Optical veiling, disk accretion, and the evolution of T Tauri stars

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990 · Astrophysical Journal; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/168305· OSTI ID:6997561

Hartmann, L W; Kenyon, S J ^[1]

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1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (USA)

High-resolution spectra of 31 K7-M1 T Tauri stars (TTs) in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud demonstrate that most of these objects exhibit substantial excess emission at 5200 A. Extrapolations of these data consistent with low-resolution spectrophotometry indicate that the extra emission is comparable to the stellar luminosity in many cases. If this continuum emission arises in the boundary layers of accreting disks, more than about 30 percent of all TTs may be accreting material at a rate which is sufficiently rapid to alter their evolution from standard Hayashi tracks. It is estimated that roughly 10 percent of the final stellar mass is accreted in the TT phase. This amount of material is comparable to the minimum gravitationally unstable disk mass estimated by Larson and it is speculated that the TT phase represents the final stages of disk accretion driven by gravitational instabilities. 40 refs.

• OSTI ID: 6997561
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal; (USA), Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal; (USA) Vol. 349; ISSN ASJOA; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCRETION DISKS
BOUNDARY LAYERS
COSMIC GASES
DIAGRAMS
EMISSION SPECTRA
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FLUIDS
GASES
GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITY
HERTZSPRUNG-RUSSELL DIAGRAM
INSTABILITY
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
LAYERS
LUMINOSITY
MASS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA INSTABILITY
SPACE
SPECTRA
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
STAR ACCRETION
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
T TAURI STARS
VARIABLE STARS