Time-resolved spectroscopy of the accretion disk in RW Tauri

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Astronomical Spectroscopy, Eclipsing Binary Stars, Stellar Mass Accretion, Temporal Resolution, Electron Density (Concentration), H Lines, Normal Density Functions, Radial Velocity, Spectral Line Width, Stellar Rotation

Scientific paper

Time-resolved spectroscopy of the Algol RW Tauri during 12 eclipses has determined the following characteristics of the disk. The disk is smaller than previously believed (rarely exceeding 1.5 times the radius of the central star) and shows significant variations in size in one orbit. The emission-line widths are always at least twice that expected from broadening by rotational motion in a disk. While the nearly Gaussian line profiles suggest turbulence, it would be required to be highly supersonic. A detailed study of one particularly favorable eclipse shows average electron density to be approximately 10 to the 11th per cu cm. The trailing side of the disk appears to be nearly isothermal, of approximately constant density, and with an apparent radius that is likely set by the ionization limit. The rotational velocity field is highly non-Keplerian; on the leading side of the disk, the highest rotational velocity is at the outer edge. There is additional indirect evidence of infall toward the central star and a collapse toward the orbital plane as the gas moves from the trailing to the leading side.

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