Investigating the Role of Protostellar Variability with PRIMA Using Monte Carlo Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate PRIMA's capability to detect the impact of protostellar outbursts on star formation, suggesting that observing 2000 protostars can clarify their role.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation-based method to assess PRIMA's effectiveness in studying protostellar variability and its influence on stellar mass assembly.

Findings

Observing 2000 protostars with PRIMA can determine the role of outbursts in star formation.

Monte Carlo simulations help evaluate observational strategies for protostellar variability.

PRIMA's proposed program is sufficient to detect large amplitude accretion events.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that protostellar outbursts likely play a critical role in the stellar mass assembly process, but the extent of this contribution is not well understood. Using the proposed observing program of PRIMA, a concept far-IR observatory (PRIMA GO Case #43 in Moullet et al. 2023), we examine the probe's ability to unambiguously determine whether or not variable accretion events dominate the stellar mass assembly process ($M_{\rm burst}\geq0.5M_{*}$). To do this, we construct multiple protostellar ensembles using Herschel 70$\mu$m flux data and evolve them using a toy Monte Carlo simulation through steady-state and high magnitude accretion events. Ensembles are observed at various epochs in the evolution process to conclude how many large amplitude outbursts are observationally recoverable during the proposed program. Based on our synthetic observations and our simulation specifications, we determine that observing a protostellar ensemble of at least 2000 protostars using PRIMA's proposed program is sufficient for determining the importance of protostellar outbursts in the stellar mass assembly process.