1. HIGH-RESOLUTION ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION FIELDS OF CLASSICAL T TAURI STARS
- Author
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Kevin France, Rebecca N. Schindhelm, Edwin A. Bergin, Evelyne Roueff, Hervé Abgrall, Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy [Boulder] (CASA), University of Colorado [Boulder], Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard University [Cambridge]-Smithsonian Institution, Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique (LERMA), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Cergy Pontoise (UCP), Université Paris-Seine-Université Paris-Seine-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Harvard University-Smithsonian Institution, and École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL)
- Subjects
Physics ,[PHYS]Physics [physics] ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Giant planet ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Radiation ,7. Clean energy ,Lyman limit ,T Tauri star ,Stars ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Absorption band ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Emission spectrum ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,Ultraviolet radiation ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS - Abstract
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
- Published
- 2014
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