Sub-arcsecond [FeII] spectro-imaging of the DG Tau jet: Periodic bubbles and a dusty disk wind?

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectro-imaging to analyze the DG Tau jet, revealing a complex velocity structure, periodic knot ejections, and evidence supporting a disk wind origin over stellar or X-wind models.

Contribution

It provides detailed spectro-imaging data of the DG Tau jet, revises the knot ejection timescale, and supports a disk wind origin for the jet's medium and high-velocity components.

Findings

Detection of periodic jet knots with a 2.5-year timescale.

Identification of a conical, medium-velocity [FeII] flow incompatible with X-wind or stellar wind models.

Evidence supporting a quasi-steady disk wind as the jet origin.

Abstract

We present SINFONI/VLT observations of the DG Tauri jet in the [FeII] lines with 0.15" angular resolution and R=3000 spectral resolution. We observe an onion-like velocity structure in [FeII] in the blueshifted jet, similar to that observed in optical lines. High-velocity gas at ~-200 km/s is collimated inside a half-opening angle of 4 degrees and medium-velocity gas at ~-100 km/s in a cone with an half-opening angle 14 degrees. Two new axial jet knots are detected in the blue jet, as well as a more distant bubble with corresponding counter-bubble. The periodic knot ejection timescale is revised downward to 2.5 yrs. The redshifted jet is detected only beyond 0.7" from the star, yielding revised constraints on the disk surface density. From comparison to [OI] data we infer iron depletion of a factor 3 at high velocities and a factor 10 at speeds below -100 km/s. The mass-fluxes in each of the medium and high-velocity components of the blueshifted lobe are ~1.6+-0.8x10^-8 Msun/yr, representing 0.02-0.2 of the disk accretion rate. The medium-velocity conical [FeII] flow in the DG Tau jet is too fast and too narrow to trace photo-evaporated matter from the disk atmosphere. Both its kinematics and collimation cannot be reproduced by the X-wind, nor can the "conical magnetospheric wind". The level of Fe gas phase depletion in the DG Tau medium-velocity component also rules out a stellar wind and a cocoon ejected sideways from the high-velocity beam. A quasi-steady centrifugal MHD disk wind ejected over 0.25-1.5 AU and/or episodic magnetic tower cavities launched from the disk appear as the most plausible origins for the medium velocity component in the DG Tau jet. The same disk wind model can also account for the properties of the high-velocity flow, although alternative origins in magnetospheric and/or stellar winds cannot be excluded for this component.