Friday 6 April at 2pm in the GEMINI Seminar Room

ABSTRACT: "Herbig-Haro jets drive the ubiquitous molecular outflows, and I discuss millimeter interferometric observations which clarify the connections between these two outflow phenomena. HH flows can attain gigantic proportions and thus provide an important fossil record of the long-term activity of their underlying sources. Submillimeter observations of these sources demonstrate that they are among the youngest stars known. High resolution studies have revealed that almost 90% of HH sources are binaries or higher order multiples. To establish the multiplicity frequency found on the main sequence, most of the multiples must decay while the stars are still in the embedded phase. Such disintegration events and subsequent binary evolution lead to cyclic disk accretion episodes which drive the giant HH flows. I discuss the conditions under which an ejected member will have been deprived of gaining enough mass to eventually burn hydrogen. Such ejectae will therefore form a population of brown dwarfs either free-floating or weakly bound to their parental stars." Refreshments after the seminar.