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arXiv · 2405.04461

SPIRou spectropolarimetry of the T Tauri star TW Hydrae: magnetic fields, accretion and planets

J. -F. Donati·P. I. Cristofari·L. T. Lehmann·C. Moutou·S. H. P. Alencar·J. Bouvier·L. Arnold·X. Delfosse·E. Artigau·N. Cook·Á. Kóspál·F. Ménard·C. Baruteau·M. Takami·S. Cabrit·G. Hébrard·R. Doyon·the SPIRou science team
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Abstract

In this paper we report near-infrared observations of the classical T Tauri star TW Hya with the SPIRou high-resolution spectropolarimeter and velocimeter at the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. By applying Least-Squares Deconvolution (LSD) to our circularly polarized spectra, we derived longitudinal fields that vary from year to year from -200 to +100 G, and exhibit low-level modulation on the 3.6 d rotation period of TW Hya, despite the star being viewed almost pole-on. We then used Zeeman-Doppler Imaging to invert our sets of unpolarized and circularly-polarized LSD profiles into brightness and magnetic maps of TW Hya in all 4 seasons, and obtain that the large-scale field of this T Tauri star mainly consists of a 1.0-1.2 kG dipole tilted at about 20{\deg} to the rotation axis, whereas the small-scale field reaches strengths of up to 3-4 kG. We find that the large-scale field is strong enough to allow TW Hya to accrete material from the disc on the polar regions at the stellar surface in a more or less geometrically stable accretion pattern, but not to succeed in spinning down the star. We also report the discovery of a radial velocity signal of semi-amplitude $11.1^{+3.3}_{-2.6}$ m/s (detected at 4.3$\sigma$ at a period of 8.3 d in the spectrum of TW Hya, whose origin may be attributed to either a non-axisymmetric density structure in the inner accretion disc, or to a $0.55^{+0.17}_{-0.13}$ Jupiter mass candidate close-in planet (if orbiting in the disc plane), at an orbital distance of $0.075\pm0.001$ au.

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J. -F. Donati, P. I. Cristofari, L. T. Lehmann, C. Moutou, S. H. P. Alencar, J. Bouvier, L. Arnold, X. Delfosse, E. Artigau, N. Cook, Á. Kóspál, F. Ménard, C. Baruteau, M. Takami, S. Cabrit, G. Hébrard, R. Doyon, the SPIRou science team. 2024-05-07. SPIRou spectropolarimetry of the T Tauri star TW Hydrae: magnetic fields, accretion and planets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04461

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