Very Large Array 3.5 cm Continuum Sources in the Serpens Cloud Core

Abstract

We present Very Large Array (VLA) 3.5 cm continuum observations of the Serpens cloud core. Twenty-two radio continuum sources are detected. Sixteen out of the 22 centimeter sources are suggested to be associated with young stellar objects (Class 0, Class I, flat spectrum, and Class II) of the young Serpens cluster. The rest of the VLA sources are plausibly background objects. Most of the Serpens centimeter sources likely represent thermal radio jets; on the other hand, the radio continuum emission of some sources could be due to a gyrosynchroton mechanism arising from coronally active young stars. The Serpens VLA sources are spatially distributed into two groups; one of them located toward the northwest clump of the Serpens core, where only Class 0 and Class I protostars are found to present centimeter emission, and a second group located toward the southeast clump, where radio continuum sources are associated with objects in evolutionary classes from Class 0 to Class II. This subgrouping is similar to that found in the near-IR, mid-IR, and millimeter wavelength regimes.