Detailed characterization of stellar high energy (FUV/EUV/X-ray) radiation fields during protoplanetary system formation

Young stars undergoing the conversion of pre-main-sequence circumstellar disks into protoplanetary systems are strong sources of high energy (FUV/EUV/X-ray) radiation that controls the physical and chemical processes in their circumstellar environment out to hundreds of AU from the star. The high energy radiation resulting from magnetic activity and accretion onto the central star controls the thermal structure of disks, the formation process of planetesimals, and the photoexcitation and photoionization of protoplanets and young planetary atmospheres. Modeling of the dust and gas evolution requires an accurate understanding of the local radiation field throughout the ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray spectral regions, even those parts of the spectrum that are impossible to observe from Earth.

Our current research efforts are directed towards developing a better understanding of UV (using HST and FUSE) and X-ray (using Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift) stellar activity and the resulting radiation fields during pre-main-sequence evolution from ages of a few to several hundred million years. These studies include extensive UV and X-ray spectral sampling of individual stars in nearby star formation regions and the various moving groups of the Local Association, including our HST Cycle 17 Large Project (GO-11616), which is using 111 HST orbits to observe 32 T Tauri stars with the COS UV spectrograph. Most young stars are well over 100 pc from the Sun and are consequently hard to observe in the UV and X-ray regions at even moderate spectral resolution. However, members of the Local Association, whose ages range from 7 Myr to a few hundred Myr, surround the Sun at distances of 50 pc or less and permit the detailed study of the later stages of the early evolution of stellar activity when gas giant and terrestrial protoplanets are forming. We illustrate our methodology using the 12 Myr old early-M dwarf AU Mic, which possesses a striking dust debris disk, as an example.