Evidence of non-thermal x-ray emission from HH 80

Abstract

Protostellar jets appear at all stages of star formation when the accretion process is still at work. Jets travel at velocities of hundreds of km s^-1, creating strong shocks when interacting with the interstellar medium. Several cases of jets have been detected in X-rays, typically showing soft emission. For the first time, we report evidence of hard X-ray emission possibly related to non-thermal processes not explained by previous models of the post-shock emission predicted in the jet/ambient interaction scenario. HH 80 is located at the south head of the jet associated with the massive protostar IRAS 18162-2048. It shows soft and hard X-ray emission in regions that are spatially separated, with the soft X-ray emission region situated behind the region of hard X-ray emission. We propose a scenario for HH 80 where soft X-ray emission is associated with thermal processes from the interaction of the jet with denser ambient matter and hard X-ray emission is produced by synchrotron radiation at the front shock.