Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks

Details Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks

Mar 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998apj...495..385h&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal v.495, p.385

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

497

Accretion, Accretion Disks, Stars: Circumstellar Matter, Stars: Formation, Stars: Pre-Main-Sequence

Scientific paper

Using results and calibrations from a previous paper (Gullbring et al. 1997), we estimate disk accretion rates for pre-main-sequence stars in the Taurus and Chamaeleon I molecular cloud complexes. The median accretion rate for T Tauri stars of age ~1 Myr is ~10-8 M&sun; yr-1; the intrinsic scatter at a given age may be as large as 1 order of magnitude. There is a clear decline of mass accretion rates M&sun; with increasing age t among T Tauri stars. Representing this decline as M&sun; ~t-η, we estimate 1.5 ≲ η ≲ 2.8; the large uncertainty is due to the wide range of accretion rates at a given age, the limited age range of the sample, and errors in estimating stellar ages and accretion luminosities. Adopting values of eta near the low end of this range, which are more likely given probable errors and the neglect of birthline age corrections, masses accreted during the T Tauri phase are roughly consistent with disk masses estimated from millimeter-wave dust emission. Similarity solutions for evolving, expanding disks are used to investigate observational constraints on disk properties employing a minimum of parameters. For an assumed power-law form of the disk viscosity with radius ν ∼ Rγ, η≳ 1.5 corresponds to γ ≳ 1. The limit γ ∼ 1 corresponds to a roughly constant "α" in the Shakura-Sunyaev (1973) viscosity parameterization; using current observed disk sizes, we estimate α ∼ 10-2 (on scales ∼10-100 AU). Much of the observed variation in mass accretion rates can be accounted for by varying initial disk masses between 0.01 and 0.2 M&sun;, but this result may be strongly affected by the presence of binary companion stars. These results emphasize the need for older samples of stars for studying disk evolution.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Accretion and the Evolutiion of T Tauri Disks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1656591