Related papers: The $\dot{M} - M$ relationship in pre-main sequenc…
Simulations of the collapse and fragmentation of turbulent molecular clouds and dense young clusters show that encounters between disc-surrounded stars are relatively common events which should significantly influence the resulting disc…
Stellar masses are a fundamental property to understand models of pre-main sequence evolution, but their values derived from Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams are strongly model dependent. We benchmark pre-main sequence stellar evolutionary…
Disk accretion onto a magnetized star occurs in a variety of astrophysical contexts, from young stars to X-ray pulsars. The magnetohydrodynamic interaction between the stellar field and the accreting matter can have a strong effect on the…
We discuss the importance of accretion in calculating disk models for young stellar objects. In particular, we show that a disk inner rim, irradiated by both the star and the accretion shocks at the stellar surface, can naturally explain…
The dependence of the mass accretion rate on the stellar properties is a key constraint for star formation and disk evolution studies. Here we present a study of a sample of stars in the Chamaeleon I star forming region carried out using…
Determining the mechanisms that drive the evolution of protoplanetary disks is a necessary step to understand how planets form. Here we measured the mass accretion rate for young stellar objects at age >5 Myr, a critical test for the…
Recent observations have uncovered a correlation between the accretion rates (measured from the UV continuum excess) of protoplanetary discs and their masses inferred from observations of the sub-mm continuum. While viscous evolution models…
Young low-mass stars are characterized by ejection of collimated outflows and by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to power the…
The apparent dependence of detection frequency of extrasolar planets on the metallicity of their host stars is investigated with Monte Carlo simulations using a deterministic core-accretion planet formation model. According to this model,…
We compare the angular momentum extracted by a wind from a pre-main-sequence star to the torques arising from the interaction between the star and its Keplerian accretion disk. We find that the wind alone can counteract the spin-up torque…
The standard picture of accretion is a steady flow of matter from the disc onto the young star - a concept which assumes the star-disc system to be completely isolated. However, in a dense cluster environment star-disc systems do interact…
We investigate the evolution of accretion luminosity $L_{\rm acc}$ and stellar luminosity ${L_\ast}$ in pre-mainsequence stars. We make the assumption that when the star appears as a Class II object, the major phase of accretion is long…
Planet formation is sensitive to the conditions in protoplanetary disks, for which scaling laws as a function of stellar mass are known. We aim to test whether the observed population of planets around low-mass stars can be explained by…
In recent years a correlation between mass accretion rates onto new-born stars and their proto-planetary disc masses was detected in nearby young star-forming regions. Although such a correlation can be interpreted as due to…
The final mass of a newborn star is set at the epoch when the mass accretion onto the star is terminated. We study the evolution of accreting protostars and the limits of accretion in low metallicity environments. Accretion rates onto…
Direct imaging searches have revealed many very low-mass objects, including a small number of planetary mass objects, as wide-orbit companions to young stars. The formation mechanism of these objects remains uncertain. In this paper we…
Star-disk interaction is thought to drive the angular momentum evolution of young stars. In this review, I present the latest results obtained on the rotational properties of low mass and very low mass pre-main sequence stars. I discuss the…
We explore how measurements of protoplanetary disc masses and accretion rates provided by surveys of star forming regions can be analysed via the dimensionless accretion parameter, which we define as the product of the accretion rate and…
We have studied numerically the evolution of protostellar disks around intermediate and upper mass T Tauri stars (0.25 M_sun < M_st < 3.0 M_sun) that have formed self-consistently from the collapse of molecular cloud cores. In the T Tauri…
In the earliest phases of their evolution, stars gain mass through the acquisition of matter from their birth clouds. The widely accepted classical concept of early stellar evolution neglects the details of this accretion phase and assumes…