1995A&A...296..823T

Molecular outflows possibly are the result of the interaction between a high velocity jet from a young star and the surrounding molecular environment. This interaction can take place through the formation of a turbulent mixing layer. We present models of a plane mixing layer in the boundary between a high velocity, atomic wind (i.e. , the stellar jet) and a stationary, molecular environment, which are computed considering a detailed chemical network. The chemical composition of the mixing layer initially corresponds to the direct mixture of the (atomic) jet and (molecular) environmental material. However, we find that the mixing layer is hot (with temperatures exceeding 10⁴K), so that the mixing layer quickly becomes "chemically active", especially since H₂ molecules are only partially dissociated. A number of molecules are either created or survive in the high velocity flow. The emission from such atomic jet/molecular environment mixing layers is dominated by emission in the rotational and vibrational lines of H₂. As a result of the high peak temperatures (∼10⁴-10⁵ K) and velocities (ranging from zero to the jet velocity) of these mixing layers, the predicted H₂ emission line spectrum has characteristics that are interestingly different.