The impact of protostellar outflows on the interstellar matter

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Turbulent support of molecular clouds might be one solution to the problem why the observed star formation rate is much lower than expected if molecular clouds would collapse on their free-fall time scale. The prerequisite, however, is that the turbulent energy which is being dissipated in shocks can be replenished. Protostars eject a certain fraction of the descending matter by bipolar jets and outflows at high speed. Thus, they are considered as potential drivers for stirring the turbulence. However, there are controversial views in the literature whether or not jets and outflows can provide sufficient input to actually stabilize clouds. In order to help clarifying the role of outflows in this context we propose a thorough study of the impact of protostellar outflows on the ISM. In order to assess physical parameters of outflows such as energy and momentum we will combine near-infrared and radio data of welI-investigated regions, use excitation models to account for missing transitions, and keep the time-variability of the flows as well as their geometry in mind. We will apply the derived results for outflows identified in H2 surveys (GLIMPSE follow-up, UWISH2) to improve the overall statistics. Moreover, we propose to specify and procure H2 filters for VISTA to perform a southern wide-field Galactic plane survey which will supplement ongoing/future ISM studies with Herschel, and ground-based facilities, e.g. ALMA.