The ionized warped disk and disk wind of the massive protostar Monoceros R2-IRS2 seen with ALMA

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution ALMA observations of the Monoceros R2-IRS2 protostar to reveal a warped ionized disk and a disk wind, providing insights into massive star formation processes.

Contribution

First detailed imaging and modeling of the ionized gas structure around a massive protostar, revealing a warped disk and wind launching mechanism.

Findings

Ionized gas forms a Keplerian disk and an expanding wind.

Disk exhibits warping possibly due to a secondary object.

Wind is launched from the disk surface at ~11 au.

Abstract

Theories of massive star formation predict that massive protostars accrete gas through circumstellar disks. Although several cases have been found already thanks to high-angular resolution interferometry, it remains unknown the internal physical structure of these disks and, in particular, whether they present warps or internal holes as observed in low-mass proto-planetary disks. Here, we report very high angular resolution observations of the H21alpha radio recombination line carried out in Band 9 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (beam of 80 mas x 60 mas, or 70 au x 50 au) toward the IRS2 massive young stellar object in the Monoceros R2 star-forming cluster. The H21alpha line shows maser amplification, which allows us to study the kinematics and physical structure of the ionised gas around the massive protostar down to spatial scales of ~1-2 au. Our ALMA images and 3D radiative transfer modelling reveal that the ionized gas around IRS2 is distributed in a Keplerian circumstellar disk and an expanding wind. The H21alpha emission centroids at velocities between -10 and 20 km s-1 deviate from the disk plane, suggesting a warping for the disk. This could be explained by the presence of a secondary object (a stellar companion or a massive planet) within the system. The ionized wind seems to be launched from the disk surface at distances ~11 au from the central star, consistent with magnetically-regulated disk wind models. This suggests a similar wind launching mechanism to that recently found for evolved massive stars such as MWC349A and MWC922.