Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-05-11
Astrophys.J.699:L35-L38,2009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
4 pages 3 figures, ApJ Letters, in press
Scientific paper
10.1088/0004-637X/699/1/L35
X-ray luminosities of accreting T Tauri stars are observed to be systematically lower than those of non-accretors. There is as yet no widely accepted physical explanation for this effect, though it has been suggested that accretion somehow suppresses, disrupts or obscures coronal X-ray activity. Here, we suggest that the opposite might be the case: coronal X-rays modulate the accretion flow. We re-examine the X-ray luminosities of T Tauri stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster and find that not only are accreting stars systematically fainter, but that there is a correlation between mass accretion rate and stellar X-ray luminosity. We use the X-ray heated accretion disk models of Ercolano et al. to show that protoplanetary disk photoevaporative mass loss rates are strongly dependent on stellar X-ray luminosity and sufficiently high to be competitive with accretion rates. X-ray disk heating appears to offer a viable mechanism for modulating the gas accretion flow and could be at least partially responsible for the observed correlation between accretion rates and X-ray luminosities of T Tauri stars.
Drake Jeremy J.
Ercolano Barbara
Flaccomio Ettore
Micela Giusi
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