Artículos de revistas
Spatially resolved magnetic field structure in the disk of a T Tauri star
Fecha
2014-10Registro en:
Stephens, Ian W. ; Looney, Leslie W. ; Kwon, Woojin ; Fernandez Lopez, Manuel; Hughes, A. Meredith ; et al.; Spatially resolved magnetic field structure in the disk of a T Tauri star; Nature Publishing Group; Nature; 154; 7524; 10-2014; 597–599
0028-0836
Autor
Stephens, Ian W.
Looney, Leslie W.
Kwon, Woojin
Fernandez Lopez, Manuel
Hughes, A. Meredith
Mundy, Lee G.
Crutcher, Richard M.
Li, Zhi Yun
Rao, Ramprasad
Resumen
Magnetic fields in accretion disks play a dominant role during the star formation process but have hitherto been observationally poorly constrained. Field strengths have been inferred on T Tauri stars themselves and possibly in the innermost part of the accretion disk, but the strength and morphology of the field in the bulk of the disk have not been observed. Unresolved measurements of polarized emission (arising from elongated dust grains aligned perpendicular to the field) imply average fields aligned with the disks. Theoretically, the fields are expected to be largely toroidal, poloidal, or a mixture of the two, which imply different mechanisms for transporting angular momentum in the disks of actively accreting young stars such as HL Tau. Here we report resolved measurements of the polarized 1.25 mm continuum emission from HL Tau's disk. The magnetic field on a scale of 80 AU is coincident with the major axis (~210 AU diameter) of the disk. From this we conclude that the magnetic field inside the disk at this scale cannot be dominated by a vertical component, though a purely toroidal field does not fit the data well either. The unexpected morphology suggests that the magnetic field's role for the accretion of a T Tauri star is more complex than the current theoretical understanding.