Speaker
Description
Massive young stellar objects (YSOs) are active engines driving powerful outflows. Theoretical models predict that a fraction of the accreted material is ejected in the form of highly collimated, fast jets and outflows. The injection of mechanical energy by these jets into the interstellar medium (ISM) produces strong shocks that can accelerate non-thermal particles and trigger feedback processes that regulate star formation. In this talk, we present the first detected population of protostellar jets emitting gamma rays as a byproduct of efficient cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration. The characteristics observed among the sample of Gamma-Loud Protostars allow us to probe the energetic feedback injected by protostellar jets into the ISM and strongly favor a hadronic scenario, in which high-energy gamma rays (up to ~TeV energies) are produced through interactions of accelerated protons. We conclude that protostellar jets constitute a previously unrecognized population of Galactic CR accelerators, that jet power is closely related to the bolometric luminosity of the driving YSO, where the CR production scales with the mechanical power of the jet.
