Disc wind models for FU Ori objects

Journal article

We present disc wind models aimed at reproducing the main features of the strong Na I resonance line P Cygni profiles in the rapidly accreting pre-main-sequence FU Ori objects. We conducted Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations for a standard magnetocentrifugally driven wind (MHD) model and our own ‘Genwind’ models, which allows for a more flexible wind parametrization. We find that the fiducial MHD wind and similar Genwind models, which have flows emerging outward from the inner disc edge, and thus have polar cavities with no absorbing gas, cannot reproduce the deep, wide NaI absorption lines in FU Ori objects viewed at low inclination. We find that it is necessary to include an ‘inner wind’ to fill this polar cavity to reproduce observations. In addition, our models assuming pure scattering source functions in the Sobolev approximation at intermediate viewing angles (30◦ ≲ i ≲ 60◦) do not yield sufficiently deep line profiles. Assuming complete absorption yields better agreement with observations, but simple estimates strongly suggest that pure scattering should be a much better approximation. The discrepancy may indicate that the Sobolev approximation is not applicable, possibly due to turbulence or non-monotonic velocity fields; there is some observational evidence for the latter. Our results provide guidance for future attempts to constrain FU Ori wind properties using full MHD wind simulations, by pointing to the importance of the boundary conditions necessary to give rise to an inner wind, and by suggesting that the winds must be turbulent to produce sufficiently deep line profiles.

Authors: Milliner, K; Matthews, JH; Long, KS; Hartmann, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 483
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1663–1673
• Publication date: 2018-11-28
• Acceptance date: 2018-11-21
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty3197
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: stars: winds, outflows; line: profiles; stars: pre-mainsequence; accretion, accretion discs; radiative transfer