2008MNRAS.387..954D

We discuss wide-field near-infrared (near-IR) imaging of the NGC 1333, L1448, L1455 and B1 star-forming regions in Perseus. The observations have been extracted from a much larger narrow-band imaging survey of the Taurus-Auriga-Perseus complex. These H₂2.122-µm observations are complemented by broad-band K imaging, mid-IR imaging and photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and published submillimetre CO J = 3-2 maps of high-velocity molecular outflows. We detect and label 85 H₂ features and associate these with 26 molecular outflows. Three are parsec-scale flows, with a mean flow lobe length exceeding 11.5 arcmin. 37 (44 per cent) of the detected H₂ features are associated with a known Herbig-Haro object, while 72 (46 per cent) of catalogued HH objects are detected in H₂emission. Embedded Spitzer sources are identified for all but two of the 26 molecular outflows. These candidate outflow sources all have high near-to-mid-IR spectral indices (mean value of α ∼ 1.4) as well as red IRAC 3.6-4.5µm and IRAC/MIPS 4.5-24.0µm colours: 80 per cent have [3.6]-[4.5] > 1.0 and [4.5]-[24] > 1.5. These criteria - high α and red [4.5]-[24] and [3.6]-[4.5] colours - are powerful discriminants when searching for molecular outflow sources. However, we find no correlation between α and flow length or opening angle, and the outflows appear randomly orientated in each region. The more massive clouds are associated with a greater number of outflows, which suggests that the star formation efficiency is roughly the same in each region.