Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-136).

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met bibliogr., lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Kopenhagen, University, Diss., 1998.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

1720 MHz OH masers have been detected towards a number of supernova remnants (SNRs) at the shock interface where the SNR slams into the interstellar medium. Models indicate that these masers are shock excited and can only be produced under tight constraints of the physical conditions. In particular, the masers can only form behind a C-type shock. Jets from newlyformed stars plow into the surrounding gas, creating nebulous regions known as Herbig Haro (HH) objects. Signatures of C-type shocks have been found in many HH objects. If conditions behind the shock fronts of HH objects are able to support 1720 MHz OH masers they would be a usefull diagnostic tool for star formation. A survey toward HH objects detected a number of 1720 MHz OH lines in emission, but future observations with arrays are required to confirm the presence of masers. / Physics / M.Sc. (Astronomy)

1720 MHz OH masers have been detected towards a number of supernova remnants (SNRs) at the shock interface where the SNR slams into the interstellar medium. Models indicate that these masers are shock excited and can only be produced under tight constraints of the physical conditions. In particular, the masers can only form behind a C-type shock. Jets from newlyformed stars plow into the surrounding gas, creating nebulous regions known as Herbig Haro (HH) objects. Signatures of C-type shocks have been found in many HH objects. If conditions behind the shock fronts of HH objects are able to support 1720 MHz OH masers they would be a usefull diagnostic tool for star formation. A survey toward HH objects detected a number of 1720 MHz OH lines in emission, but future observations with arrays are required to confirm the presence of masers. / Physics / M.Sc. (Astronomy)

Most massive stars form in dense clusters where gravitational interactions with other. stars may be common. The two nearest forming massive stars, the BN object and Source I, located behind the Orion Nebula, were ejected with velocities of similar to 29 and similar to 13 km s(-1) about 500 years ago by such interactions. This event generated an explosion in the gas. New ALMA observations show in unprecedented detail, a roughly spherically symmetric distribution of over a hundred (CO)-C-12 J = 2-1 streamers with velocities extending from V-LSR = -150 to +145 km s(-1) The streamer radial velocities increase (or decrease) linearly with projected distance from the explosion center, forming a '' Hubble Flow '' confined to within 50 ''. of the explosion center. They point toward the high proper-motion, shock-excited H-2 and [Fe II] '' fingertips '' and lower-velocity CO in the H-2 wakes comprising Orion's '' fingers.'' In some directions, the H-2 '' fingers '' extend more than a factor of two farther from the ejection center than the CO streamers. Such deviations from spherical symmetry may be caused by ejecta running into dense gas or the dynamics of the N-body interaction that ejected the stars and produced the explosion. This similar to 10(48) erg event may have been powered by the release of gravitational potential energy associated with the formation of a compact binary or a protostellar merger. Orion may be the prototype for a new class of stellar explosiozn responsible for luminous infrared transients in nearby galaxies.

We have surveyed 84 Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars in mid-infrared [Si II], [Fe II], and [S I] line emission, and 11 of these in far-infrared [O I] emission. We use the results to derive their mass. outflow rates, (M) over dot(w). Thereby we observe a strong correlation of (M) over dot(w) with bolometric luminosity, and with the inferred mass accretion rates of the central objects, (M) over dot(a), which continues through the Class 0 range the trend observed in Class II young stellar objects. Along this trend from large to small mass. flow rates, the different classes of young stellar objects lie in the sequence Class 0-Class I/flat-spectrum-Class II, indicating that the trend is an evolutionary sequence in which (M) over dot(a) and (M) over dot(w) decrease together with increasing age, while maintaining rough proportionality. The survey results include two that. are key tests of magnetocentrifugal outflow-acceleration mechanisms: the distribution of the outflow/accretion branching ratio b = (M) over dot(w)/(M) over dot(a), and limits on the distribution of outflow speeds. Neither rules out any of the three leading outflow-acceleration, angular-momentum-ejection mechanisms, but they provide some evidence that disk winds and accretion-powered stellar winds (APSWs) operate in many protostars. An upper edge observed in the branching-ratio distribution is consistent with the upper bound of b = 0.6 found in models of APSWs, and a large fraction (31%) of the sample have a. branching ratio sufficiently small that only disk winds, launched on scales as large as several au, have been demonstrated to account for them.

Theoretical models and spectroscopic observations of newborn stars suggest that protoplantary disks have an inner "wall" at a distance set by the disk interaction with the star. Around T Tauri stars, the size of this disk hole is expected to be on a 0.1 au scale that is unresolved by current adaptive optics imaging, though some model-dependent constraints have been obtained by near-infrared interferometry. Here we report the first measurement of the inner disk wall around a solar-mass young stellar object, YLW 16B in the rho Ophiuchi star-forming region, by detecting the light-travel time of the variable radiation from the stellar surface to the disk. Consistent time lags were detected on two nights, when the time series in H (1.6 mu m) and K (2.2 mu m) bands were synchronized while the 4.5 mu m emission lagged by 74.5 +/- 3.2 s. Considering the nearly edge-on geometry of the disk, the inner rim should be 0.084 au from the protostar on average, with an error of order 0.01 au. This size is likely larger than the range of magnetospheric truncations and consistent with an optically and geometrically thick disk front at the dust sublimation radius at similar to 1500 K. The widths of the cross-correlation functions between the data in different wavebands place possible new constraints on the geometry of the disk.

We present Gemini Planet Imager polarized intensity imagery of HD 100453 in Y, J, and K1 bands that reveals an inner gap (9-18 au), an outer disk (18-39 au) with two prominent spiral arms, and two azimuthally localized dark features that are also present in Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) total intensity images. Spectral energy distribution fitting further suggests that the radial gap extends to 1 au. The narrow, wedge-like shape of the dark features appears similar to predictions of shadows cast by an inner disk that is misaligned with respect to the outer disk. Using the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code HOCHUNCK3D, we construct a model of the disk that allows us to determine its physical properties in more detail. From the angular separation of the features, we measure the difference in inclination between the disks (45 degrees) and their major axes, PA = 140 degrees east of north for the outer disk, and 100 degrees for the inner disk. We find an outer-disk inclination of 25 degrees +/- 10 degrees from face-on, in broad agreement with the Wagner et al. measurement of 34 degrees. SPHERE data in J and H bands indicate a reddish disk, which indicates that HD 100453 is evolving into a young debris disk.