1996/06/18 by Robert Popham, Scott J. Kenyon, Scott Kenyon +2 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Angular momentum #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Classical mechanics #Geometry #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Physics #Rotation (mathematics) #Rotation period #Spectral line #Stars #Stellar rotation #T Tauri star #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/178155
29 pages, LaTeX, uses aaspp4.sty, with 7 Postscript figures, tarred, gzipped, uuencoded. To appear in the Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 1996/06/18 · openalex publication_date 1996/12/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present solutions for the accretion disks and boundary layers in pre-main-sequence stars undergoing FU Orionis outbursts. These solutions differ from earlier disk solutions in that they include a self-consistent treatment of the boundary layer region. In a previous paper, Popham showed that these stars should stop accreting angular momentum once they spin up to modest rotation rates. Here we show that for reasonable values of α, these low angular momentum accretion rate solutions fit the spectra and line profiles observed in FU Orionis objects better than solutions with high rates of angular momentum accretion. We find solutions that fit the observations of FU Orionis and V1057 Cygni. These solutions have mass accretion rates of 2 and 1 × 10 –4 M ☉ yr –1 , stellar masses of 0.7 and 0.5 M ☉ , and stellar radii of 5.75 and 5.03 R ☉ , respectively. They also have modest stellar rotation rates 8-9 × 10 –6 s –1 , comparable to the observed rotation rates of T Tauri stars, and angular momentum accretion rates of zero. This supports our earlier suggestion that FU Orionis outbursts may regulate the rotation rates of T Tauri stars.