Gravitational Instabilities in the Disks of Massive Protostars as an Explanation for Linear Distributions of Methanol Masers

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Abstract
Evidence suggests that some masers associated with massive protostars may originate in the outer regions of large disks, at radii of hundreds to thousands of AU from the central mass. This is particularly true for methanol (CH3OH), for which linear distributions of masers are found with disklike kinematics. In three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations we have made to study the effects of gravitational instabilities in the outer parts of disks around young low-mass stars, the nonlinear development of the instabilities leads to a complex of intersecting spiral shocks, clumps, and arclets within the disk and to significant time-dependent, nonaxisymmetric distortions of the disk surface. A rescaling of our disk simulations to the case of a massive protostar shows that conditions in the disturbed outer disk seem conducive to the appearance of masers if it is viewed edge-on.