Searching for jet rotation signatures in class 0 and I jets

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a number of detections of asymmetries in the radial velocity profile across jets from young stars. The significance of these results is considerable. They may be interpreted as a signature of jet rotation about its symmetry axis, thereby representing the only existing observational indications supporting the theory that jets extract angular momentum from star-disk systems. However, the possibility that we are indeed observing jet rotation in pre-main sequence systems is undergoing active debate. To test the validity of a rotation argument, we must extend the survey to a larger sample, including younger sources. We present the latest results of a radial velocity analysis on jets from Class 0 and I sources, using high resolution data from the infrared spectrograph GNIRS on GEMINI South. These observations demonstrate the difficulty of conducting this study from the ground, and highlight the necessity for high angular resolution via adaptive optics or space-based facilities.