Measurements of Ca II Infrared Triplet Lines of Young Stellar Objects

TL;DR

This study measures Ca II infrared triplet lines in young stellar objects, revealing that line strength decreases with stellar evolution and correlates with mass accretion rates, supporting magnetic accretion models.

Contribution

It provides new high-resolution spectral measurements of Ca II lines in young stars, challenging the link between chromospheric activity and stellar rotation.

Findings

Ca II line strength decreases with stellar evolution.

No clear correlation between Ca II lines and stellar rotation velocity.

Stronger Ca II emission lines are associated with higher mass accretion rates.

Abstract

Equivalent widths and line widths of Ca II infrared triplet emission lines were measured in high-resolution optical spectra of 39 young stellar objects.We found that the equivalent widths of the emission lines decrease with stellar evolution. It has been often claimed that strong chromospheric activity is generated by a dynamo process caused by fast rotation of the photosphere. However, we found no clear correlation between the strength of the Ca II lines and the stellar rotation velocity. Instead, we found that the objects with high mass accretion rates had stronger Ca II emission lines. This correlation supports the turbulent chromosphere model or the magnetic accretion theory for classical T Tauri stars. We also noticed that the equivalent widths of Ca II lines of transitional disk objects are one-tenth of those of classical T Tauri stars, even if the masses of the circumstellar disks are comparable.