CSI 2264: Characterizing Young Stars in NGC 2264 With Short-Duration Periodic Flux Dips in Their Light Curves

Journal
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Stauffer, John
•
Cody, Ann Marie
•
McGinnis, Pauline
•
Rebull, Luisa
•
Hillenbrand, Lynne A.
•
Turner, Neal J.
•
Carpenter, John
•
Plavchan, Peter
•
Carey, Sean
•
Terebey, Susan
•
Morales-Calderón, María
•
Alencar, Silvia H. P.
•
Bouvier, Jerome
•
•
Hartmann, Lee
•
Calvet, Nuria
•
•
•
Song, Inseok
•
Gutermuth, Rob
•
Barrado, David
•
Vrba, Frederick J.
•
Covey, Kevin
•
Padgett, Debbie
•
Herbst, William
•
Gillen, Edward
•
Lyra, Wladimir
•
Medeiros Guimaraes, Marcelo
•
Bouy, Herve
•
DOI
Description
This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope , which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. This research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and with the support of the NASA Origins of Solar Systems program via grant 11-OSS11-0074. R.G. gratefully acknowledges funding support from NASA ADAP grants NNX11AD14G and NNX13AF08G and Caltech/JPL awards 1373081, 1424329, and 1440160 in support of Spitzer Space Telescope observing programs. SHPA and PTM acknowledge support from CNPq, CAPES and Fapemig. Facilities: Spitzer (IRAC) , CFHT (MegaCam) , VLT: Kueyen .
Abstract
We identify nine young stellar objects (YSOs) in the NGC 2264 star-forming region with optical CoRoT light curves exhibiting short-duration, shallow periodic flux dips. All of these stars have infrared excesses that are consistent with their having inner disk walls near the Keplerian co-rotation radius. The repeating photometric dips have FWHMs generally less than 1 day, depths almost always less than 15%, and periods (3 < P < 11 days) consistent with dust near the Keplerian co-rotation period. The flux dips vary considerably in their depth from epoch to epoch, but usually persist for several weeks and, in two cases, were present in data collected in successive years. For several of these stars, we also measure the photospheric rotation period and find that the rotation and dip periods are the same, as predicted by standard “disk-locking” models. We attribute these flux dips to clumps of material in or near the inner disk wall, passing through our line of sight to the stellar photosphere. In some cases, these dips are also present in simultaneous Spitzer IRAC light curves at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. We characterize the properties of these dips, and compare the stars with light curves exhibiting this behavior to other classes of YSOs in NGC 2264. A number of physical mechanisms could locally increase the dust scale height near the inner disk wall, and we discuss several of those mechanisms; the most plausible mechanisms are either a disk warp due to interaction with the stellar magnetic field or dust entrained in funnel-flow accretion columns arising near the inner disk wall.

Based on data from the Spitzer and CoRoT missions, as well as the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) MegaCam CCD, and the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, Paranal Chile, under program 088.C-0239. The CoRoT space mission was developed and is operated by the French space agency CNES, with participation of ESA’s RSSD and Science Programmes, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, and Spain. MegaCam is a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institute National des Sciences de l’Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, and the University of Hawaii.

Volume
149
Issue
4
Start page
130
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-6256
Ads BibCode
2015AJ....149..130S
Rights
open.access
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