Unveiling Ionized Jet Morphologies: Subarcsecond VLA Observations of Compact Radio Sources

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Abstract
We present subarcsecond ( θ ∼ 0 . ″ 1) resolution VLA 1.3 cm continuum and 22.2 GHz H 2 O maser observations toward 15 compact radio continuum sources with rising spectral index and eight string-like radio continuum structures in the V. Rosero et al. survey. Three different morphologies are observed: elongated or double-peak string-like structure (6 out of 23 cases), a collection of distinct continuum peaks (4 out of 23 cases), and single compact sources (13 out of 23 cases). The majority of H 2 O maser spots detected are within a sky-projected distance of ∼5000 au from the radio continuum peaks and tend to be well aligned and distributed in an elongated structure when more than three spots are observed. We generally recover less emission than V. Rosero et al., which together with the fact that more than half of the jet candidates in our survey appear mostly compact, suggest core/halo shock structures even on small scales. We also detected proper motion in 10 cases and measured an average projected velocity of approximately 120 km s −1 . Radio brightness variability is detected in at least two cases, possibly due to weak accretion bursts. This work, together with our previous molecular jet study, provides further evidence that support the main source of ionization in the studied sources is shocks, yet collimation is only observed in 4 cases. We conclude that the available data supports the thermal jet classification of seven sources, and the ionized jet interpretation is further supported in 16 sources.
Funding Information
  • National Science Foundation (AST-1814011)
  • National Science Foundation (AST-1814063)
  • National Radio Astronomy Observatory (SOSP22A-001)
  • National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Grote Reber Doctoral Fellowship Program)
  • National Science Foundation (AST-2206437)

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