Accretion and inter-cycle variations in the PMS interacting binary AK Sco

TL;DR

This study monitors the pre-main sequence binary AK Sco during three periastron passages, revealing accretion rate enhancements, inter-cycle variability, and flow channeling, providing insights into accretion processes in young stellar binaries.

Contribution

First spectroscopic characterization of accretion and variability in AK Sco across multiple periastron passages with Hubble observations.

Findings

Accretion rate enhancement observed during cycles 1 and 3.

Detection of flow channeling into one component in cycle 3.

Cycle-to-cycle UV flux increase without corresponding accretion signatures.

Abstract

There are only a handful of known short-period pre-main sequence spectroscopic binaries with significant accretion rates (Class II sources). AK Sco stands out in this list because the system is composed of two equal mass F5 stars in a highly eccentric orbit thus both stars get as close as 11 stellar radii at periastron passage. This configuration is optimal for accretion studies because enhance accretion events can be precisely timed at periastron passage. In this work, we present the results from the monitoring of the AK Sco system with Hubble during three consecutive periastron passages. These data provide a unique dataset to spectroscopically characterize accretion and evaluate the inter-cycle variability of the system. Clear evidence of accretion rate enhancement was observed in cycle1 and 3: the blueing of the near UV continuum, the sudden flux increase of important accretion tracers, such as the N V, Si IV and C IV lines, and also of neutral/singly ionized species such as O I and C II. Also, variations in the Si III]/C III] ratio reveals an enhancement of the electron density by an order of magnitude during the periastron passage. Moreover, in cycle 3, the spectral resolution of the observations obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph enabled discerning that the flow was channelled preferentially into one of the two components. The most remarkable feature in the cycle-to-cycle variations was the detection of a notable increase of the UV flux from cycle 1 to 2 that was not accompanied by enhanced accretion signatures.