Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1K032

Into the void: Simulating magnetic outflows from young disks at launching and observational length scales

Ramsey, Jon (Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Heidelberg, Germany)
Clarke, David (Institute for Computational Astrophysics, Dept. of Astronomy & Physics, Saint Mary\'s Univ., Halifax, NS, Canada)

Abstract:
It is generally accepted that magnetic fields are required to launch and collimate large-scale outflows from disks and young stars. Although there has been substantial discussion in the literature regarding the launching and collimation of protostellar jets, simulations which explicitly resolve the launching mechanism have previously not extended very far beyond this small region. In this poster, we present ideal MHD adaptive mesh refinement simulations of protostellar jets that include both the launching region (< 1 AU) and the much larger observational scales (> 10^3 AU). By varying the initial magnetic field strength, we find that two physical mechanisms work in concert to launch and accelerate jets, and this has consequences for the resulting observable properties of outflows. We also find that, regardless of the initial magnetic field strength, a jet is (eventually) always launched.

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