No Arabic abstract
Results of UBVRIJHKLM photometry, VRI polarimetry and optical spectroscopy of a young star RW Aur A obtained during 2010-11 and 2014-16 dimming events are presented. During the second dimming the star decreased its brightness to Delta V > 4.5 mag, polarization of its light in I-band was up to 30%, and color-magnitude diagram was similar to that of UX Ori type stars. We conclude that the reason of both dimmings is an eclipses of the star by dust screen, but the size of the screen is much larger than in the case of UXORs.
Comparing the images of the jet of the young star RW Aur A, separated by a period of 21.3 years, we found that the outermost jets knots have emerged $approx 350$ yr ago. We argue that at that moment the jet itself has appeared and intensive accretion onto the star has began due to the rearrangement of its protoplanetary disk structure caused by the tidal effect of the companion RW Aur B. More precisely, we assume that the increase of accretion is a response to changing conditions in the outer disk regions, which followed after the sound wave, generated by these changes, crossed the disk in a radial direction. The difference in the parameters of the blue and red lobes of the RW Aur A jet, according to our opinion, is a result of the asymmetric distribution of the circumstellar matter above and below the disk, due to a fly-by of the companion. It was found from the analysis of RW Aur historical light curve that deep and long $(Delta t>150$ days) dimmings of RW Aur A observed after 2010 yr, had no analogues in the previous 110 years. We also associate the change in the character of the photometric variability of the star with the rearrangement of the structure of inner $(r<1$ a.u.) regions of its protoplanetary disk and discuss why these changes began only 350 years after the beginning of the active accretion phase.
RW Aur is a young binary star that experienced a deep dimming in 2010-11 in component A and a second even deeper dimming from summer 2014 to summer 2016. We present new unresolved multi-band photometry during the 2014-16 eclipse, new emission line spectroscopy before and during the dimming, archive infrared photometry between 2014-15, as well as an overview of literature data. Spectral observations were carried out with the Fibre-fed RObotic Dual-beam Optical Spectrograph on the Liverpool Telescope. Photometric monitoring was done with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and James Gregory Telescope. Our photometry shows that RW Aur dropped in brightness to R = 12.5 in March 2016. In addition to the long-term dimming trend, RW Aur is variable on time scales as short as hours. The short-term variation is most likely due to an unstable accretion flow. This, combined with the presence of accretion-related emission lines in the spectra suggest that accretion flows in the binary system are at least partially visible during the eclipse. The equivalent width of [O I] increases by a factor of ten in 2014, coinciding with the dimming event, confirming previous reports. The blue-shifted part of the $Halpha$ profile is suppressed during the eclipse. In combination with the increase in mid-infrared brightness during the eclipse reported in the literature and seen in WISE archival data, and constraints on the geometry of the disk around RW Aur A we arrive at the conclusion that the obscuring screen is part of a wind emanating from the inner disk.
Resolved UBVRI photometry of RW Aur binary was performed on November 13/14, 2014 during the deep dimming of RW Aur with a newly installed 2.5 meter telescope of the Caucasus observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University at the mount Shatzhatmaz. At that moment RW Aur A was $simeq 3^m$ fainter than in November 1994 in all spectral bands. We explain the current RW Aur A dimming as a result of eclipse of the star by dust particles with size $>1 mu m.$ We found that RW Aur B is also a variable star: it was brighter than 20 years ago at $0.7^m$ in each of UBVRI band (gray brightening).
V582 Aur is a pre-main sequence FU Orionis type eruptive star, which entered a brightness minimum in 2016 March due to changes in the line-of-sight extinction. Here, we present and analyze new optical $B$, $V$, $R_C$ and $I_C$ band multiepoch observations and new near-infrared $J$, $H$ and $K_S$ band photometric measurements from 2018 January$-$2019 February, as well as publicly available mid-infrared WISE data. We found that the source shows a significant optical$-$near-infrared variability, and the current brightness minimum has not completely finished yet. If the present dimming originates from the same orbiting dust clump that caused a similar brightness variation in 2012, than our results suggest a viscous spreading of the dust particles along the orbit. Another scenario is that the current minimum is caused by a dust structure, that is entering and leaving the inner part of the system. The WISE measurements could be consistent with this scenario. Our long-term data, as well as an accretion disk modeling hint at a general fading of V582 Aur, suggesting that the source will reach the quiescent level in $sim$80 years.
The secondary of the famous young binary RW Aur is much less studied than the primary. To compensate this shortcoming, we present here the results of UBVRIJHK photometric, VRI polarimetric and optical spectral observations of RW Aur B. The star demonstrates chaotic brightness variations in the optical band with irregular short (~ 1 day) dimmings with an amplitude $Delta V$ up to $1.3^{rm m}.$ The dimmings are accompanied with an increase in the linear polarization (up to 3 per cent in the I band), presumably due to the scattering of the stellar radiation by dust in the circumstellar disc that means that RW Aur B can be classified as a UX Ori type star. We concluded that the observed excess emission at $lambda lesssim 0.45$ $mu$m and longward $approx$ 2 $mu$m as well as a variability of fluxes and profiles of HI, HeI and NaI D emission lines are due to the accretion process. At the same time, emission components of Ca II lines indicate that RW Aur B has a powerful chromosphere. Assuming the solar elemental abundances, we found the following parameters of the star: $T_{rm eff} = 4100-4200$ K, $A_{rm V}=0.6 pm 0.1$ (out of the dimming events), $L_* approx 0.6$ $L_odot,$ $R_* approx 1.5$ $R_odot,$ $Mapprox 0.85$ M$_odot,$ $dot M_{rm acc}<5times 10^{-9}$ M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}.$ Finally, we discuss possible reasons for the different levels of the accretion activity of RW Aur binary components and present arguments in favour of the fact that they are gravitationally bound.