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Paper: Search for Disks and Outflows in High-Mass Protostellar Candidates: Implications for Formation Mechanism
Volume: 267, Hot Star Workshop III: the Earliest Stages of Massive Star Birth
Page: 145
Authors: Zhang, Q.
Abstract: The formation processes of high-mass stars are not understood. Aiming at differentiating possible formation mechanisms, we carried out extensive search for outflows and disks toward a sample of high-mass protostellar candidates. A survey in the CO J=2-1 line of 69 high-mass protostellar candidates reveals that outflows are common in those regions. Many of the outflows contain masses of more than 10 Msun and momenta of a few hundred Msun/km/s, at least two orders of magnitude larger than those in typical low-mass outflows. Parallel high angular resolution studies in high density tracers such as NH3 reveal that some outflow sources are associated with rotating disks and well collimated jets. These new observations indicate that high-mass stars, at least up to luminosities of 105 Lsun, can form via an accretion mediated process, analogous to the low-mass counterparts.
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