High-mass star formation: the mass of the central sources and the physics of the accretion process

Abstract

High-mass stars play a significant role on the evolution of the Universe and the process that leads to the formation of such objects is still an opened problem in Astrophysics. The details of the structures connected to the central sources, such as the circumstellar disks and the morphology of the jets at their launching points, still lack of observational evidences.We plan to estimate the mass of high-mass young stellar objects (HMYSOs) through the kinematics of the spectral features associated with the circumstellar disks, as well as to investigate the Physics of the accretion process in HMYSOs through the properties of the jets at their launching points.By following Davies et al. (2010), who measured the dynamical mass of the HMYSO W33A in ~10 Msun, we will use IFU observations with high angular resolution (0.050") acquired with the Gemini North telescope to determine the mass of 15 HMYSO candidates exhibiting large-scale jets.The accretion process on HMYSOs will be investigated through millimeter data taken with the ALMA interferometer at high angular and spectral resolution. Based on the ALMA observations, we will be able to investigate the structure of the jets at their launching points (in scales of ~100 AU) and to compare their properties are compatible with those derived at large-scales (~pc).These observations will also provide useful insights about rotation on jets associated with HMYSOs, such as recently found towards the low mass YSO HH 212.