 μm, but not by IRAS. Nor is it detected at 850 μm, indicating that while the star possesses circumstellar material it is not surrounded by a significant cool envelope. A 12CO(3-2) map shows what appears to be a small molecular outflow along the same axis as the cavity seen in optical images. There is evidence for a limited amount of other low- and medium-mass star formation in the Cep F cloud. The totality of the evidence strongly indicates that V733 Cep is a new FU Ori-type object that must have erupted sometime between 1953 and 1984.

A Disk Shadow around the Young Star ASR 41 in NGC 1333

We present images of the young stellar object ASR 41 in the NGC 1333 star-forming region at the wavelengths of Hα and [S II] and in the I, J, H, and K bands. ASR 41 has the near-infrared morphology of an edge-on disk object but appears an order of magnitude larger than typical systems of this kind. We also present detailed models of the scattering and radiative transfer in systems consisting of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk and the whole system being embedded in either an infalling envelope or a uniform molecular cloud. The best fit to the observed morphology can be achieved with a disk of ≈200 AU diameter, immersed in a low-density cloud (≈2 × 10-20 g cm-3). The low cloud density is necessary to stay below the submillimeter flux upper limits and to preserve the shadow cast by the disk via single scattering. The results demonstrate that ASR 41 is probably not inherently different from typical edge-on disk objects and that its large apparent size is due to the shadow of a much smaller disk being projected into the surrounding dusty molecular material.

AN ADAPTIVE OPTICS SURVEY FOR CLOSE PROTOSTELLAR BINARIES

In order to test the hypothesis that Class I protostellar binary stars are a product of ejections during the dynamical decay of nonhierarchical multiple systems, we combined the results of new adaptive optics (AO) observations of Class I protostars with our previously published AO data to investigate whether Class I protostars with a widely separated companion (r > 200 AU) are more likely to also have a close companion (r < 200 AU). In total, we observed 47 embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) with either the Subaru natural guide star AO system or the Keck laser guide star AO system. We found that targets with a widely separated companion within 5000 AU are not more likely to have a close companion. However, targets with another YSO within a projected separation of 25,000 AU are much more likely to have a close companion. Most importantly, every target with a close companion has another YSO within a projected separation of 25,000 AU. We came to the same conclusions after considering a restricted sample of targets within 500 pc and close companions wider than 50 AU to minimize incompleteness effects. The Orion star-forming region was found to have an excess of both close binaries and YSOs within 25,000 AU compared to other star-forming regions. We interpret these observations as strong evidence that many close Class I binary stars form via ejections and that many of the ejected stars become unbound during the Class I phase.

NEAR-IR SPECTROSCOPIC MONITORING OF CLASS I PROTOSTARS: VARIABILITY OF ACCRETION AND WIND INDICATORS

We present the results of a program that monitored the near-IR spectroscopic variability of a sample of 19 embedded protostars. Spectra were taken on time intervals from 2 days to 3 years, over a wavelength range from 0.85 {\mu}m to 2.45 {\mu}m, for 4-9 epochs of observations per target. We found that the spectra of all targets are variable, and that every emission feature observed is also variable (although not for all targets). With one exception, there were no drastic changes in the continua of the spectra, nor did any line completely disappear, nor did any line appear that was not previously apparent. This analysis focuses on understanding the connection between accretion (traced by H Br

First results on a new PIAA coronagraph testbed at NASA Ames

\gamma

Laboratory demonstration of high-contrast imaging at 2 λ/D on a temperature-stabilized testbed in air

and CO) and the wind (traced by He I, [FeII], and sometimes H

A PHOTOMETRICALLY AND MORPHOLOGICALLY VARIABLE INFRARED NEBULA IN L483

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