Exploring the association of Fermi sources with Young Stellar Objects

Abstract

Massive protostars have associated bipolar outflows which can produce strong shocks when interact with the surrounding medium. In these conditions particle acceleration at relativistic velocities can occur leading to gamma ray emission, as some theoretical models predict. To identify young stellar objects (YSO) that may emit gamma rays we have crossed the Fermi First Year Catalog with some catalogs of known YSOs, and we have conducted Montecarlo simulations to find the probability of chance coincidence. With this crossing we obtained a list of YSOs spatially coincident with Fermi sources that may show gamma ray emission. Our results indicate that about 70% of the candidates should be gamma-ray sources with a confidence of 5 sigma. We have studied the coincidences one by one to check the viability of these YSOs as potential counterparts of Fermi sources and plan further detailed observations of few of them.