event
Wednesday 08 May 2013: (11am) Waterfalls around protostars
Dr Joe Mottram - Leiden University
Physics, 4th floor 11:00-12:00
How material flows from molecular cores through disks to stars is still poorly constrained. While theories for how this infall should proceed have been around for some time, observational evidence and analysis has been limited to slab models which can only give infall velocities on characteristic scales. Water is uniquely sensitive to motion of any kind within the protostellar environment due to it's low Einstein A coefficient. The combination of multiple water transitions observed as part of the `Water in star-forming regions with Herschel' (WISH) survey and full 1-D non-LTE radiative transfer models of protostellar envelopes provides a new way to probe infalling envelope material. I will present modeling results of seven Class 0/1 protostars which show signs of infall in their water lines where we constrain the flow of material on core to envelope scales, along with other highlights from the WISH survey.
