Magnetically modulated accretion in T Tauri stars
Abstract
We examine how accretion on to T Tauri stars may be modulated by a time-dependent `magnetic gate' where the inner edge of the accretion disc is disrupted by a varying stellar field. We show that magnetic field variations on time-scales shorter than 10^5 yr can modulate the accretion flow, thus providing a possible mechanism both for the marked photometric variability of T Tauri stars and for the possible conversion of T Tauri stars between classical and weak line status. We thus suggest that archival data relating to the spectrophotometric variability of T Tauri stars may provide an indirect record of magnetic activity cycles in low-mass pre-main-sequence stars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9502061,
title = {Magnetically modulated accretion in T Tauri stars},
author = {C. J. Clarke and P. J. Armitage and K. W. Smith and J. E. Pringle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9502061},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
LaTeX file (requires mn.sty), 4 pages, no figures or tables. To appear in MNRAS.