Accretion bursts in young stars driven by cluster environment

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational interactions in dense star clusters can trigger episodic accretion bursts in young stars, leading to significant and observable increases in accretion rates beyond steady disk accretion.

Contribution

It introduces a combined simulation approach to quantify encounter-induced accretion bursts in dense clusters like the ONC, revealing their frequency and impact.

Findings

Encounter-triggered accretion bursts are common in dense clusters.

Up to a third of stars in the Trapezium region accreted at least 1% of their disc mass.

Single encounters can lead to accretion of over 6-7% of disc material.

Abstract

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 gravitationally. The aim here is to estimate the encounter-induced accretion rate in an ONC-like environment. Combining simulations of the cluster dynamics with simulations of the effect of encounters on star-disc systems we determine the likelihood and degree of encounter-triggered accretion processes. We show that accretion bursts triggered by encounters of star-disc systems are common in young dense clusters like the ONC leading in the outburst phase to typical accretion rates of 10^(-7)-10^(-4) M(sun)/yr. Up to a third of stars presently in the Trapezium region accreted at least 1% of their disc mass via this mechanism in the last 1Myr. Accretion of over 6-7% of the disc material can occur in a single encounter. Despite losing their discs quickly, the total percentage of disc matter accreted per star is largest for the massive stars. Supplementing the steady accretion flow there exist episodic periods of high accretion in dense cluster environments. Due to their high accretion rate these processes should be observable even now in some of the low-mass stars in the ONC.