Accretion in low-mass members of the Orion Nebula Cluster with young transition disks

International audienceContext. Although the Orion Nebula Cluster is one of the most studied clusters in the solar neighborhood, the evolution of the very low-mass members (M* < 0.25 M⊙) has not been fully addressed due to their faintness.Aims. Our goal is to verify if some young and very low-mass objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster show evidence of ongoing accretion using broadband VLT/X-shooter spectra.Methods. For each target, we determined the corresponding stellar parameters, veiling, observed Balmer jump, and accretion rates. Additionally, we searched for the existence of circumstellar disks through available on-line photometry.Results. We detected accretion activity in three young stellar objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster, two of them being in the very low-mass range. We also detected the presence of young transition disks with ages between 1 and 3.5 Myr.Key words: stars: low-mass / stars: pre-main sequence / open clusters and associations: individual: Orion Nebula Cluste

The pre-main sequence spectroscopic binary AK Scorpii revisited

We present an analysis of 32 high-resolution echelle spectra of the pre-main sequence spectroscopic binary AK Sco obtained during 1998 and 2000, as well as a total of 72 photoelectric radial-velocity observations from the period 1986–1994. These data allow considerable improvement of the period and other orbital parameters of AK Sco. Our analysis also includes eight series of photometric observations in the uvby and Geneva seven-color systems from 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1997. No eclipses or other periodic variations are seen in the photometry, but the well-determined HIPPARCOS parallax allows us to constrain the orbital inclination of the system to the range 65°$< i < 70$°, leading to the following physical parameters for the two near-identical stars: $M =1.35 \pm 0.07$ $M_\odot$, $R =1.59 \pm 0.35$ $R_\odot$, and $v\sin{i} =18.5 \pm 1.0$ km s-1. 
Disk models have been fit to the spectral energy distribution of AK Sco from 350 nm to 1100 μm. The above stellar parameters permit a consistent solution with an inner rim temperature of 1250 K, instead of the usual 1500 K corresponding to the dust evaporation temperature. Dynamical effects due to tidal interaction of the binary system are supposed to be responsible for pushing the inner disk radius outwards. Combining simultaneous photometric and spectroscopic data sets allows us to compute the dust obscuration in front of each star at several points over the orbit. The results demonstrate the existence of substructure at scales of just a single stellar diameter, and also that one side of the orbit is more heavily obscured than the other.
The spectrum of AK Sco exhibits emission and absorption lines that show substantial variety and variability in shape. The accretion-related lines may show both outflow and infall signatures. The system displays variations at the binary orbital period in both the photospheric and accretion-related line intensities and equivalent widths, although with appreciable scatter. The periodic variations in the blue and red wing of Hβ are almost 180°  out of phase.
We find no evidence of enhanced accretion near the periastron passage in AK Sco as expected theoretically and observed previously in DQ Tau, a similarly young binary system with a mass ratio near unity and an eccentric orbit. The Hα  equivalent width displays rather smooth variations at the stellar period, peaking around phases 0.6–0.7, far away from periastron where theory expects the maximum accretion rate to occur

Analysis of star-disk interaction in young stellar systems

We present preliminary results of the study of star-disk interaction in the classical T Tauri star V354 Mon, a member of the young stellar cluster NGC 2264. As part of an international campaign of observation of NGC 2264 organized from December 2011 to February 2012, high resolution photometric and spectroscopic data of this object were obtained simultaneously with the Chandra, CoRoT and Spitzer satellites, and ground-based telescopes, as CFHT and VLT at ESO. The optical and infrared light curves of V354 Mon show periodic brightness minima that vary in depth and width every rotational cycle. We found evidence that the Hα emission line profile changes according to the period of photometric variations, indicating that the same phenomenon causes both modulations. Such a correlation between emission line variability and light curve modulation was also identified in a previous observational campaign on the same object, where we concluded that material non-uniformly distributed in the inner part of the disk is the main cause of the photometric modulation. This assumption is supported by the fact that the system is seen at high inclination. It is believed that this distortion of the inner part of the disk results from the dynamical interaction between the stellar magnetosphere, inclined with respect to the rotation axis, and the circumstellar disk, as also observed in the classical T Tauri star AA Tau, and predicted by magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations. A model of occultation by circumstellar material was applied to the photometric data in order to determine the parameters of the obscuring material during both observational campaigns, thus providing an investigation of its stability on a timescale of a few years