Magnetic Field Structure around Low-Mass Class 0 Protostars: B335, L1527 and IC348-SMM2

TL;DR

This study presents 350 micron polarization observations of three low-mass Class 0 protostars, analyzing their magnetic field structures to test magnetically regulated star formation models, and finds general consistency when outflow effects are considered.

Contribution

It provides new polarization data for three protostars and assesses their magnetic field structures in relation to star formation models, highlighting the impact of bipolar outflows.

Findings

Magnetic field structures are generally consistent with magnetically regulated models.

Outflows significantly distort magnetic fields, affecting model consistency.

Energy densities of outflows are sufficient to influence magnetic field configurations.

Abstract

We report new 350 micron polarization observations of the thermal dust emission from the cores surrounding the low-mass, Class 0 YSOs L1527, IC348-SMM2 and B335. We have inferred magnetic field directions from these observations, and have used them together with results in the literature to determine whether magnetically regulated core-collapse and star-formation models are consistent with the observations. These models predict a pseudo-disk with its symmetry axis aligned with the core magnetic field. The models also predict a magnetic field pinch structure on a scale less than or comparable to the infall radii for these sources. In addition, if the core magnetic field aligns (or nearly aligns) the core rotation axis with the magnetic field before core collapse, then the models predict the alignment (or near alignment) of the overall pinch field structure with the bipolar outflows in these sources. We show that if one includes the distorting effects of bipolar outflows on magnetic fields, then in general the observational results for L1527 and IC348-SMM2 are consistent with these magnetically regulated models. We can say the same for B335 only if we assume the distorting effects of the bipolar outflow on the magnetic fields within the B335 core are much greater than for L1527 and IC348-SMM2. We show that the energy densities of the outflows in all three sources are large enough to distort the magnetic fields predicted by magnetically regulated models.