A Unified Model for Bipolar Outflows from Young Stars: Apparent Magnetic Jet Acceleration

TL;DR

This paper presents a new magnetic acceleration mechanism for bipolar jets from young stars, explaining how magnetic fields can boost jet velocities well beyond initial launch speeds and produce observable signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a self-similar magnetic acceleration model that explains jet velocity increase and observable features in protostellar outflows, extending understanding beyond the launch region.

Findings

Jets can be accelerated 2-3 times their original speed after initial launch.

Observable kinematic signatures in PV diagrams can indicate magnetic acceleration.

The model links young stellar jets to larger-scale parsec jets across different systems.

Abstract

We explore a new, efficient mechanism that can power toroidally magnetized jets up to two to three times their original terminal velocity after they enter a self-similar phase of magnetic acceleration. Underneath the elongated outflow lobe formed by a magnetized bubble, a wide-angle free wind, through the interplay with its ambient toroid, is compressed and accelerated around its axial jet. The extremely magnetic bubble can inflate over its original size, depending on the initial Alfv\'en Mach number $M_A$ of the launched flow. The shape-independent slope $\partial{}v_r/\partial{}r=2/3t$ is a salient feature of the self-similarity in the acceleration phase. Peculiar kinematic signatures are observable in the position--velocity (PV) diagrams and can combine with other morphological signatures as probes for the density-collimated jets arising in toroidally dominated magnetized winds. The apparent second acceleration is powered by the decrease of the toroidal magnetic field but operates far beyond the scales of the primary magnetocentrifugal launch region and the free asymptotic terminal state. Rich implications may connect the jets arising from the youngest protostellar outflows such as HH 211 and HH 212 and similar systems with parsec-scale jets across the mass and evolutionary spectra.