Mid-IR Observations of T Tauri stars: Probing the Star-Disk Connection
Abstract
We present mid-IR N-band (λ (eff) = 10.16 μ m) observations of a carefully selected sample of single young stars found in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. To understand early circumstellar disk evolution, we must distinguish between evolutionary effects of star+disk systems and dynamical effects of any possible companions. Combining observations at 10.16 μ m with those at 2.2 μ m (K-band), we probe a region in the disks between 0.05-2.0 AU. Analyzing the relationship between the K-N color index and the rotation period of the central star, we can investigate the role circumstellar disks play in regulating the angular momentum of the star in the pre-main sequence stage. Previous work in the Taurus cloud (Edwards et al. 1993; Bouvier et al. 1993) suggests that slowly rotating T Tauri stars possess optically-thick inner accretion disks, while rapidly rotating stars lack such disks. We extend these results with 10 micron observations of weak-emission T Tauri stars in Taurus and compare our results to those of Stassun et al. (2001) for youngstars in the Orion Nebula Cluster.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AAS...205.1604K