A Unified Model for Bipolar Outflows from Young Stars: The Interplay of Magnetized Wide-angle Winds and Isothermal Toroids

Abstract

Abstract Large-scale morphology and time evolution are investigated for the unified model of bipolar outflows outlined in Shang et al. (2006), where an outflow forms by a radially directed, wide-angle magnetized wind interacting with magnetized isothermal toroids in various quasistatic states. The primary wide-angle wind is toroidally magnetized and maintains a cylindrically stratified density profile, mimicking the asymptotic solution of the cold X-wind model. We explore the interplay between the toroidally magnetized primary wind and the surrounding toroids threaded by poloidal magnetic fields and examine how the jet and shell morphology and fine structures within them vary with the physical parameters. The variation in flatness of the density distribution in the ambient isothermal toroids helps shape the varieties of lobe morphology and collimation. The presence of a stronger ambient poloidal field helps shape the outflow, forming a magnetic cocoon and nested multilayered cavities surrounding the wind-filled lobe, which is most evident in the more open configurations of the ambient toroids. The wind–toroid interface is prone to substantial shear and thus unstable to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. Magnetic forces in the compressed toroidally magnetized high-velocity wind can generate vorticity, leading to nonlinear patterns within the extended magnetized mixing layers. Magnetic disturbances generated by the interplay could modulate lobe shapes, density, and velocities, giving rise to visual impressions of thicker and rugged shells and apparent episodic distribution of matter. The system maintains a quasi-self-similar evolution in time, which serves as a proxy for understanding the underlying physical mechanisms driving it.