A Submillimeter Polarization Analysis of Frosty Leo
Abstract
We present a polarimetric investigation of the protoplanetary nebula Frosty Leo performed with the Submillimeter Array. We were able to detect, in the low continuum level (peak at 14.4 mJy beam-1), a marginal polarization at 2.6σ. The molecular line investigation based on the CO J=3→2 emission shows a peak emission of 68.1 Jy beam-1 km s-1 and the polarization detection in this CO line is also marginal, with a peak at 3.8σ. In both cases, it was therefore not possible to use the electric vector maps (B-field) to accurately trace the magnetic field (B-field) within the PPN. The spatio-kinematic modelling realised with the different velocity channel maps indicates three main structures: a distorted torus accompanied by a bipolar outflow or jet aligned with its axis and a flattened spherical "cap". The comparison of the CO polarization segments with our model suggests that the polarized emission probably arises in the first two components.
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