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Register a new userAccretion Kinematics in the T Tauri Binary TWA 3A: Evidence for Preferential Accretion onto the TWA 3A Primary
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Added by
Benjamin Tofflemire
Publication date
2019
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We present time-series, high-resolution optical spectroscopy of the eccentric T Tauri binary TWA 3A. Our analysis focuses on variability in the strength and structure of the accretion tracing emission lines H alpha and He I 5876A. We find emission line strengths to display the same orbital-phase dependent behavior found with time-series photometry, namely, bursts of accretion near periastron passages. Such bursts are in good agreement with numerical simulations of young eccentric binaries. During accretion bursts, the emission of He I 5876A consistently traces the velocity of the primary star. After removing a model for the systems chromospheric emission, we find the primary star typically emits ~70% of the He I accretion flux. We interpret this result as evidence for circumbinary accretion streams that preferentially feed the TWA 3A primary. This finding is in contrast to most numerical simulations, which predict the secondary should be the dominant accretor in a binary system. Our results may be consistent with a model in which the precession of an eccentric circumbinary disk gap alternates between preferentially supplying mass to the primary and secondary.
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TWA 3A is the most recent addition to a small group of young binary systems that both actively accrete from a circumbinary disk and have spectroscopic orbital solutions. As such, it provides a unique opportunity to test binary accretion theory in a well-constrained setting. To examine TWA 3As time-variable accretion behavior, we have conducted a two-year, optical photometric monitoring campaign, obtaining dense orbital phase coverage (~20 observations per orbit) for ~15 orbital periods. From U-band measurements we derive the time-dependent binary mass accretion rate, finding bursts of accretion near each periastron passage. On average, these enhanced accretion events evolve over orbital phases 0.85 to 1.05, reaching their peak at periastron. The specific accretion rate increases above the quiescent value by a factor of ~4 on average but the peak can be as high as an order of magnitude in a given orbit. The phase dependence and amplitude of TWA 3A accretion is in good agreement with numerical simulations of binary accretion with similar orbital parameters. In these simulations, periastron accretion bursts are fueled by periodic streams of material from the circumbinary disk that are driven by the binary orbit. We find that TWA 3As average accretion behavior is remarkably similar to DQ Tau, another T Tauri binary with similar orbital parameters, but with significantly less variability from orbit to orbit. This is only the second clear case of orbital-phase-dependent accretion in a T Tauri binary.
We present an analysis of spectropolarimetric observations of the low-mass weak-line T Tauri stars TWA 25 and TWA 7. The large-scale surface magnetic fields have been reconstructed for both stars using the technique of Zeeman Doppler imaging. Our surface maps reveal predominantly toroidal and non-axisymmetric fields for both stars. These maps reinforce the wide range of surface magnetic fields that have been recovered, particularly in pre-main sequence stars that have stopped accreting from the (now depleted) central regions of their discs. We reconstruct the large scale surface brightness distributions for both stars, and use these reconstructions to filter out the activity-induced radial velocity jitter, reducing the RMS of the radial velocity variations from 495 m/s to 32 m/s for TWA 25, and from 127 m/s to 36 m/s for TWA 7, ruling out the presence of close-in giant planets for both stars. The TWA 7 radial velocities provide an example of a case where the activity-induced radial velocity variations mimic a Keplerian signal that is uncorrelated with the spectral activity indices. This shows the usefulness of longitudinal magnetic field measurements in identifying activity-induced radial velocity variations.
We present a spectropolarimetric study of two weak-line T Tauri stars (wTTSs), TWA 6 and TWA 8A, as part of the MaTYSSE (Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in giant Exoplanets) program. Both stars display significant Zeeman signatures that we have modelled using Zeeman Doppler Imaging (ZDI). The magnetic field of TWA 6 is split equally between poloidal and toroidal components, with the largest fraction of energy in higher-order modes, with a total unsigned flux of 840 G, and a poloidal component tilted $35^{circ}$ from the rotation axis. TWA 8A has a 70 per cent poloidal field, with most of the energy in higher-order modes, with an unsigned flux of 1.4 kG (with a magnetic filling factor of 0.2), and a poloidal field tilted $20^{circ}$ from the rotation axis. Spectral fitting of the very strong field in tb (in individual lines, simultaneously for Stokes $I$ and $V$) yielded a mean magnetic field strength of $6.0pm0.5$ kG. The higher field strengths recovered from spectral fitting suggests that a significant proportion of magnetic energy lies in small-scale fields that are unresolved by ZDI. So far, wTTSs in MaTYSSE appear to show that the poloidal-field axisymmetry correlates with the magnetic field strength. Moreover, it appears that classical T Tauri stars (cTTSs) and wTTSs are mostly poloidal and axisymmetric when mostly convective and cooler than $sim4300$ K, with hotter stars being less axisymmetric and poloidal, regardless of internal structure.
We present the first images of four debris disks observed in scattered light around the young (4--250 Myr old) M dwarfs TWA 7 and TWA 25, the K6 star HD 35650, and the G2 star HD 377. We obtained these images by reprocessing archival Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS coronagraph data with modern post-processing techniques as part of the Archival Legacy Investigation of Circumstellar Environments (ALICE) program. All four disks appear faint and compact compared with other debris disks resolved in scattered light. The disks around TWA 25, HD 35650, and HD 377 appear very inclined, while TWA 7s disk is viewed nearly face-on. The surface brightness of HD 35650s disk is strongly asymmetric. These new detections raise the number of disks resolved in scattered light around M and late-K stars from one (the AU Mic system) to four. This new sample of resolved disks enables comparative studies of heretofore scarce debris disks around low-mass stars relative to solar-type stars.
We present a detailed analysis of high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of the weak-line T Tauri stars (wTTSs) TWA 9A and V1095 Sco as part of a wider sur- vey of magnetic properties and activity in weak-line T Tauri stars, called MaTYSSE (Magnetic Topologies of Young Stars and the Survival of close-in giant Exoplanets). Our targets have similar masses but differing ages which span the stage of radiative core formation in solar-mass stars. We use the intensity line profiles to reconstruct surface brightness maps for both stars. The reconstructed brightness maps for TWA 9A and V1095 Sco were used to model and subtract the activity-induced jitter, reducing the RMS in the radial velocity measurements of TWA 9A by a factor of $sim$7, and for V1095 Sco by a factor of $sim$3. We detect significant circular polarisation for both stars, but only acquired a high quality circular polarisation time-series for TWA 9A. Our reconstructed large-scale magnetic field distribution of TWA 9A indicates a strong, non-axisymmetric field. We also analyse the chromospheric activity of both stars by investigating their H$alpha$ emission, finding excess blue-ward emission for most observations of V1095 Sco, and symmetric, double-peaked emission for TWA 9A, with enhanced emission at one epoch likely indicating a flaring event.
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