The influence of radiative core growth on coronal X-ray emission from pre-main sequence stars
Date
21/04/2016Funder
Grant ID
ST/J003255/1
ST/I000666/1
PP/D000890/1
ST/M001296/1
ST/G001006/1
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Pre-main sequence (PMS) stars of mass ≳ 0.35 M⊙ transition from hosting fully convective interiors to configurations with a radiative core and outer convective envelope during their gravitational contraction. This stellar structure change influences the external magnetic field topology and, as we demonstrate herein, affects the coronal X-ray emission as a stellar analog of the solar tachocline develops. We have combined archival X-ray, spectroscopic, and photometric data for ∼1000 PMS stars from five of the best studied star forming regions; the ONC, NGC 2264, IC 348, NGC 2362, and NGC 6530. Using a modern, PMS calibrated, spectral type-to-effective temperature and intrinsic colour scale, we deredden the photometry using colours appropriate for each spectral type, and determine the stellar mass, age, and internal structure consistently for the entire sample. We find that PMS stars on Henyey tracks have, on average, lower fractional X-ray luminosities (LX/L★) than those on Hayashi tracks, where this effect is driven by changes in LX. X-ray emission decays faster with age for higher mass PMS stars. There is a strong correlation between L★ and LX for Hayashi track stars but no correlation for Henyey track stars. There is no correlation between LX and radiative core mass or radius. However, the longer stars have spent with radiative cores, the less X-ray luminous they become. The decay of coronal X-ray emission from young early K to late G-type PMS stars, the progenitors of main sequence A-type stars, is consistent with the dearth of X-ray detections of the latter.
Citation
Gregory , S , Adams , F C & Davies , C 2016 , ' The influence of radiative core growth on coronal X-ray emission from pre-main sequence stars ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 457 , no. 4 , pp. 3836-3858 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw259
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0035-8711Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 The Authors, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw259
Description
SGG acknowledges support from the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) via an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship [ST/J003255/1]. CLD acknowledges support from STFC via a PhD studentship and additional funding via the STFC Studentship Enhancement Programme [ST/J500744/1], and support from the ERC Starting Grant "Image-PlanetFormDiscs" (Grant Agreement No. 639889).Collections
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