Accretion onto Pre-Main-Sequence Stars

Abstract

Accretion through circumstellar disks plays an important role in star formation and in establishing the properties of the regions in which planets form and migrate. The mechanisms by which protostellar and protoplanetary disks accrete onto low-mass stars are not clear; angular momentum transport by magnetic fields is thought to be involved, but the low-ionization conditions in major regions of protoplanetary disks lead to a variety of complex nonideal magnetohydrodynamic effects whose implications are not fully understood. Accretion in pre-main-sequence stars of masses ≲1M⊙ (and in at least some 2–3-M⊙ systems) is generally funneled by the stellar magnetic field, which disrupts the disk at scales typically of order a few stellar radii. Matter moving at near free-fall velocities shocks at the stellar surface; the resulting accretion luminosities from the dissipation of kinetic energy indicate that mass addition during the T Tauri phase over the typical disk lifetime ∼3 Myr is modest in terms of stellar evolution, but is comparable to total disk reservoirs as estimated from millimeter-wave dust emission (∼10−2 M⊙). Pre-main-sequence accretion is not steady, encompassing timescales ranging from approximately hours to a century, with longer-timescale variations tending to be the largest. Accretion during the protostellar phase—while the protostellar envelope is still falling onto the disk—is much less well understood, mostly because the properties of the central obscured protostar are difficult to estimate. Kinematic measurements of protostellar masses with new interfometric facilities should improve estimates of accretion rates during the earliest phases of star formation.