Discovery of a 500 au Protobinary in the Massive Prestellar Core G11.92−0.61 MM2

Abstract

We present high-resolution (160au) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3 mm observations of the high-mass prestellar core candidate G11.92−0.61 MM2, which reveal that this source is in fact a protobinary system with a projected separation of 505au. The binary components, MM2E and MM2W, are compact (radii<140au) sources within the partially optically thick dust emission with α0.9cm−1.3mm =2.47–2.94. The 1.3 mm brightness temperatures, Tb =68.4/64.6K for MM2E/MM2W, imply internal heating and minimum luminosities L∗ >24.7Lfor MM2E and L∗ >12.6Lfor MM2W. The compact sources are connected by a “bridge” of lower-surface-brightness dust emission and lie within more extended emission that may correspond to a circumbinary disk. The circumprotostellar gas mass, estimated from ∼0.2-resolution VLA 0.9cm observations assuming optically thin emission, is 6.8±0.9 M. No line emission is detected towards MM2E and MM2W in our high-resolution 1.3mm ALMA observations. The only line detected is 13CO J=2-1, in absorption against the 1.3mm continuum, which likely traces a layer of cooler molecular material surrounding the protostars. We also report the discovery of a highly asymmetric bipolar molecular outflow that appears to be driven by MM2E and/or MM2W in new deep, ∼0.5-resolution (1680au) ALMA 0.82mm observations. This outflow, traced by low-excitation CH3OH emission, indicates ongoing accretion onto the protobinary system. Overall, the super-Alfv´enic models of Mignon-Risse et al. (2021) agree well with the observed properties of the MM2E/MM2W protobinary, suggesting that this system may be forming in an environment with a weak magnetic field.