PHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF THE MASS ACCRETION RATES OF PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS. I. METHOD AND APPLICATION TO THE SN 1987A FIELD
- European Space Agency, Space Science Department, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk (Netherlands)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching (Germany)
We have developed and successfully tested a new self-consistent method to reliably identify pre-main-sequence (PMS) objects actively undergoing mass accretion in a resolved stellar population, regardless of their age. The method does not require spectroscopy and combines broadband V and I photometry with narrowband H{alpha} imaging to (1) identify all stars with excess H{alpha} emission, (2) convert the excess H{alpha} magnitude into H{alpha} luminosity L(H{alpha}), (3) estimate the H{alpha} emission equivalent width, (4) derive the accretion luminosity L{sub acc} from L(H{alpha}), and finally (5) obtain the mass accretion rate M-dot{sub acc} from L{sub acc} and the stellar parameters (mass and radius). By selecting stars with an accuracy of 15% or better in the H{alpha} photometry, the statistical uncertainty on the derived M-dot{sub acc} is typically {approx_lt}17% and is dictated by the precision of the H{alpha} photometry. Systematic uncertainties, of up to a factor of 3 on the value of M-dot{sub acc}, are caused by our incomplete understanding of the physics of the accretion process and affect all determinations of the mass accretion rate, including those based on a spectroscopic H{alpha} line analysis. As an application of our method, we study the accretion process in a field of 9.16 arcmin{sup 2} around SN 1987A, using existing Hubble Space Telescope photometry. We identify as bona fide PMS stars a total of 133 objects with a H{alpha} excess above the 4{sigma} level and a median age of 13.5 Myr. Their median mass accretion rate of 2.6 x 10{sup -8} M{sub sun} yr{sup -1} is in excellent agreement with previous determinations based on the U-band excess of the stars in the same field, as well as with the value measured for G-type PMS stars in the Milky Way. The accretion luminosity of these PMS objects shows a strong dependence on their distance from a group of hot massive stars in the field and suggests that the ultraviolet radiation of the latter is rapidly eroding the circumstellar disks around PMS stars.
- OSTI ID:
- 21448777
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 715, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/1; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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