Modelling of the continuum emission from Class 0 sources

Abstract

Class 0 sources are objects representing the earliest phase of the protostellar evolution. Since they are highly obscured by an extended dusty envelope, these objects emit mainly in the far-infrared to millimetre wavelength range. The analysis of their spectral energy distributions with wide wavelength coverage allows to determine the bolometric temperature and luminosity. However, a more detailed physical interpretation of the internal physical structure of these objects requires radiative transfer modelling. We present modelling results of spectral energy distributions of a sample of nine Class 0 sources in the Perseus and Orion molecular clouds. The SEDs have been simulated using a radiative transfer code based on the Monte Carlo method. We find that a spherically symmetric model for the youngest Class 0 sources allows to reproduce the observed SEDs reasonably well. From our modelling we derive physical parameters of our sources, such as their mass, density distribution, size, etc. We find a density structure of $ρ\sim r^{-2}$ for the collapsing cores at young ages, evolving to $ρ\sim r^{-3/2}$ at later times.