Strengthening Foundations for Magnetocentrifugal Outflows: Jet Rotation and Disk-Wind Connection in Star Formation

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The goal of this proposal is to investigate the magnetocentrifugal mechanism for producing jets and outflows in the star formation process. The proposal will attack this problem, first, by strengthening the observational foundation of the magnetocentfiugal outflow theory by quantifying the Doppler gradient expected in realistic outflows from young stellar objects (YSOs) using 3-D magnetohydronamic (MHD) simulations. The second part of the proposal aims to strengthen the theoretical foundation of these YSO outflows by treating non-ideal MHD effects by using newly-developed Zeus-based MHD code. This project will advance our understanding of the jets and outflows associated with young stellar objects through state-of-the-art numerical simulations and will make valuable predictions regarding jet rotation that will be testable by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The project outlines 5 areas in which it will make a broader impact including: animated movies of jet formation, training a PhD student, public outreach through the University of Virginia?s observatories, developing a mobile planetarium for use in science education in rural Virginia counties, and release of the non-ideal MHD code that is developed.