The magnetospheric accretion/ejection process in young stellar objects: open issues and perspectives

This summary talk aims at highlighting some of the remaining open issues regarding the physics of the magnetospheric accretion/ejection process in young stellar objects (YSOs). It lists a number of questions related to YSOs magnetic fields and accretion regimes, the structure and properties of accretion shocks, the origin of multiple outflow components, and the impact of the star-disk magnetic interaction onto early angular momentum evolution.Comment: Summary talk, 4 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of "Physics at the Magnetospheric Boundary", Geneva, 25-28 June 201

Investigating the rotational evolution of young, low mass stars using Monte Carlo simulations

We investigate the rotational evolution of young stars through Monte Carlo simulations. We simulate 280,000 stars, each of which is assigned a mass, a rotational period, and a mass accretion rate. The mass accretion rate depends on mass and time, following power-laws indices 1.4 and -1.5, respectively. A mass-dependent accretion threshold is defined below which a star is considered as diskless, which results in a distribution of disk lifetimes that matches observations. Stars are evolved at constant angular spin rate while accreting and at constant angular momentum when they become diskless. We recover the bimodal period distribution seen in several young clusters. The short period peak consists mostly of diskless stars and the long period one is mainly populated by accreting stars. Both distributions present a long tail towards long periods and a population of slowly rotating diskless stars is observed at all ages. We reproduce the observed correlations between disk fraction and spin rate, as well as between IR excess and rotational period. The period-mass relation we derive from the simulations exhibits the same global trend as observed in young clusters only if we release the disk locking assumption for the lowest mass stars. We find that the time evolution of median specific angular momentum follows a power law index of -0.65 for accreting stars and of -0.53 for diskless stars, a shallower slope that results from a wide distribution of disk lifetimes. Using observationally-documented distributions of disk lifetimes, mass accretion rates, and initial rotation periods, and evolving an initial population from 1 to 12 Myr, we reproduce the main characteristics of pre-main sequence angular momentum evolution, which supports the disk locking hypothesis. (abridged)Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Hall effect in the normal state of high Tc cuprates

We propose a model for explaining the dependence in temperature of the Hall effect of high Tc cuprates in the normal state in various materials. They all show common features: a decrease of the Hall coefficient RH with temperature and a universal law, when plotting RH(T)/RH(T0) versus T/T0, where T0 is defined from experimental results. This behaviour is explained by using the well known electronic band structure of the CuO2 plane, showing saddle points at the energies ES in the directions (0,+/-pi) and (+/-pi,0). We remark that in a magnetic field, for energies E>ES the carrier orbits are hole-like and for E<ES they are electron-like, giving opposite contributions to RH. We are abble to fit the experimental results for a wide range of hole doping, and to fit the universal curve. For us kb*T0 is simply EF-ES, where EF is the Fermi level varying with the doping.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figure

Line and continuum radiative transfer modelling of AA Tau

We present photometric and spectroscopic models of the Classical T Tauri star AA Tau. Photometric and spectroscopic variability present in observations of AA Tau is attributed to a magnetically induced warp in the accretion disc, periodically occulting the photosphere on an 8.2--day timescale. Emission line profiles show signatures of both infall, attributed to magnetospherically accreting material, and outflow. Using the radiative transfer code TORUS, we have investigated the geometry and kinematics of AA Tau's circumstellar disc and outflow, which is modelled here as a disc wind. Photometric models have been used to constrain the aspect ratio of the disc, the offset angle of the magnetosphere dipole with respect to the stellar rotation axis, and the inner radius of the circumstellar disc. Spectroscopic models have been used to constrain the wind and magnetosphere temperatures, wind acceleration parameter, and mass loss rate. We find observations are best fitted by models with a mass accretion rate of $5\times10^{-9}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, a dipole offset of between $10^\circ$ and $20^\circ$, a magnetosphere that truncates the disc from 5.2 to 8.8 R$_\star$, a mass-loss-rate to accretion-rate ratio of ~ 0.1, a magnetosphere temperature of 8500 -- 9000 K, and a disc wind temperature of 8000 K.Comment: 22 pages, 32 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by MNRAS. V3: Corrected typ

Diamagnetic Blob Interaction Model of T Tauri Variability

Assuming a diamagnetic interaction between a stellar-spot originated localized magnetic field and gas blobs in the accretion disk around a T- Tauri star, we show the possibility of ejection of such blobs out of the disk plane. Choosing the interaction radius and the magnetic field parameters in a suitable way gives rise to closed orbits for the ejected blobs. A stream of matter composed of such blobs, ejected on one side of the disk and impacting on the other, can form a hot spot at a fixed position on the disk (in the frame rotating with the star). Such a hot spot, spread somewhat by disk shear before cooling, may be responsible in some cases for the lightcurve variations observed in various T-Tauri stars over the years. An eclipse-based mechanism due to stellar obscuration of the spot is proposed. Assuming high disk inclination angles it is able to explain many of the puzzling properties of these variations. By varying the field parameters and blob initial conditions we obtain variations in the apparent angular velocity of the hot spot, producing a constantly changing period or intermittent periodicity disappearance in the models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, aas2pp4 styl

Results of the ROTOR-program. I. The long-term photometric variability of classical T Tauri stars

We present a unique, homogeneous database of photometric measurements for Classical T Tauri stars extending up to 20 years. The database contains more than 21,000 UBVR observations of 72 CTTs. All the data were collected within the framework of the ROTOR-program at Mount Maidanak Observatory (Uzbekistan) and together they constitute the longest homogeneous, accurate record of TTS variability ever assembled. We characterize the long term photometric variations of 49 CTTs with sufficient data to allow a robust statistical analysis and propose an empirical classification scheme. Several patterns of long term photometric variability are identified. The most common pattern, exhibited by a group of 15 stars which includes T Tau itself, consists of low level variability (Delta(V)<=0.4mag) with no significant changes occurring from season to season over many years. A related subgroup of 22 stars exhibits a similar stable long term variability pattern, though with larger amplitudes (up to Delta(V)~1.6 mag). Besides these representative groups, we identify three smaller groups of 3-5 stars each which have distinctive photometric properties. The long term variability of most CTTs is fairly stable and merely reflects shorter term variability due to cold and hot surface spots. Only a small fraction of CTTs undergo significant brightness changes on the long term (months, years), which probably arise from slowly varying circumstellar extinction.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. Astron. Astrophys., in pres