Luminosity Outburst Energized by the Collision between the Infalling Streamer and Disk in W51 North

Abstract

We report the detection of the disk/torus, outflow, and inflow structures traced by H _2 O masers toward a high-mass young stellar object W51 North during its H _2 O maser outburst stage using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). It is found that the disk has a radius of ∼4000 au and an inclination angle with respect to the sky plane of ∼60° by combining the VLA and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data. Additionally, a peculiar flow perpendicular to the SiO bipolar outflow is detected in the H _2 O maser, SiO, and HC _3 N lines, which is newly-identified as an infalling streamer rather than an old outflow from this source, as reported in previous studies. Combining the VLA map and the Tianma radio telescope monitoring of the H _2 O masers suggests that the origin of the luminosity outburst of H _2 O masers during 2020 January–April is likely related to the energy release from the collision between the infalling streamer and the disk. This may provide an additional mechanism to account for the luminosity outburst or episodic accretion beyond disk fragmentation caused by gravitational instability.

Keywords

• Star formation
• Interstellar masers
• Astrophysical masers
• Young stellar objects
• Protostars
• Stellar accretion disks