Sulfur oxides tracing streamers and shocks at low mass protostellar disk-envelope interfaces

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations of SO and SO$_2$ to identify accretion shocks at the disk-envelope interface in protostars, revealing shock locations, streamer structures, and their implications for star formation.

Contribution

It provides the first observational evidence of accretion shocks traced by sulfur oxides and presents a model explaining shock locations at centrifugal barriers and inner envelopes.

Findings

SO rings at centrifugal barriers indicate shock regions.

Spiral-like SO streamers are common around protostars.

Shock-related chemistry is significant at disk surfaces.

Abstract

Accretion shocks are thought to play a crucial role in the early stages of star and planet formation, but their direct observational evidence remains elusive, particularly regarding the molecular tracers of these processes. In this work, we searched for features of accretion shocks by observing the emission of SO and SO$_2$ using ALMA in Band 6 towards nearby Class I protostars. We analyze the SO and SO$_2$ emission from Oph IRS 63, DK Cha, and L1527, which have different disk inclination angles, ranging from nearly face-on to edge-on. SO emission is found to be concentrated in rings at the centrifugal barriers of the infalling envelopes. These rings are projected onto the plane of the sky as ellipses or parallel slabs, depending on the inclination angles. Spiral-like streamers with SO emission are also common, with warm ($T_{\rm ex} > 50$ K) and even hot ($T_{\rm ex} \gtrsim 100$ K) spots or segments of SO$_2$ observed near the centrifugal barriers. Inspired by these findings, we present a model that consistently explains the accretion shock traced by SO and SO$_2$, where the shock occurs primarily in two regions: (1) the centrifugal barriers, and (2) the surface of the disk-like inner envelope outside the centrifugal barrier. The outer envelope gains angular momentum through outflows, causing it to fall onto the midplane at or outside the centrifugal barrier, leading to a disk-like inner envelope that is pressure-confined by the accretion shock and moves in a rotating-and-infalling motion. We classify the streamers into two types--those in the midplane and those off the midplane. These streamers interact with the inner envelopes in different ways, resulting in different patterns of shocked regions. We suggest that the shock-related chemistry at the surfaces of the disk and the disk-like inner envelope warrants further special attention.