Molecular hydrogen jets and outflows in the Serpens south filamentary cloud

TL;DR

This study maps molecular hydrogen jets and outflows in the Serpens South star-forming region, revealing their orientations and relationships with magnetic fields and filament structure.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed mapping of jets/outflows in Serpens South and analyzes their orientations relative to magnetic fields and filament axes.

Findings

14 MHOs identified, forming 10 flows

Outflows mostly driven by Class 0 and I protostars

Outflow orientations are perpendicular to magnetic field vectors

Abstract

We aimed to map the jets and outflows from the Serpens South star forming region and find an empirical relationship between the magnetic field and outflow orientation. Near-infrared H2 v=1-0 S(1) 2.122{\mu}m -line imaging of the \sim 30'-long filamentary shaped Serpens South star forming region was carried out. K s broadband imaging of the same region was used for continuum subraction. Candidate driving sources of the mapped jets/outflows are identified from the list of known protostars and young stars in this region, which was derived from studies using recent Spitzer and Herschel telescope observations. 14 Molecular Hydrogen emission-line objects(MHOs) are identified using our continuum-subtracted images. They are found to constitute ten individual flows. Out of these, nine flows are located in the lower-half(southern) part of the Serpens South filament, and one flow is located at the northern tip of the filament. Four flows are driven by well-identified Class 0 protostars, while the remaining six flows are driven by candidate protostars mostly in the Class I stage, based on the Spitzer and Herschel observations. The orientation of the outflows is systematically perpendicular to the direction of the near-infrared polarization vector, recently published in the literature. No significant correlation was observed between the orientation of the flows and the axis of the filamentary cloud.