The enigmatic core L1451-mm: a first hydrostatic core? or a hidden
  VeLLO?
  We present the detection of a dust continuum source at 3-mm (CARMA) and
1.3-mm (SMA), and 12CO(2-1) emission (SMA) towards the L1451-mm dense core.
These detections suggest a compact object and an outflow where no point source
at mid-infrared wavelengths is detected using Spitzer. An upper limit for the
dense core bolometric luminosity of 0.05 Lsun is obtained. By modeling the
broadband SED and the continuum interferometric visibilities simultaneously, we
confirm that a central source of heating is needed to explain the observations.
This modeling also shows that the data can be well fitted by a dense core with
a YSO and disk, or by a dense core with a central First Hydrostatic Core
(FHSC). Unfortunately, we are not able to decide between these two models,
which produce similar fits. We also detect 12CO(2-1) emission with red- and
blue-shifted emission suggesting the presence of a slow and poorly collimated
outflow, in opposition to what is usually found towards young stellar objects
but in agreement with prediction from simulations of a FHSC. This presents the
best candidate, so far, for a FHSC, an object that has been identified in
simulations of collapsing dense cores. Whatever the true nature of the central
object in L1451-mm, this core presents an excellent laboratory to study the
earliest phases of low-mass star formation.
