Rusty old stars: a source of the missing interstellar iron?

Iron, the Universe's most abundant refractory element, is highly depleted in both circumstellar and interstellar environments, meaning it exists in solid form. The nature of this solid is unknown. In this Letter, we provide evidence that metallic iron grains are present around oxygen-rich AGB stars, where it is observationally manifest as a featureless mid-infrared excess. This identification is made using Spitzer Space Telescope observations of evolved globular cluster stars, where iron dust production appears ubiquitous and in some cases can be modelled as the only observed dust product. In this context, FeO is examined as the likely carrier for the 20-micron feature observed in some of these stars. Metallic iron appears to be an important part of the dust condensation sequence at low metallicity, and subsequently plays an influential role in the interstellar medium. We explore the stellar metallicities and luminosities at which iron formation is observed, and how the presence of iron affects the outflow and its chemistry. The conditions under which iron can provide sufficient opacity to drive a wind remain unclear.Comment: 7 pages. 4 figures, accepted ApJ

Spatially resolved mid-infrared observations of the triple system T Tauri

To enhance our knowledge of the characteristics and distribution of the circumstellar dust associated with the individual components of the young hierarchical triple system T Tau, observations in the N-band with MIDI at the VLTI were performed. Our study is based on both the interferometric and the spectrophotometric measurements and is supplemented by new visual and infrared photometry. Also, the phases were investigated to determine the dominating mid-infrared source in the close southern binary. The data were fit with the help of a sophisticated physical disc model. This model utilises the radiative transfer code MC3D that is based on the Monte-Carlo method. Extended mid-infrared emission is found around all three components of the system. Simultaneous fits to the photometric and interferometric data confirm the picture of an almost face-on circumstellar disc around T Tau N. Towards this star, the silicate band is seen in emission. This emission feature is used to model the dust content of the circumstellar disc. Clear signs of dust processing are found. Towards T Tau S, the silicate band is seen in absorption. This absorption is strongly pronounced towards the infrared companion T Tau Sa as can be seen from the first individual N-band spectra for the two southern components. Our fits support the previous suggestion that an almost edge-on disc is present around T Tau Sa. This disc is thus misaligned with respect to the circumstellar disc around T Tau N. The interferometric data indicate that the disc around T Tau Sa is oriented in the north-south direction, which favours this source as launching site for the east-western jet. We further determine from the interferometric data the relative positions of the components of the southern binary.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in A&

HD 144432: a young triple system

We present new imaging and spectroscopic data of the young Herbig star HD 144432 A, which was known to be a binary star with a separation of 1.47 arcsec. High-resolution NIR imaging data obtained with NACO at the VLT reveal that HD 144432 B itself is a close binary pair with a separation of 0.1 arcsec. High-resolution optical spectra, acquired with FEROS at the 2.2m MPG/ESO telescope in La Silla, of the primary star and its co-moving companions were used to determine their main stellar parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, radial velocity, and projected rotational velocity by fitting synthetic spectra to the observed stellar spectra. The two companions, HD 144432 B and HD 144432 C, are identified as low-mass T Tauri stars of spectral type K7V and M1V, respectively. From the position in the HRD the triple system appears to be co-eval with a system age of 6+/-3 Myr.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 4 pages, 4 figure

MBM 12: young protoplanetary discs at high galactic latitude

(abridged) We present Spitzer infrared observations to constrain disc and dust evolution in young T Tauri stars in MBM 12, a star-forming cloud at high latitude with an age of 2 Myr and a distance of 275 pc. The region contains 12 T Tauri systems, with primary spectral types between K3 and M6; 5 are weak-line and the rest classical T Tauri stars. We first use MIPS and literature photometry to compile spectral energy distributions for each of the 12 members in MBM 12, and derive their IR excesses. The IRS spectra are analysed with the newly developed two-layer temperature distribution (TLTD) spectral decomposition method. For the 7 T Tauri stars with a detected IR excess, we analyse their solid-state features to derive dust properties such as mass-averaged grain size, composition and crystallinity. We find a spatial gradient in the forsterite to enstatite range, with more enstatite present in the warmer regions. The fact that we see a radial dependence of the dust properties indicates that radial mixing is not very efficient in the discs of these young T Tauri stars. The SED analysis shows that the discs in MBM 12, in general, undergo rapid inner disc clearing, while the binary sources have faster discevolution. The dust grains seem to evolve independently from the stellar properties, but are mildly related to disc properties such as flaring and accretion rates.Comment: 14 pages, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Variable accretion as a mechanism for brightness variations in T Tau S

(Note: this is a shortened version of the original A&A-style structured abstract). The physical nature of the strong photometric variability of T Tau Sa, the more massive member of the Southern "infrared companion" to T Tau, has long been debated. Intrinsic luminosity variations due to variable accretion were originally proposed but later challenged in favor of apparent fluctuations due to time-variable foreground extinction. In this paper we use the timescale of the variability as a diagnostic for the underlying physical mechanism. Because the IR emission emerging from Sa is dominantly thermal emission from circumstellar dust at <=1500K, we can derive a minimum size of the region responsible for the time-variable emission. In the context of the variable foreground extinction scenario, this region must be (un-) covered within the variability timescale, which implies a minimum velocity for the obscuring foreground material. If this velocity supercedes the local Kepler velocity we can reject foreground extinction as a valid variability mechanism. The variable accretion scenario allows for shorter variability timescales since the variations in luminosity occur on much smaller scales, essentially at the surface of the star, and the disk surface can react almost instantly on the changing irradiation with a higher or lower dust temperature and according brightness. We have detected substantial variations at long wavelengths in T Tau S: +26% within four days at 12.8 micron. We show that this short-term variability cannot be due to variable extinction and instead must be due to variable accretion. Using a radiative transfer model of the Sa disk we show that variable accretion can in principle also account for the much larger (several magnitude) variations observed on timescales of several years. For the long-term variability, however, also variable foreground extinction is a viable mechanism.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Two-photon exchange effect on deuteron electromagnetic form factors

Corrections of two-photon exchange to proton and neutron electromagnetic form factors are employed to study the effect of two-photon exchange on the deuteron electromagnetic form factors. Numerical results of the effect are given. It is suggested to test the effect in the measurement of $P_z$ in a small angle limit.Comment: 12 pages 9 figure

Star and protoplanetary disk properties in Orion's suburbs

(Note: this is a shortened version of the original "structured" A&A format abstract.) We performed a large optical spectroscopic and photometric survey of the Lynds~1630N and 1641 clouds. We provide a catalog of 132 confirmed young stars in L1630N and 267 such objects in L1641. We identify 28 transition disk systems, 20 of which were previously unknown, as well as 42 new transition disk candidates for which we have broad-band photometry but no optical spectroscopy. We estimate mass accretion rates M_acc from the equivalent widths of the H_alpha, H_beta, and HeI 5876\AA emission lines, and find a dependence on stellar mass of M_acc propto Mstar^alpha, with alpha~3.1 in the subsolar mass range that we probe. An investigation of a large literature sample of mass accretion rate estimates yields a similar slope of alpha~2.8 in the subsolar regime, but a shallower slope of alpha~2.0 if the whole mass range of 0.04 M_sun-5 Msun is included. Among the transition disk objects, the fraction of stars that show significant accretion activity is relatively low compared to stars with still optically thick disks (26\pm11% vs. 57\pm6%, respectively). However, those transition disks that do show significant accretion have the same median accretion rate as normal optically thick disks of 3-4*10^{-9} M_sun/yr. We find that the ages of the transition disks and the WTTSs without disks are statistically indistinguishable, and both groups are significantly older than the CTTSs. These results argue against disk-binary interaction or gravitational instability as mechanisms causing a transition disk appearance. Our observations indicate that disk lifetimes in the clustered population are shorter than in the distributed population. We propose refined Halpha equivalent width criteria to distinguish WTTSs from CTTSs.Comment: 52 pages, 16 tables, 29 figures. Accepted by A&A. Table numbering error correcte