RW Aur A FROM THE X-WIND POINT OF VIEW: GENERAL FEATURES
- Graduate Institute of Astrophysics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
- Theoretical Institute for Advanced Research in Astrophysics (TIARA), Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10641, Taiwan (China)
In this paper, the RW Aur A microjet is studied from the point of view of X-wind models. The archived Hubble Space Telescope/STIS spectra of the optical forbidden lines [O I], [S II], and [N II] from RW Aur A, taken in Cycle 8 with seven parallel slits along the jet axis, spaced at 0.''07 apart, were analyzed. Images, position-velocity diagrams, and line ratios among the species were constructed, and compared with synthetic observations generated by selected solutions of the X-wind. Prominent features arising in a steady-state X-wind could be identified within the convolved images and position-velocity diagrams, including FWHM and high-velocity peaks on both of the redshifted and blueshifted jets. The well-known asymmetric velocity profiles of the opposite jets were built into the selected models. We discuss model selections within the existing uncertainties of the stellar parameters and inclination angle of the system. In this framework, the mass-loss rates that were inferred to be decreasing along the jet axis in the literature are the results of slowly decreasing excitation conditions and electron density profiles. Despite the apparent asymmetry in the terminal velocities, line intensities and mass-loss rates, the average linear momenta from the opposite sides of the jet are actually balanced. These previously hard-to-explain features of the asymmetric RW Aur A jet system can now be interpreted in a different but self-consistent manner within the X-wind framework.
- OSTI ID:
- 22140009
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 761, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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