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Published July 20, 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

A correlation between pre-main-sequence stellar rotation rates and IRAC excesses in Orion

Abstract

Early observations of T Tauri stars suggested that stars with evidence of circumstellar accretion disks rotated slower than stars without such evidence, but more recent results are not as clear. Near-IR circumstellar disk indicators, although the most widely available, are subject to uncertainties that can result from inner disk holes and/or the system inclination. Mid-infrared observations are less sensitive to such effects, but until now, these observations have been difficult to obtain. The Spitzer Space Telescope now easily enables mid-infrared measurements of large samples of PMS stars covering a broad mass range in nearby star-forming regions. Megeath and collaborators surveyed the Orion Molecular Clouds (~1 Myr) with the IRAC instrument (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8μm) as part of a joint IRAC and MIPS GTO program. We examine the relationship between rotation and Spitzer mid-IR fluxes for ~900 stars in Orion for stars between 3 and 0.1 M(.). We find in these Spitzer data the clearest indication to date that stars with longer periods are more likely than those with short periods to have IR excesses suggestive of disks.

Additional Information

© 2006. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2005 December 9; accepted 2006 March 20. L.M.R. wishes to acknowledge many helpful conversations with S.E. Strom and S.C. Wolff. This work is based in part 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 has made extensive use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. The research described in this paper was partially carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Support fo S.T.M. was provided by NASA through contract 1256790, issued by JPL/Caltech.

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