Discovery of synchrotron emission from a YSO jet

Abstract

Synchrotron emission at radio wavelengths is commonly found in relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and microquasars and allows the study of the magnetic field in these kind of jets. In contrast, the radio emission from jets from young stellar objecs (YSOs) is usually of very different nature: thermal free-free emission, which does not provide direct information about their magnetic field. Thus, that the magnetic field is still one of the most unknown physical parameters in these YSO jets. However, very recently, we detected for the first time polarized synchrotron emission from of a YSO (HH 80-81), a result that has two important consequences. First, it allows to study the magnetic field in a YSO jet by analyzing the properties of the synchrotron emission, in a similar way than in the case of AGN jets. Secondly, the presence of synchrotron emission in a YSO jet implies the presence of relativistic particles, and therefore, an acceleration mechanism that should be taken place in these "slow" jets. These results open new windows for the study of YSO jets in a wide range of wavelengths, from radio to X- and Gamma-rays.