Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998apj...497..342m&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal v.497, p.342
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
34
Accretion, Accretion Disks, Stars: Magnetic Fields, Stars: Pre-Main-Sequence
Scientific paper
We model the properties of bright rings on accreting classical T Tauri stars whose magnetospheres are tilted with respect to the axis of rotation. These rings have interesting geometries and azimuthal intensity profiles depending on beta , the inclination angle of the dipole field, xi , the ratio of the star's radius to the accretion radius, and epsilon , the ratio of the star's luminosity to the total ring luminosity. As the star rotates, the rings may be occulted periodically, and the apparent brightness of the star may vary as a function of time. With knowledge of i, the observer's inclination, it is possible to predict Delta m, the amplitude of magnitude variations due to the occultation. Conversely, measurements of Delta m and either i or epsilon can constrain the values of the other variables. To observe any variation i must be greater than zero. Stars viewed nearly pole-on (i ~ 10 deg) must have beta >~ 50 deg to allow any significant variation. On the other hand, with i >~ 60 deg, even a very small beta ~ 5 deg can produce a significant Delta m. We find that stars that are as bright as their accretion rings ( epsilon ~ 1) cannot produce variations greater than ~0.8 mag; to observe 2 mag variations epsilon ~ 0.1 is required, independently of i or beta . We predict a distribution of Delta m that is consistent with observed populations of T Tauri stars in the Orion Nebula and in the Taurus-Auriga Molecular Cloud.
Kenyon Scott. J.
Mahdavi Andisheh
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