XMM-NEWTON MONITORING OF THE CLOSE PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE BINARY AK SCO. EVIDENCE OF TIDE-DRIVEN FILLING OF THE INNER GAP IN THE CIRCUMBINARY DISK

AK Sco stands out among pre-main-sequence binaries because of its prominent ultraviolet excess, the high eccentricity of its orbit, and the strong tides driven by it. AK Sco consists of two F5-type stars that get as close as 11R at periastron passage. The presence of a dense (n[sube] ~ 10[sup 11] cm...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2013-03, Vol.766 (1), p.1-14, Article 62
Main Authors: Gomez, Ana Ines, Lopez-Santiago, Javier, Talavera, Antonio, YU, A, BISIKALO, D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accretion
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Contact angle
DENSITY
Disks
DISTURBANCES
Eccentric orbits
Eccentricity
EMISSION
LINE BROADENING
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
OPTICALLY THIN PLASMA
ORBITS
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
TELESCOPES
Ultraviolet
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
X RADIATION
XMM (spacecraft)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:AK Sco stands out among pre-main-sequence binaries because of its prominent ultraviolet excess, the high eccentricity of its orbit, and the strong tides driven by it. AK Sco consists of two F5-type stars that get as close as 11R at periastron passage. The presence of a dense (n[sube] ~ 10[sup 11] cm[sup -3]) extended envelope has been unveiled recently. In this article, we report the results from an XMM-Newton-based monitoring of the system. We show that the eccentric orbit acts like a gravitational piston. At apastron, matter is dragged efficiently from the inner disk border, filling the inner gap and producing accretion streams that end as ring-like structures around each component of the system. At periastron, the ring-like structures come into contact, leading to angular momentum loss, and thus producing an accretion outburst.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/766/1/62