Three-dimensional simulations of MHD disk winds to hundred AU scale from the protostar

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY NSW 2109, Australia
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton ON L8S 4M1, Canada
⁴ Origins Institute, ABB 241, McMaster University, Hamilton ON L8S 4M1, Canada

^a e-mail: jan.staff@mq.edu.au

Published online: 8 January 2014

Abstract

We present the results of four, large scale, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations of jets launched from a Keplerian accretion disk. The jets are followed from the source out to 90 AU, a scale that covers several pixels of HST images of nearby protostellar jets. The four simulations analyzed are for four different initial magnetic field configuration threading the surface of the accretion disk with varying degree of openness of the field lines. Our simulations show that jets are heated along their length by many shocks and we compute the line emission that is produced. We find excellent agreement with the observations and use these diagnostics to discriminate between different magnetic field configurations. A two-component jet emerges in simulations with less open field lines along the disk surface. The two-components are physically and dynamically separated with an inner fast and rotating jet and an outer slow jet. The second component weakens and eventually only one-component jet (i.e. only the inner jet) is obtained for the most open field configurations. In all of our simulations we find that the faster inner component inherits the Keplerian profile and preserves it to large distances from the source. On the other hand, the outer component is associated with velocity gradients mimicking rotation.