Origin of Jets and Winds from Stars and Galaxies: New Perspectives for Observations 

Elisabete M. de Gouveia Dal Pino

IAG/USP

Highly collimated supersonic jets and winds are observed to emerge from a wide variety of astrophysical objects. In this talk, I will first discuss the production mechanism of JETS from stars in their early stages of evolution, like protostars, and also in their late stages, like X-ray binary stars hosting a stellar-mass black hole. Although the latter are able to produce much more powerful outflows, both jet classes are morphologically very similar, suggesting a common physical origin based on the magneto-centrifugal acceleration out off the magnetized accretion disks that surround the central sources. I will show recent results based on observations, numerical simulations, and analytical study that support this model in both classes of jets and discuss new observational tests that are already in progress with the telescope GEMINI and that can be done with the SOAR as well. Less collimated supersonic outflows are also observed to emerge from very massive, dying hot stars, like the luminous-blue-variable stars, and in the context of galaxies, a quite similar phenomenon is observed in the so called STARBURST (SB) galaxies with the formation of gigantic bipolar superwinds that emerge from the galactic disk at high velocities into the intergalactic medium. These winds are believed to be propelled by the high rate of supernova explosions in these galaxies. In recent investigation of the energy exchange between the SNe and the interstellar medium of SB galaxies we have found that the heating efficiency of the SNe, i.e., the fraction of the SNe explosion energy that is effectively stored in the ISM gas in the form of kinetic and internal energy to produce the wind, is very sensitive to the amount of ambient gas and clouds of the SB and may remain very small at least during part of the SB lifetime, therefore preventing or postponing the formation of a superwind. As long as the efficiency remains small, the cooled gas remains confined to the system and can promote new generations of star- formation, or increase the gas in-fall to the central regions of the SB. As the ambient density decreases, the gas can finally heat and expand very rapidly and leave the galaxy as a superwind. I will also discuss potential perspectives of observations of nearby SB targets with the telescopes GEMINI and SOAR