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The far-ultraviolet (FUV; 912--1700 \AA) radiation field from accreting central stars in Classical T Tauri systems influences the disk chemistry during the period of giant planet formation. Previous efforts to measure the true stellar+accretion-generated FUV luminosity (both hot gas emission lines and continua) have been complicated by a combination of low-sensitivity and/or low-spectral resolution and did not include the contribution from the bright Ly$\alpha$ emission line. In this work, we present a high-resolution spectroscopic study of the FUV radiation fields of 16 T Tauri stars whose dust disks display a range of evolutionary states. We include reconstructed Ly$\alpha$ line profiles and remove atomic and molecular disk emission (from H$_{2}$ and CO fluorescence) to provide robust measurements of both the FUV continuum and hot gas lines (e.g., Ly$\alpha$, \ion{N}{5}, \ion{C}{4}, \ion{He}{2}) for an appreciable sample of T Tauri stars for the first time. We find that the flux of the typical Classical T Tauri Star FUV radiation field at 1 AU from the central star is $\sim$ 10$^{7}$ times the average interstellar radiation field. The Ly$\alpha$ emission line contributes an average of 88% of the total FUV flux, with the FUV continuum accounting for an average of 8%. Both the FUV continuum and Ly$\alpha$ flux are strongly correlated with \ion{C}{4} flux, suggesting that accretion processes dominate the production of both of these components. On average, only $\sim$ 0.5% of the total FUV flux is emitted between the Lyman limit (912 \AA) and the H$_{2}$ (0 -- 0) absorption band at 1110 \AA. The total and component-level high-resolution radiation fields are made publicly available in machine-readable format., Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures. Accepted to ApJ. On-line data at http://cos.colorado.edu/~kevinf/ctts_fuvfield.html

The direct study of molecular gas in inner protoplanetary disks is complicated by uncertainties in the spatial distribution of the gas, the time-variability of the source, and the comparison of observations across a wide range of wavelengths. Some of these challenges can be mitigated with far-ultraviolet spectroscopy. Using new observations obtained with the HST-Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, we measure column densities and rovibrational temperatures for CO and H2 observed on the line-of-sight through the AA Tauri circumstellar disk. CO A-X absorption bands are observed against the far-UV continuum. The CO absorption is characterized by log(N(^{12}CO)) = 17.5 +/- 0.5 cm^{-2} and T_rot(CO) = 500$^{+500}_{-200} K, although this rotational temperature may underestimate the local kinetic temperature of the CO-bearing gas. We also detect ^{13}CO in absorption with an isotopic ratio of ~20. We do not observe H2 absorption against the continuum; however, hot H2 (v > 0) is detected in absorption against the LyA emission line. We measure the column densities in eight individual rovibrational states, determining a total log(N(H2)) = 17.9^{+0.6}_{-0.3} cm^{-2} with a thermal temperature of T(H2) = 2500^{+800}_{-700} K. The high-temperature of the molecules, the relatively small H2 column density, and the high-inclination of the AA Tauri disk suggest that the absorbing gas resides in an inner disk atmosphere. If the H2 and CO are co-spatial within a molecular layer ~ 0.6 AU thick, this region is characterized by ~ 10^{5} cm^{-3} with an observed ratio of ~ 0.4. We also find evidence for a departure from a purely thermal H2 distribution, suggesting that excitation by continuum photons and H2 formation may be altering the level populations in the molecular gas., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. ApJ - accepted

We analyze the far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectra of 33 classical T Tauri stars (CTTS), including 20 new spectra obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys Solar Blind Channel (ACS/SBC) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Of the sources, 28 are in the ~1 Myr old Taurus-Auriga complex or Orion Molecular Cloud, 4 in the 8-10 Myr old Orion OB1a complex and one, TW Hya, in the 10 Myr old TW Hydrae Association. We also obtained FUV ACS/SBC spectra of 10 non-accreting sources surrounded by debris disks with ages between 10 and 125 Myr. We use a feature in the FUV spectra due mostly to electron impact excitation of \h2 to study the evolution of the gas in the inner disk. We find that the \h2 feature is absent in non-accreting sources, but is detected in the spectra of CTTS and correlates with accretion luminosity. Since all young stars have active chromospheres which produce strong X-ray and UV emission capable of exciting \h2 in the disk, the fact that the non-accreting sources show no \h2 emission implies that the \h2 gas in the inner disk has dissipated in the non-accreting sources, although dust (and possibly gas) remains at larger radii. Using the flux at 1600 {\AA}, we estimate that the column density of \h2 left in the inner regions of the debris disks in our sample is less than ~ 3x10^-6 g cm^-2, nine orders of magnitude below the surface density of the minimum mass solar nebula at 1 AU., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJL