Modeling of the high-velocity jet powered by the massive star MWC 349A

TL;DR

This paper models the high-velocity ionized jet of the massive star MWC 349A using 3D radiative transfer simulations of maser lines, revealing a poorly collimated jet expanding at about 250 km/s and providing insights into massive star formation.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D non-LTE radiative transfer model of RRL masers around MWC 349A, demonstrating the jet's properties and its relation to the star's wind and disk.

Findings

Reproduced the spatial distribution and kinematics of maser lines with a high-velocity jet.

Identified the jet as expanding at approximately 250 km/s and being poorly collimated.

Showed the deceleration of the ionized wind as it expands from the disk.

Abstract

MWC 349A is a massive star with a well-known circumstellar disk rotating following a Keplerian law, and an ionized wind launched from the disk surface. Recent ALMA observations carried out toward this system have however revealed an additional high-velocity component in the strong, maser emission of hydrogen radio recombination lines (RRLs), suggesting the presence of a high-velocity ionized jet. In this work, we present 3D non-LTE radiative transfer modeling of the emission of the H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ maser lines, and of their associated radio continuum emission, toward the MWC 349A massive star. By using the MORELI code, we reproduce the spatial distribution and kinematics of the high-velocity emission of the H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ maser lines with a high-velocity ionized jet expanding at a velocity of $\sim$ 250 km s$^{-1}$, surrounded by MWC 349A's wide-angle ionized wind. The bipolar jet, which is launched from MWC 349A's disk, is poorly collimated and slightly miss-aligned with respect to the disk rotation axis. Thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity and spatial accuracy provided by ALMA, we also find that the already known, wide-angle ionized wind decelerates as it expands radially from the ionized disk. We briefly discuss the implications of our findings in understanding the formation and evolution of massive stars. Our results show the huge potential of RRL masers as powerful probes of the innermost ionized regions around massive stars and of their high-velocity jets.