Misalignment of Outflow Axes in the Proto-Multiple Systems in Perseus

TL;DR

This study examines the orientations of outflows in young binary/multiple systems in Perseus, revealing they are often misaligned, which suggests complex formation environments with disordered angular momentum.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of outflow axis alignment in young binary systems in Perseus, showing they are often misaligned and challenging simple co-rotation formation models.

Findings

Outflows are randomly or anti-aligned in binary systems.

Systems likely formed in environments with complex, disordered angular momentum.

Outflow orientations do not support formation from aligned initial cloud structures.

Abstract

We investigate the alignment between outflow axes in nine of the youngest binary/multiple systems in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. These systems have typical member spacing larger than 1000 AU. For outflow identification, we use 12CO(2-1) and 12CO(3-2) data from a large survey with the Sub- millimeter Array: Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the SMA (MASSES). The distribution of outflow orientations in the binary pairs is consistent with random or preferentially anti-aligned distributions, demonstrating that these outflows are misaligned. This result suggests that these systems are possibly formed in environments where the distribution of angular momentum is complex and disordered, and these systems do not come from the same co-rotating structures or from an initial cloud with aligned vectors of angular momentum.