The Origin of T Tauri X-Ray Emission: New Insights from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project
Abstract
The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) provides the most comprehensive data set ever acquired on the X-ray emission of pre-main-sequence stars. In this paper, we study the nearly 600 X-ray sources that can be reliably identified with optically well-characterized T Tauri stars (TTSs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster. With a detection limit of LX,min~1027.3 ergs s-1 for lightly absorbed sources, we detect X-ray emission from more than 97% of the optically visible late-type (spectral types F-M) cluster stars. This proves that there is no ``X-ray-quiet'' population of late-type stars with suppressed magnetic activity. We use this exceptional optical, infrared, and X-ray data set to study the dependencies of the X-ray properties on other stellar parameters. All TTSs with known rotation periods lie in the saturated or supersaturated regime of the relation between activity and Rossby numbers seen for main-sequence (MS) stars, but the TTSs show a much larger scatter in X-ray activity than that seen for the MS stars. Strong near-linear relations between X-ray luminosities, bolometric luminosities, and mass are present. We also find that the fractional X-ray luminosity LX/Lbol rises slowly with mass over the 0.1-2 Msolar range. The plasma temperatures determined from the X-ray spectra of the TTSs are much hotter than in MS stars but seem to follow a general solar-stellar correlation between plasma temperature and activity level. The scatter about the relations between X-ray activity and stellar parameters is larger than the expected effects of X-ray variability, uncertainties in the variables, and unresolved binaries. This large scatter seems to be related to the influence of accretion on the X-ray emission. While the X-ray activity of the nonaccreting TTSs is consistent with that of rapidly rotating MS stars, the accreting stars are less X-ray active (by a factor of ~2-3 on average) and produce much less well-defined correlations than the nonaccretors. We discuss possible reasons for the suppression of X-ray emission by accretion and the implications of our findings on long-standing questions related to the origin of the X-ray emission from young stars, considering in particular the location of the X-ray-emitting structures and inferences for pre-main-sequence magnetic dynamos.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- October 2005
- DOI:
- 10.1086/432891
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0506526
- Bibcode:
- 2005ApJS..160..401P
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxy: Open Clusters and Associations: Individual: Name: Orion Nebula Cluster;
- Stars: Activity;
- Stars: Magnetic Fields;
- Stars: Pre-Main-Sequence;
- X-Rays: Stars;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- accepted for ApJS, COUP Special Issue