Multiepoch, multiwavelength study of accretion onto T Tauri: X-ray versus optical and UV accretion tracers

TL;DR

This study combines X-ray, UV, and optical observations of T Tauri stars to investigate accretion processes, revealing that soft X-ray emission is not from accretion funnels and proposing a stratified accretion column model.

Contribution

It introduces a new model of radially density stratified accretion columns to reconcile X-ray and UV-NIR accretion diagnostics in T Tauri stars.

Findings

Soft excess in X-ray emission is large and not from accretion funnels.

Accretion rate and X-ray luminosity are inversely correlated.

Proposed stratified accretion column model explains density diagnostics.

Abstract

Classical T Tauri stars (CTTSs) accrete matter from the inner edge of their surrounding circumstellar disks. The impact of the accretion material on the stellar atmosphere results in a strong shock, which causes emission from the X-ray to the near-infrared (NIR) domain. Shock velocities of several 100 km s$^{-1}$ imply that the immediate post shock plasma emits mainly in X-rays. Indeed, two X-ray diagnostics, the so-called soft excess and the high densities observed in He-like triplets, differentiate CTTSs from their non-accreting siblings. However, accretion shock properties derived from X-ray diagnostics often contradict established ultraviolet (UV)-NIR accretion tracers and a physical model simultaneously explaining both, X-ray and UV-NIR accretion tracers, is not yet available. We present new XMM-Newton and Chandra grating observations of the CTTS T Tauri combined with UV and optical data. During all epochs, the soft excess is large and the densities derived from the O VII and Ne IX He-like triplets are compatible with coronal densities. This confirms that the soft X-ray emission cannot originate in accretion funnels that carry the bulk of the accretion rate despite T Tauri's large soft excess. Instead, we propose a model of radially density stratified accretion columns to explain the density diagnostics and the soft excess. In addition, accretion rate and X-ray luminosity are inversely correlated in T Tauri over several epochs. Such an anti-correlation has been observed in samples of stars. Hence the process causing it must be intrinsic to the accretion process, and we speculate that the stellar magnetic field configuration on the visibile hemisphere affects both the accretion rate and the coronal emission, eventually causing the observed anti-correlation.