Related papers: Accretion-powered Stellar Winds as a Solution to t…
We compare the stellar wind torque calculated in a previous work (Paper II) to the spin-up and spin-down torques expected to arise from the magnetic interaction between a slowly rotating ($\sim 10$% of breakup) pre-main-sequence star and…
Stellar winds may be important for angular momentum transport from accreting T Tauri stars, but the nature of these winds is still not well-constrained. We present some simulation results for hypothetical, hot (~1e6 K) coronal winds from T…
The rotation period of classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) represents a longstanding puzzle. While young low-mass stars show a wide range of rotation periods, many CTTS are slow rotators, spinning at a small fraction of break-up, and their…
[Abridged] In order to explain the slow rotation observed in a large fraction of accreting pre-main-sequence stars (CTTSs), we explore the role of stellar winds in torquing down the stars. For this mechanism to be effective, the stellar…
We review the theoretical efforts to understand why pre-main-sequence stars spin much more slowly than expected. The first idea put forward was that massive stellar winds may remove substantial angular momentum. Since then, it has become…
Establishing the origin of accretion powered winds from forming stars is critical for understanding angular momentum evolution in the star-disk interaction region. Here, the high velocity component of accretion powered winds is launched and…
Pre-main-sequence stars are observed to be surrounded by both accretion flows and some kind of wind or jet-like outflow. Recent work by Matt and Pudritz has suggested that if classical T Tauri stars exhibit stellar winds with mass loss…
How T Tauri stars remain slowly rotating while still accreting material is a long-standing puzzle. Current models suggest that these stars may lose angular momentum through magnetospheric ejections of disk material (MEs) and…
We present a model for the rotational evolution of a young, solar-mass star interacting magnetically with an accretion disk. As in a previous paper (Paper I), the model includes changes in the star's mass and radius as it descends the…
The rotational evolution of accreting pre-main-sequence stars is influenced by its magnetic interaction with its surrounding circumstellar disk. Using the PLUTO code, we perform 2.5D magnetohydrodynamic, axisymmetric, time-dependent…
Classical T Tauri stars (CTTs) magnetically interact with their surrounding disks, a process that is thought to regulate their rotational evolution. In this work, we compute torques acting onto the stellar surface of CTTs arising from…
Rotation period measurements of low-mass stars show that the spin distributions in young clusters do not exhibit the spin-up expected due to contraction, during the phase when a large fraction of stars are still surrounded by accretion…
We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetospheric accretion in a T Tauri star to study the accretion and wind structures in the close vicinity of the star. The gas accreting onto the star consists of the gas…
We model the mass accretion rate $\dot{M}$ to stellar mass $M_*$ correlation that has been inferred from observations of intermediate to upper mass T Tauri stars---that is $\dot{M} \propto M_*^{1.3 \pm 0.3}$. We explain this correlation…
We formulate a general, steady-state model for the torque on a magnetized star from a surrounding accretion disc. For the first time, we include the opening of dipolar magnetic field lines due to the differential rotation between the star…
When they first appear in the HR diagram, young stars rotate at a mere 10\% of their break-up velocity. They must have lost most of the angular momentum initially contained in the parental cloud, the so-called angular momentum problem. We…
Many types of stars have strong magnetic fields that can dynamically influence the flow of circumstellar matter. In stars with accretion disks, the stellar magnetic field can truncate the inner disk and determine the paths that matter can…
The rotation axis of the Sun is misaligned from the mean angular momentum plane of the Solar system by about 6 degrees. This obliquity significantly exceeds the ~1-2 degree distribution of inclinations among the planetary orbits and…
Strongly magnetized accreting stars are often hypothesized to be in `spin equilibrium' with their surrounding accretion flows, which requires that the accretion rate changes more slowly than it takes the star to reach spin equilibrium. This…
We critically examine the theory of disk locking, which assumes that the angular momentum deposited on an accreting protostar is exactly removed by torques carried along magnetic field lines connecting the star to the disk. In this letter,…