MN Lup: X-rays from a weakly accreting T Tauri star

TL;DR

This study investigates MN Lup, a young T Tauri star with no IR disk detection, revealing ongoing low-rate accretion through X-ray and optical observations, and highlighting its unique short-lived disk evolution stage.

Contribution

The paper presents the first detailed X-ray and optical analysis of MN Lup, demonstrating accretion without a detectable dust disk, indicating a transient evolutionary phase.

Findings

MN Lup is an active star with near-saturation X-ray luminosity.

High-density X-ray plasma consistent with accretion shock models.

Detection of a stellar prominence in Halpha, unique among T Tauri stars.

Abstract

Young T Tauri stars (TTS) are surrounded by an accretion disk, which over time disperses due to photoevaporation, accretion, and possibly planet formation. The accretion shock on the central star produces an UV/optical veiling continuum, line emission, and X-ray signatures. As the accretion rate decreases, the impact on the central star must change. In this article we study MN Lup, a young star where no indications of a disk are seen in IR observations. We present XMM-Newton and VLT/UVES observations, some of them taken simultaneously. The X-ray data show that MN Lup is an active star with L_X/L_bol close to the saturation limit. However, we find high densities (n_e > 3e10 /cm^3) in the X-ray grating spectrum. This can be well fitted using an accretion shock model with an accretion rate of 2e-11 M_sun/yr. Despite the simple Halpha line profile which has a broad component, but no absorption signatures as typically seen on accreting TTS, we find rotational modulation in Ca II K and in photospheric absorption lines. In the Halpha line we see a prominence in absorption about 2R_* above the stellar surface - the first of its kind on a TTS. MN Lup is also the only TTS where accretion is seen, but no dust disk is detected that could fuel it. We suggest that MN Lup presents a unique and short-lived state in the disk evolution. It may have lost its dust disk only recently and is now accreting the remaining gas at a very low rate.