2019MNRAS.484.2966S

We present a polarimetric investigation of the protoplanetary nebula Frosty Leo performed with the Submillimeter Array. We were able to detect, in the low continuum level (peak at 14.4 mJy beam^–1), a marginal polarization at 2.6σ. The molecular line investigation based on the CO J = 3 - 2 emission shows a peak emission of 68.1 Jy beam^–1 km s^–1 and the polarization detection in this CO line is also marginal, with a peak at 3.8σ. In both cases, it was therefore not possible to use the electric vector maps ( E field) to accurately trace the magnetic field ( B field) within the PPN. The spatio-kinematic modelling realised with the different velocity channel maps indicates three main structures: a distorted torus accompanied by a bipolar outflow or jet aligned with its axis and a flattened spherical 'cap'. The comparison of the CO polarization segments with our model suggests that the polarized emission probably arises in the first two components.