arXiv subjects

M. J. Maureira

Publications and source records attributed to M. J. Maureira.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

PRODIGE -- Envelope to disk with NOEMA I. A 3000 au streamer feeding a Class I protostar

Context. In the past few years, there has been a rise in the detection of streamers, asymmetric flows of material directed toward the protostellar disk with material from outside the star's natal core. It is unclear how they affect the process of mass accretion, in particular beyond the Class 0 phase. Aims. We investigate the gas kinematics around Per-emb-50, a Class I source in the crowded star-forming region NGC 1333. Our goal is to study how the mass infall proceeds from envelope to disk scales in this source. Results. We discover a streamer delivering material toward Per-emb-50 in H$_2$CO and C$^{18}$O emission. The streamer's emission can be well described by the analytic solutions for an infalling parcel of gas along a streamline with conserved angular momentum, both in the image plane and along the line of sight velocities. The streamer has a mean infall rate of $1.3 \times 10^{ -6}$ M$_{ \odot}$ yr$^{ -1}$, $5 -10$ times higher than the current accretion rate of the protostar. SO and SO$_2$ emission reveal asymmetric infall motions in the inner envelope, additional to the streamer around Per-emb-50. Furthermore, the presence of SO$_2$ could mark the impact zone of the infalling material. Conclusions. The streamer delivers sufficient mass to sustain the protostellar accretion rate and might produce an accretion burst, which would explain the protostar's high luminosity with respect to other Class I sources. Our results highlight the importance of late infall for protostellar evolution: streamers might provide a significant amount of mass for stellar accretion after the Class 0 phase.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

FAUST I. The hot corino at the heart of the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5

The study of hot corinos in Solar-like protostars has been so far mostly limited to the Class 0 phase, hampering our understanding of their origin and evolution. In addition, recent evidence suggests that planet formation starts already during Class I phase, which, therefore, represents a crucial step in the future planetary system chemical composition. Hence, the study of hot corinos in Class I protostars has become of paramount importance. Here we report the discovery of a hot corino towards the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5, obtained within the ALMA Large Program FAUST. We detected several lines from methanol and its isopotologues ($^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and CH$_{\rm 2}$DOH), methyl formate and ethanol. Lines are bright toward the north component of the IRS5 binary system, and a possible second hot corino may be associated with the south component. The methanol lines non-LTE analysis constrains the gas temperature ($\sim$100 K), density ($\geq$1.5$\times$10$^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$), and emitting size ($\sim$10 au in radius). All CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and $^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH lines are optically thick, preventing a reliable measure of the deuteration. The methyl formate and ethanol relative abundances are compatible with those measured in Class 0 hot corinos. Thus, based on the present work, little chemical evolution from Class 0 to I hot corinos occurs.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy Clusters in the Line of Sight to Background Quasars - III Multi-Object Spectroscopy

We present Gemini/GMOS-S multi-object spectroscopy of 31 galaxy cluster candidates at redshifts between 0.2 and 1.0 and centered on QSO sight-lines taken from Lopez et al. (2008). The targets were selected based on the presence of a intervening MgII absorption system at a similar redshift to that of a galaxy cluster candidate lying at a projected distance < 2 h^{-1}Mpc from the QSO sight-line (a 'photometric-hit'). The absorption systems span rest-frame equivalent widths between 0.015 and 2.028 angstroms. Our aim was 3-fold: 1) identify the absorbing galaxies and determine their impact parameters, 2) confirm the galaxy cluster candidates in the vicinity of each quasar sightline, and 3) determine whether the absorbing galaxies reside in galaxy clusters. Our main findings are: 1) the identification of 10 out of 24 absorbing galaxies with redshifts up to 1.0955. 2) The spectroscopic confirmation of 20 out of 31 cluster/group candidates, with most of the confirmed clusters/groups at z < 0.7. 3) Following from the results above, the spectroscopic confirmation of 10 out of 14 photometric hits within ~ 650 km/s from galaxy clusters/groups, in addition to 2 new ones related to galaxy group environments. These numbers imply efficiencies of 71% in finding such systems with MOS spectroscopy. This is a remarkable result since we defined a photometric hit as those cluster-absorber pairs having a redshift difference dz = 0.1. Absorbing cluster-galaxies hosting weak absorbers are consistent with lower star formation activity than the rest, which produce strong absorption and agree with typical MgII absorbing galaxies found in the literature. Our spectroscopic confirmations lend support to the selection of photometric hits made in Lopez et al. (2008).

astro-ph.CO↗