A 10-micron Search for Inner-Truncated Disks Among Pre-Main-Sequence Stars With Photometric
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arXiv:astro-ph/0010657v1 31 Oct 2000A10µmSearchforInner-TruncatedDisksAmongPre-Main-SequenceStarswithPhotometricRotationPeriods
KeivanG.Stassun1andRobertD.Mathieu1
FrederickJ.Vrba2
TseviMazeh3
ArneHenden2Received–2–
ABSTRACT
Weusemid-IR(primarily10µm)photometryasadiagnosticforthepres-
enceofdiskswithinnercavitiesamong32pre-mainsequencestarsinOrion
andTaurus-Aurigaforwhichrotationperiodsareknownandwhichdonotshow
evidenceforinnerdisksatnear-IRwavelengths.Diskswithinnercavitiesare
predictedbymagneticdisk-lockingmodelsthatseektoexplaintheregulation
ofangularmomentuminTTauristars.Onlythreestarsinoursampleshow
evidenceforexcessmid-IRemission.Whilethesethreestarsmaypossesstrun-
cateddisksconsistentwithmagneticdisk-lockingmodels,theremaining29stars
inoursampledonot.Apparently,starslackingnear-IRexcessesingeneraldo
notpossesstruncateddiskstowhichtheyaremagneticallycoupled.
Wediscusstheimplicationsofthisresultforthehypothesisofdisk-regulated
angularmomentum.Evidently,youngstarscanexistasslowrotatorswithout
theaidofpresentdisk-locking,andthereexistveryyoungstarsalreadyrotating
nearbreakupvelocitywhosesubsequentangularmomentumevolutionwillnotbe
regulatedbydisks.Moreover,wequestionwhetherdisks,whenpresent,truncate
inthemannerrequiredbydisk-lockingscenarios.Finally,wediscusstheneed
forrotationalevolutionmodelstotakefullaccountofthelargedispersionof
rotationratespresentat1Myr,whichmayallowthemodelstoexplainthe
rotationalevolutionoflow-masspre-mainsequencestarsinawaythatdoesnot
dependuponbrakingbydisks.
Subjectheadings:accretion,accretiondisks—stars:evolution—stars:
formation—stars:pre-mainsequence—stars:rotation–3–
1.Introduction
Akeystoneofthecurrentparadigmofrotationalevolutionamonglow-masspre-main-
sequence(PMS)starsistheregulationofstellarangularmomentumbycircumstellar
disks.Indeed,mostrotationalevolutionmodelstodayrelychieflyuponsomeformof
disk-regulatedstellarangularmomentumtoconnecttherotationalpropertiesofTTauri
stars(TTS)tothoseofzero-agemainsequence(ZAMS)stars(Bouvier,Forestini,&Allain
1997;Krishnamurthietal.1997;CollierCameron,Campbell,&Quaintrell1995).The
theoreticaledificesupportingthedisk-regulationparadigmhasbeendevelopedbyseveral
researchers(K¨onigl1991;Ostriker&Shu1995;Yi1995;CollierCameron&Campbell
1993;Ghosh&Lamb1979a,1979b),whereinasteady-state,magneticallymediated,
star-diskcouplingmechanismkeepsthestaratroughlyconstantangularvelocityforthe
lifetimeofthedisk,preventingthestarfromspinningupasitcontracts.Thismagnetic
disk-lockingmodelprovidesanattractivesolutiontothelong-standingpuzzleofhowstars
depleteangularmomentumastheyevolvetothemainsequence(Stauffer&Hartmann
1987).
Observationalinvestigationsofdisk-regulatedangularmomentumhaveyieldedmixed
results.Insupportofdisk-locking,severalauthorshave,eitherdirectlyorindirectly,linked
diskstoslowstellarrotation.Forexample,Herbstandcollaborators(Choi&Herbst1996,
andreferencestherein)havereportedthedistributionofTTSrotationperiodsintheOrion
NebulaCluster(ONC)tobedistinctlybimodal.Theslowrotators(Prot>4days),they
suggest,representthosestarsthatarepresently,orwereuntilrecently,disk-locked.More
directsupporthasbeenpresentedbyEdwardsetal.(1993),whoreportedacorrelation
betweenthepresenceofexcessnear-IRemissionandslowstellarrotationamong34TTSin
TaurusandOrion.ConsideringstarsintheirsamplelaterthanK5,thoseauthorsfound
excessnear-IRemissionamongnoneoftherapidrotatorsbutamonghalfoftheslow–4–
rotators.Bouvieretal.(1993)reportedsimilarresultsamong26TTSinTaurus-Auriga.
TheyfoundthattheclassicalTTS(CTTS;thoseshowingevidenceofactiveaccretionand
circumstellardisks)intheirsamplerotatemoreslowlyonaveragethantheirweak-lined
(WTTS)counterparts.Incontrasttothesestudies,wedidnotfindstrongevidencefora
bimodaldistributionofrotationperiods,nordidwefindevidenceforalinkagebetween
disksandslowstellarrotation,inourownstudyofdisksandstellarrotationinOrion
(Stassunetal.1999,hereafterPaperI;seealsoStassunetal.2000foraconcisesummary).
Among254starswith0.1
bestatisticallyconsistentwithauniformdistribution.Moreover,wefoundnear-IRexcesses
tobepresentwithroughlyequalfrequencyamongbothslowandrapidrotatorswhenwe
combinedourrotationperiodswithnear-IRphotometryfromtheliterature(Hillenbrandet
al.1998)formorethan100starsinoursample.
Herbstetal.(2000)haveshownthatsubdividingtheONCsamplebymasscan
reconcilesomeofthesecontradictoryfindings.Theyfindthatthebimodaldistributionof
rotationperiodsinOrionholdstruewhentheyconsideronlystarswithM⋆>0.25M⊙,i.e.
earlierthanaboutM3.Forthesestars,theyalsofindaweakbutstatisticallysignificant
correlationbetweennear-IRexcessandstellarrotationperiod;theslowerrotatorstendto
exhibitlargernear-IRexcesses.
WhethertheseIRobservationsofTTSinfactagreewiththepredictionsofdisk-locking