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The disc-jet connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2005

Ralph E. Pudritz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada emails: pudritz@physics.mcmaster.ca, banerjee@physics.mcmaster.ca
Robi Banerjee
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada emails: pudritz@physics.mcmaster.ca, banerjee@physics.mcmaster.ca
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Abstract

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A large body of theoretical and computational work shows that jets - modelled as magnetized disk winds - exert an external torque on their underlying disks that can efficiently remove angular momentum and act as major drivers of disk accretion. These predictions have recently been confirmed in direct HST measurements of the jet rotation and angular momentum transport in low mass protostellar systems. We review the theory of disc winds and show that their physics is universal and scales to jets from both low and high mass star forming regions. This explains the observed properties of outflows in massive star forming regions, before the central massive star generates an ultracompact HII region. We also discuss the recent numerical studies on the formation of massive accretion disks and outflows through gravitational collapse, including our own work on 3D Adaptive Mesh simulations (using the FLASH code) of the hydromagnetic collapse of an initial rotating, and cooling Bonner-Ebert sphere. Magnetized collapse gives rise to outflows. Our own simulations show that both a jet-like disk wind on sub AU scales, and a larger scale molecular outflow occur (Banerjee & Pudritz 2005).

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
© 2005 International Astronomical Union