Bipolar outflows and the evolution of stars

Hypersonic bipolar outflows are a ubiquitous phenomena associated with both young and highly evolved stars. Observations of Planetary Nebulae, the nebulae surrounding Luminous Blue Variables such as η Carinae, Wolf Rayet bubbles, the circumstellar environment of SN 1987A and Young Stellar Objects all reveal high velocity outflows with a wide range of shapes. In this paper the current state of our theoretical understanding of these outflows is reviewed. Beginning with Planetary Nebulae considerable progress has been made in understanding bipolar outflows as the result of stellar winds interacting with the circumstellar environment. In what has been called the “Generalized Wind Blown Bubble” (GWBB) scenario, a fast tenuous wind from the central star expands into a ambient medium with an aspherical (toroidal) density distribution. Inertial gradients due to the gaseous torus quickly lead to an expanding prolate or bipolar shell of swept-up gas bounded by strong shock waves. Numerical simulations of the GWBB scenario show a surprisingly rich variety of gasdynamical behavior, allowing models to recover many of the observed properties of stellar bipolar outflows including the development of collimated supersonic jets. In this paper the physics behind the GWBB scenario is reviewed in detail and its strengths and weakness are considered. Alternative models involving MHD processes are also examined. Applications of these models to each of the principle classes of stellar bipolar outflow (YSO, PNe, LBV, SN87A) are then reviewed. Outstanding issues in the study of bipolar outflows are considered as are those questions which arise when the outflows are viewed as a single class of phenomena occurring across the HR diagram.