Hans Moritz Günther edited Discussion.tex  almost 10 years ago

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\section{Discussion}  \label{sect:discussion}  In a CTTS system, stellar wind and disk wind can interact. The magnetic and thermodynamic pressure of the disk wind can confine the stellar wind into a narrow, jet-like region, bound by an elongated shock surface. For reasonable parameters of $\dot M$, $v_\infty$, $\omega_0$ and $P(z)$ the shock surface encloses a region only several a few  AU wide but tens of AU along the jet axis. This model makes no statement about emission that originates further out in the jet such as Herbig-Haro knots. Only a fraction of the kinetic energy of the stellar wind is converted into heat in the shock and the remaining velocity can still be sufficient to heat the jet material again when itencounters another obstacle, such as the ISM. Most of the imaging of YSO winds traces molecular lines and low-ionization stages, e.g. \ion{O}{1} or \ion{Fe}{2}. These lines are formed in low-temperature regions, but not in a hot post-shock plasma. Thus, one could expect to see a hole that is filled by hot post-shock plasma form the stellar wind. However, no such hole is resolved in any CTTS imaging. Our calculations show that the shock surface is so small that it cannot be resolved with current instrumentation\footnote{HST imaging and AO corrected, ground-based IR observations reach a resolution around 0\farcs1, which corresponds to 15~AU for DG Tau -- the closest YSO jet. However, saturation or coverage by a coronagraphic disk often mean that even structures slightly larger can be missed in images, if they are located very close to the central star.} and therefore cannot be seen directly as a cavity in the disk wind. A small fraction of the stellar wind is shocked to X-ray emitting temperatures $>1-2$~MK and provides a stationary X-ray source consistent with observations.   We show that such a shock naturally arises in a scenario where the stellar wind feeds the innermost layer of the jet because it is confined by external pressure.