Disks around O-type young stellar objects

TL;DR

This paper discusses the role of accretion disks in the formation of high-mass stars, examining whether observational evidence supports the theoretical models of disk-mediated accretion.

Contribution

The paper reviews current observational evidence for accretion disks around high-mass young stellar objects and compares it with theoretical predictions.

Findings

Evidence of disks around some high-mass YSOs supports disk-mediated accretion.

Observations are consistent with theories but are still limited by resolution.

Further high-resolution studies are needed to confirm disk prevalence.

Abstract

Accretion disks are one of the key ingredients of the star formation process. They redistribute angular momentum and, in the case of high-mass stars (M > 8Msun), disks would relieve the radiation pressure on the accreting material, in particular in the equatorial direction, by beaming the radiation through the poles of the system and this would allow the accretion to proceed onto the central protostar (e.g., Tan et al. 2014 for a review on massive star formation). In fact, in recent years, all high-mass star-forming theories appear to converge to a disk-mediated accretion scenario (e.g., Krumholz et al. 2007; Kuiper et al. 2011; Bonnell & Bate 2006; Keto 2007) but do the observations of high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) confirm the theory predictions? Or in other words, do true accretion disks around massive stars really exist?