OMC-2 FIR 4 under the microscope: Shocks, filaments, and a highly collimated jet at 100 au scales (2209.03696v1)

Abstract: Star-forming molecular clouds are characterised by the ubiquity of intertwined filaments. The filaments have been observed in both high- and low-mass star-forming regions, and are thought to split into collections of sonic fibres. The locations where filaments converge are termed hubs, and these are associated with the young stellar clusters. However, the observations of filamentary structures within hubs at distances require a high angular resolution that limits the number of such studies conducted so far. The integral shaped filament of the Orion A molecular cloud is noted for harbouring several hubs within which no filamentary structures have been observed so far. The goal of our study is to investigate the nature of the filamentary structures within one of these hubs, which is the chemically rich hub OMC-2 FIR 4, and to analyse their emission with high density and shock tracers. We observed the OMC-2 FIR 4 proto-cluster using Band 6 of the ALMA in Cycle 4 with an angular resolution of ~0.26"(100 au). We analysed the spatial distribution of dust, the shock tracer SiO, and dense gas tracers (i.e., CH${3}$OH, CS, and H$^{13}$CN). We also studied gas kinematics using SiO and CH3OH maps. Our observations for the first time reveal interwoven filamentary structures within OMC-2 FIR 4 that are probed by several tracers. Each filamentary structure is characterised by a distinct velocity as seen from the emission peak of CH${3}$OH lines. They also show transonic and supersonic motions. SiO is associated with filaments and also with multiple bow-shock features. In addition, for the first time, we reveal a highly collimated SiO jet (~1$^{\circ}$) with a projected length of ~5200 au from the embedded protostar VLA15. Our study shows that multi-scale observations of these regions are crucial for understanding the accretion processes and flow of material that shapes star formation.