Evidence for a wind-swept cavity in HH 34?

Abstract

High-resolution HCO(+) observations of two sections of the HH 34 system are presented. The emission is seen in association with, and to the north of, the exciting star of the HH 34 jet as well as to the south of the HH object HH 34. The emission to the north and northwest of HH 34 IR is in two ridge formed in the shape of a U. These two ridges are probably the limb-brightened walls of a cavity. The data suggest that the cavity was cleared by a protostellar wind with mass loss and momentum flux similar to the neutral wind in HH 7-11. HCO(+) emission is detected in association with the source IRS 5 and to the south of HH 34, with a gap between the HH object and the emission of 15-40 arcsec. These results confirm that the emission traces dense circumstellar gas an both low and high velocity gas involved in the interaction between fast protostellar winds and their surroundings.