Pre-Main Sequence Mass Accretion Rates in the Magellanic Clouds

Details Pre-Main Sequence Mass Accretion Rates in the Magellanic Clouds Pre-Main Sequence Mass Accretion Rates in the Magellanic Clouds

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.6229d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #62.29; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.852

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present a novel method to determine the mass accretion rate of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars with no need for spectroscopic observations. The method relies solely on narrow-band (Hα) and broad-band (V, I) photometry and can therefore be efficiently applied to star-forming regions (both Galactic and extragalactic) extending over wide areas on the sky. Examples include the Magellanic Clouds, for which extensive HST photometry already exists. Since it does not rely on spectroscopic observations, this novel approach will allow us to increase by more than two orders of magnitude the sample of PMS stars with a measured mass accretion rate, thereby providing very stringent constraints to models of star formation and early stellar evolution. As an application of our technique, we derive the Hα equivalent width and the mass accretion rate for over 200 PMS stars in a field around SN 1987A with ages in the range 4-20 Myr, peaked around 14 Myr. The measured accretion rates range from 2x10-9 to 1x10-7 Msolar/yr, with a median value of 8x10-9 Msolar/yr. The latter is about an order of magnitude higher than that of four 9 Myr old PMS stars in η Chamaleontis and of the 12 Myr old TW Hydrae, the oldest accreting T Tauri star known in our Galaxy. The origin of such a large difference between the Galactic and LMC mass accretion rates should most likely be searched in the markedly different metallicity of their star-forming environments.

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