arXiv subjects

E. Rigliaco

Publications and source records attributed to E. Rigliaco.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

The circumstellar environment of EX Lup: the SPHERE and SINFONI views

EX Lup is a well-studied T Tauri star that represents the prototype of young eruptive stars EXors. In this paper we analyze new adaptive optics imaging and spectroscopic observations of EX Lup and its circumstellar environment in near-infrared in its quiescent phase. We observed EX Lup with the high contrast imager SPHERE/IRDIS in the dual-beam polarimetric imaging mode to resolve the circumstellar environment in near-infrared scattered light. We complemented these data with earlier SINFONI spectroscopy. We resolve for the first time in scattered light a compact feature around EX Lup azimuthally extending from 280deg to 360deg, and radially extending from 0.3arcsec to 0.55arcsec in the plane of the disk. We explore two different scenarios for the detected emission. One accounting for the emission as coming from the brightened walls of the cavity excavated by the outflow whose presence was suggested by ALMA observations in the J=3-2 line of 12CO. The other accounts for the emission as coming from an inclined disk. We detect for the first time a more extended circumstellar disk in scattered light, which shows that a region between 10 and 30 au is depleted of mum-size grains. We compare the J-, H- and K-band spectra obtained with SINFONI in quiescence with the spectra taken during the outburst, showing that all the emission lines were due to the episodic accretion event. Conclusions. Based on the morphology analysis we favour the scenario in which the scattered light is coming from a circumstellar disk rather than the outflow around EX Lup. We analyze the origin of the observed feature either as coming from a continuous circumstellar disk with a cavity, or from the illuminated wall of the outer disk or from a shadowed disk. Moreover, we discuss what is the origin of the mum-size grains depleted region, exploring the possibility that a sub-stellar companion may be the cause of it.

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arXiv2020

X-Shooter survey of disk accretion in Upper Scorpius I. Very high accretion rates at age>5 Myr

Determining the mechanisms that drive the evolution of protoplanetary disks is a necessary step to understand how planets form. Here we measured the mass accretion rate for young stellar objects at age >5 Myr, a critical test for the current models of disk evolution. We present the analysis of the spectra of 36 targets in the ~5-10 Myr old Upper Scorpius region for which disk masses were measured with ALMA. We find that the mass accretion rates in this sample of old but still survived disks are similarly high as those of the younger (<3 Myr old) star-forming regions of Lupus and Cha I, when considering the dependence on stellar and disk mass. In particular, several disks show high mass accretion rates >10^-9 Msun/yr while having low disk masses. Furthermore, the median values of the measured mass accretion rates in the disk mass ranges where our sample is complete at a level ~60-80% are compatible in these three regions. At the same time, the spread of mass accretion rates at any given disk mass is still >0.9 dex even at age>5 Myr. These results are in contrast with simple models of viscous evolution, which would predict that the values of the mass accretion rate diminish with time, and a tighter correlation with disk mass at age>5 Myr. Similarly, simple models of internal photoevaporation cannot reproduce the observed mass accretion rates, while external photoevaporation might explain the low disk masses and high accretion rates. A partial possible solution to the discrepancy with the viscous models is that the gas-to-dust ratio of the disks at >5 Myr is significantly different and higher than the canonical 100, as suggested by some dust and gas disk evolution models. The results shown here require the presence of several inter-playing processes, such as detailed dust evolution, external photoevaporation and possibly MHD winds, to explain the secular evolution of protoplanetary disks.

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arXiv2020

The disk of 2MASS 15491331-3539118 = GQ Lup C as seen by HST and WISE

Very recently, a second companion on wider orbit has been discovered around GQ Lup. This is a low-mass accreting star partially obscured by a disk seen at high inclination. If detected, this disk may be compared to the known disk around the primary. We detected this disk on archive HST and WISE data. The extended spectral energy distribution provided by these data confirms the presence of accretion from Halpha emission and UV excess, and shows an IR excess attributable to a warm disk. In addition, we resolved the disk on the HST images. This is found to be roughly aligned with the disk of the primary. Both of them are roughly aligned with the Lupus I dust filament containing GQ Lup.

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arXiv2020

2MASS J15491331-3539118: a new low-mass wide companion of the GQ Lup system

Substellar companions at wide separation around stars hosting planets or brown dwarfs (BDs) yet close enough for their formation in the circumstellar disc are of special interest. In this letter we report the discovery of a wide (projected separation $\sim$16.0arcsec, or 2400 AU, and position angle 114.61$^\circ$) companion of the GQ Lup A-B system, most likely gravitationally bound to it. A VLT/X-Shooter spectrum shows that this star, 2MASS J15491331-3539118, is a bonafide low-mass ($\sim$0.15 M$_\odot$) young stellar object (YSO) with stellar and accretion/ejection properties typical of Lupus YSOs of similar mass, and with kinematics consistent with that of the GQ Lup A-B system. A possible scenario for the formation of the triple system is that GQ Lup A and 2MASS J15491331-3539118 formed by fragmentation of a turbulent core in the Lup I filament, while GQ Lup B, the BD companion of GQ Lup A at 0.7arcsec, formed in situ by the fragmentation of the circumprimary disc. The recent discoveries that stars form along cloud filaments would favour the scenario of turbulent fragmentation for the formation of GQ Lup A and 2MASS J15491331-3539118.

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arXiv2019

Investigating the nature of the extended structure around the Herbig star RCrA using integral field and high-resolution spectroscopy

We present a detailed analysis of the extended structure detected around the young and close-by Herbig Ae/Be star RCrA. This is a young triple system with an intermediate mass central binary whose separation is of the order of a few tens of the radii of the individual components, and an M-star companion at about 30 au. Our aim is to understand the nature of the extended structure by means of combining integral-field and high-resolution spectroscopy. We conducted the analysis based on FEROS archival optical spectroscopy data and adaptive optics images and integral-field spectra obtained with SINFONI and SPHERE at the VLT. The observations reveal a complex extended structure that is composed of at least two components: a non-uniform wide cavity whose walls are detected in continuum emission up to 400~au, and a collimated wiggling-jet detected in the emission lines of Helium and Hydrogen. Moreover, the presence of [FeII] emission projected close to the cavity walls suggests the presence of a slower moving wind, most likely a disk wind. The multiple components of the optical forbidden lines also indicate the presence of a high-velocity jet co-existing with a slow wind. We constructed a geometrical model of the collimated jet flowing within the cavity using intensity and velocity maps, finding that its wiggling is consistent with the orbital period of the central binary. The cavity and the jet do not share the same position angle, suggesting that the jet is itself experiencing a precession motion possibly due to the wide M-dwarf companion. We propose a scenario that closely agrees with the general expectation of a magneto-centrifugal-launched jet. These results build upon the extensive studies already conducted on RCrA.

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arXiv2019

GIARPS High-resolution Observations of T Tauri stars (GHOsT). I. Jet line emission

The mechanism for jet formation in the disks of T Tauri stars is poorly understood. Observational benchmarks to launching models can be provided by tracing the physical properties of the kinematic components of the wind and jet in the inner 100 au of the disk surface. In the framework of the GHOsT (GIARPS High-resolution Observations of T Tauri stars) project, we aim to perform a multi-line analysis of the velocity components of the gas in the jet acceleration zone. We analyzed the GIARPS-TNG spectra of six objects in the Taurus-Auriga complex (RY Tau, DG Tau, DL Tau, HN Tau, DO Tau, RW Aur A). Thanks to the combined high-spectral resolution (R=50000-115000) and wide spectral coverage (~400-2400 nm) we observed several O, S+, N, N+, and Fe+ forbidden lines spanning a large range of excitation and ionization conditions. In four objects (DG Tau, HN Tau, DO Tau, RW Aur A), temperature (T_e), electron and total density (n_e, n_H), and fractional ionization (x_e) were derived as a function of velocity through an excitation and ionization model. The abundance of gaseous iron, X(Fe), a probe of the dust content in the jet, was derived in selected velocity channels. The physical parameters vary smoothly with velocity, suggesting a common origin for the different kinematic components. In DG Tau and HN Tau, T_e, x_e, and X(Fe) increase with velocity (roughly from 6000 K, 0.05, 10% X(Fe)_sun to 15000 K, 0.6, 90% X(Fe)_sun). This trend is in agreement with disk-wind models in which the jet is launched from regions of the disk at different radii. In DO Tau and RW Aur A, we infer x_e < 0.1, n_H ~10^6-7 cm^-3, and X(Fe) <~ X(Fe)_sun at all velocities. These findings are tentatively explained by the formation of these jets from dense regions inside the inner, gaseous disk, or as a consequence of their high degree of collimation.

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arXiv2019

The origin of R CrA variability: A complex triple system hosting a disk

R~CrA is the brightest member of the Coronet star forming region and it is the closest Herbig AeBe star with a spectrum dominated by emission lines. Its luminosity has been monitored since the end of the 19th century, but the origin of its variability, which shows a stable period of $65.767\pm 0.007$~days, is still unknown. We studied photometric and spectroscopic data for this star to investigate the nature of the variability of R~CrA. We exploited the fact that near infrared luminosity of the Herbig AeBe stars is roughly proportional to the total luminosity of the stars to derive the absorption, and then mass and age of R~CrA. In addition, we model the periodic modulation of the light curve as due to partial attenuation of a central binary by a circumbinary disk. This model reproduces very well the observations. We found that the central object in R~CrA is a very young ($1.5\pm 1.5$~Myr), highly absorbed ($A_V=5.47\pm 0.4$~mag) binary; we obtain masses of $M_A=3.02\pm 0.43$~M$_\odot$ and $M_B=2.32\pm 0.35$~M$_\odot$ for the two components. We propose that the secular decrease of the R~CrA apparent luminosity is due to a progressive increase of the disk absorption. This might be related to precession of a slightly inclined disk caused by the recently discovered M-dwarf companion. Thus, R~CrA may be a triple system hosting a disk.

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arXiv2019

The newborn planet population emerging from ring-like structures in discs

ALMA has observed a plethora of ring-like structures in planet forming discs at distances of 10-100 au from their host star. Although several mechanisms have been invoked to explain the origin of such rings, a common explanation is that they trace new-born planets. Under the planetary hypothesis, a natural question is how to reconcile the apparently high frequency of gap-carving planets at 10-100 au with the paucity of Jupiter mass planets observed around main sequence stars at those separations. Here, we provide an analysis of the new-born planet population emerging from observations of gaps in discs, under the assumption that the observed gaps are due to planets. We use a simple estimate of the planet mass based on the gap morphology, and apply it to a sample of gaps recently obtained by us in a survey of Taurus with ALMA. We also include additional data from recent published surveys, thus analysing the largest gap sample to date, for a total of 48 gaps. The properties of the purported planets occupy a distinctively different region of parameter space with respect to the known exo-planet population, currently not accessible through planet finding methods. Thus, no discrepancy in the mass and radius distribution of the two populations can be claimed at this stage. We show that the mass of the inferred planets conforms to the theoretically expected trend for the minimum planet mass needed to carve a dust gap. Finally, we estimate the separation and mass of the putative planets after accounting for migration and accretion, for a range of evolutionary times, finding a good match with the distribution of cold Jupiters.

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arXiv2019

Exploring the RCrA environment with SPHERE: Discovery of a new stellar companion

Aims. R Coronae Australis (R CrA) is the brightest star of the Coronet nebula of the Corona Australis (CrA) star forming region. It has very red colors, probably due to dust absorption and it is strongly variable. High contrast instruments allow for an unprecedented direct exploration of the immediate circumstellar environment of this star. Methods. We observed R CrA with the near-IR channels (IFS and IRDIS) of SPHERE at VLT. In this paper, we used four different epochs, three of them from open time observations while one is from the SPHERE guaranteed time. The data were reduced using the DRH pipeline and the SPHERE Data Center. On the reduced data we implemented custom IDL routines with the aim to subtract the speckle halo.We have also obtained pupil-tracking H-band (1.45-1.85 micron) observations with the VLT/SINFONI near-infrared medium-resolution (R~3000) spectrograph. Results. A companion was found at a separation of 0.156" from the star in the first epoch and increasing to 0.18400 in the final one. Furthermore, several extended structures were found around the star, the most noteworthy of which is a very bright jet-like structure North-East from the star. The astrometric measurements of the companion in the four epochs confirm that it is gravitationally bound to the star. The SPHERE photometry and the SINFONI spectrum, once corrected for extinction, point toward an early M spectral type object with a mass between 0.3 and 0.55 M?. The astrometric analyis provides constraints on the orbit paramenters: e~0.4, semi-major axis at 27-28 au, inclination of ~ 70° and a period larger than 30 years. We were also able to put constraints of few MJup on the mass of possible other companions down to separations of few tens of au.

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arXiv2018

Mapping of shadows cast on a protoplanetary disk by a close binary system

For a comprehensive understanding of planetary formation and evolution, we need to investigate the environment in which planets form: circumstellar disks. Here we present high-contrast imaging observations of V4046 Sagittarii, a 20-Myr-old close binary known to host a circumbinary disk. We have discovered the presence of rotating shadows in the disk, caused by mutual occultations of the central binary. Shadow-like features are often observed in disks\cite{garufi,marino15}, but those found thus far have not been due to eclipsing phenomena. We have used the phase difference due to light travel time to measure the flaring of the disk and the geometrical distance of the system. We calculate a distance that is in very good agreement with the value obtained from the Gaia mission's Data Release 2 (DR2), and flaring angles of $α= 6.2 \pm 0.6 $ deg and $α= 8.5 \pm 1.0 $ deg for the inner and outer disk rings, respectively. Our technique opens up a path to explore other binary systems, providing an independent estimate of distance and the flaring angle, a crucial parameter for disk modelling.

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arXiv2018

High-Contrast study of the candidate planets and protoplanetary disk around HD~100546

The nearby Herbig Be star HD100546 is known to be a laboratory for the study of protoplanets and their relation with the circumstellar disk that is carved by at least 2 gaps. We observed the HD100546 environment with high contrast imaging exploiting several different observing modes of SPHERE, including datasets with/without coronagraphs, dual band imaging, integral field spectroscopy and polarimetry. The picture emerging from these different data sets is complex. Flux-conservative algorithms images clearly show the disk up to 200au. More aggressive algorithms reveal several rings and warped arms overlapping the main disk. The bright parts of this ring lie at considerable height over the disk mid-plane at about 30au. Our images demonstrate that the brightest wings close to the star in the near side of the disk are a unique structure, corresponding to the outer edge of the intermediate disk at ~40au. Modeling of the scattered light from the disk with a geometrical algorithm reveals that a moderately thin structure can well reproduce the light distribution in the flux-conservative images. We suggest that the gap between 44 and 113 au span between the 1:2 and 3:2 resonance orbits of a massive body located at ~70au that might coincide with the candidate planet HD100546b detected with previous thermal IR observations. In this picture, the two wings can be the near side of a ring formed by disk material brought out of the disk at the 1:2 resonance with the same massive object. While we find no clear evidence confirming detection of the planet candidate HD100546c in our data, we find a diffuse emission close to the expected position of HD100546b. This source can be described as an extremely reddened substellar object surrounded by a dust cloud or its circumplanetary disk. Its astrometry is broadly consistent with a circular orbital motion on the disk plane.

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arXiv2017

X-shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects in Lupus: Lithium, iron, and barium elemental abundances

With the purpose of performing a homogeneous determination of elemental abundances for members of the Lupus T association, we analyzed three chemical elements: lithium, iron, and barium. The aims were: to derive the Li abundance for ~90% of known class II stars in the Lupus I, II, III, IV clouds; to perform chemical tagging of a region where few Fe abundance measurements have been obtained in the past, and no determination of the Ba content has been done up to now. We also investigated possible Ba enhancement, as this element has become increasingly interesting in the last years following the evidence of Ba over-abundance in young clusters, the origin of which is still unknown. Using X-shooter@VLT, we analyzed the spectra of 89 cluster members, both class II and III stars. We measured the strength of the Li line and derived the abundance of this element through equivalent width measurements and curves of growth. For six class II stars we also measured the Fe and Ba abundances using the spectral synthesis and the code MOOG. The veiling contribution was taken into account for all three elements. We find a dispersion in the strength of the Li line at low Teff and identify three targets with severe Li depletion. The nuclear age inferred for these highly Li-depleted stars is around 15 Myr, which exceeds the isochronal one. As in other star-forming regions, no metal-rich members are found in Lupus, giving support to a recent hypothesis that the Fe abundance distribution of most of the nearby young regions could be the result of a common and widespread star formation episode involving the Galactic thin disk. We find that Ba is over-abundant by ~0.7 dex with respect to the Sun. Since current theoretical models cannot reproduce this Ba abundance pattern, we investigated whether this unusually large Ba content might be related to effects due to stellar parameters, stellar activity, and accretion.

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arXiv2017

X-Shooter study of accretion in Chamaeleon I: II. A steeper increase of accretion with stellar mass for very low mass stars?

The dependence of the mass accretion rate on the stellar properties is a key constraint for star formation and disk evolution studies. Here we present a study of a sample of stars in the Chamaeleon I star forming region carried out using the VLT/X-Shooter spectrograph. The sample is nearly complete down to M~0.1Msun for the young stars still harboring a disk in this region. We derive the stellar and accretion parameters using a self-consistent method to fit the broad-band flux-calibrated medium resolution spectrum. The correlation between the accretion luminosity to the stellar luminosity, and of the mass accretion rate to the stellar mass in the logarithmic plane yields slopes of 1.9 and 2.3, respectively. These slopes and the accretion rates are consistent with previous results in various star forming regions and with different theoretical frameworks. However, we find that a broken power-law fit, with a steeper slope for stellar luminosity smaller than ~0.45 Lsun and for stellar masses smaller than ~ 0.3 Msun, is slightly preferred according to different statistical tests, but the single power-law model is not excluded. The steeper relation for lower mass stars can be interpreted as a faster evolution in the past for accretion in disks around these objects, or as different accretion regimes in different stellar mass ranges. Finally, we find two regions on the mass accretion versus stellar mass plane empty of objects. One at high mass accretion rates and low stellar masses, which is related to the steeper dependence of the two parameters we derived. The second one is just above the observational limits imposed by chromospheric emission. This empty region is located at M~0.3-0.4Msun, typical masses where photoevaporation is known to be effective, and at mass accretion rates ~10^-10 Msun/yr, a value compatible with the one expected for photoevaporation to rapidly dissipate the inner disk.

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arXiv2016

X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects in Lupus: Accretion properties of class II and transitional objects

We present the results of a study of the stellar and accretion properties of the (almost) complete sample of class II and transitional YSOs in the Lupus I, II, III and IV clouds, based on spectroscopic data acquired with the VLT/X-Shooter spectrograph. Our study combines the dataset from our previous work with new observations of 55 additional objects. We have investigated 92 YSO candidates in total, 11 of which have been definitely identified with giant stars unrelated to Lupus. The stellar and accretion properties of the 81 bona fide YSOs, which represent more than 90% of the whole class~II and transition disc YSO population in the aforementioned Lupus clouds, have been homogeneously and self-consistently derived, allowing for an unbiased study of accretion and its relationship with stellar parameters. The accretion luminosity, Lacc, increases with the stellar luminosity, Lstar, with an overall slope of ~1.6, similar but with a smaller scatter than in previous studies. There is a significant lack of strong accretors below Lstar~0.1Lsun, where Lacc is always lower than 0.01Lstar. We argue that the Lacc-Lstar slope is not due to observational biases, but is a true property of the Lupus YSOs. The logMacc-logMstar correlation shows a statistically significant evidence of a break, with a steeper relation for Mstar<0.2Msun and a flatter slope for higher masses. The bimodality of the Macc-Mstar relation is confirmed with four different evolutionary models used to derive the stellar mass. The bimodal behaviour of the observed relationship supports the importance of modelling self-gravity in the early evolution of the more massive discs, but other processes, such as photo evaporation and planet formation during the YSO's lifetime, may also lead to disc dispersal on different timescales depending on the stellar mass. We also refined the empirical Lacc vs. Lline relationships.

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arXiv2016

X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects - VI - HI line decrements

Hydrogen recombination emission lines commonly observed in accreting young stellar objects represent a powerful tracer for the gas conditions in the circumstellar structures. Here we perform a study of the HI decrements and line profiles, from the Balmer and Paschen lines detected in the X-Shooter spectra of a homogeneous sample of 36 T Tauri stars in Lupus, the accretion and stellar properties of which were already derived in a previous work. We aim to obtain information on the gas physical conditions to derive a consistent picture of the HI emission mechanisms in pre-main sequence low-mass stars. We have empirically classified the sources based on their HI line profiles and decrements. We identified four Balmer decrement types (classified as 1, 2, 3, and 4) and three Paschen decrement types (A, B, and C), characterised by different shapes. We first discussed the connection between the decrement types and the source properties and then compared the observed decrements with predictions from recently published local line excitation models. One third of the objects show lines with narrow symmetric profiles, and present similar Balmer and Paschen decrements (straight decrements, types 2 and A). Lines in these sources are consistent with optically thin emission from gas with hydrogen densities of order 10^9 cm^-3 and 5000 11 cm^-3). Type 1 (curved) Balmer decrements are observed only in three sub-luminous sources viewed edge-on, so we speculate that these are actually reddened type 2 decrements. About 20% of the objects present type 3 Balmer decrements (bumpy), which cannot be reproduced with current models.

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arXiv2016

Tracing Slow Winds from T Tauri Stars via Low Velocity Forbidden Line Emission

Using Keck/HIRES spectra Δv ~ 7 km/s, we analyze forbidden lines of [O I] 6300 Å, [O I] 5577 Å and [S II] 6731 Å from 33 T Tauri stars covering a range of disk evolutionary stages. After removing a high velocity component (HVC) associated with microjets, we study the properties of the low velocity component (LVC). The LVC can be attributed to slow disk winds that could be magnetically (MHD) or thermally (photoevaporative) driven. Both of these winds play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of protoplanetary material. LVC emission is seen in all 30 stars with detected [O I] but only in 2 out of eight with detected [S II] , so our analysis is largely based on the properties of the [O I] LVC. The LVC itself is resolved into broad (BC) and narrow (NC) kinematic components. Both components are found over a wide range of accretion rates and their luminosity is correlated with the accretion luminosity, but the NC is proportionately stronger than the BC in transition disks. The FWHM of both the BC and NC correlates with disk inclination, consistent with Keplerian broadening from radii of 0.05 to 0.5 AU and 0.5 to 5 AU, respectively. The velocity centroids of the BC suggest formation in an MHD disk wind, with the largest blueshifts found in sources with closer to face-on orientations. The velocity centroids of the NC however, show no dependence on disk inclination. The origin of this component is less clear and the evidence for photoevaporation is not conclusive.

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arXiv2015

Narrow Na and K Absorption Lines Toward T Tauri Stars - Tracing the Atomic Envelope of Molecular Clouds

We present a detailed analysis of narrow of NaI and KI absorption resonance lines toward nearly 40 T Tauri stars in Taurus with the goal of clarifying their origin. The NaI 5889.95 angstrom line is detected toward all but one source, while the weaker KI 7698.96 angstrom line in about two thirds of the sample. The similarity in their peak centroids and the significant positive correlation between their equivalent widths demonstrate that these transitions trace the same atomic gas. The absorption lines are present towards both disk and diskless young stellar objects, which excludes cold gas within the circumstellar disk as the absorbing material. A comparison of NaI and CO detections and peak centroids demonstrates that the atomic and molecular gas are not co-located, the atomic gas is more extended than the molecular gas. The width of the atomic lines corroborates this finding and points to atomic gas about an order of magnitude warmer than the molecular gas. The distribution of NaI radial velocities shows a clear spatial gradient along the length of the Taurus molecular cloud filaments. This suggests that absorption is associated with the Taurus molecular cloud. Assuming the gradient is due to cloud rotation, the rotation of the atomic gas is consistent with differential galactic rotation while the rotation of the molecular gas, although with the same rotation axis, is retrograde. Our analysis shows that narrow NaI and KI absorption resonance lines are useful tracers of the atomic envelope of molecular clouds. In line with recent findings from giant molecular clouds, our results demonstrate that the velocity fields of the atomic and molecular gas are misaligned. The angular momentum of a molecular cloud is not simply inherited from the rotating Galactic disk from which it formed but may be redistributed by cloud-cloud interactions.

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arXiv2015

On the origin of the correlations between the accretion luminosity and emission line luminosities in pre-main sequence stars

Correlations between the accretion luminosity and emission line luminosities (L_acc and L_line) of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars have been published for many different spectral lines, which are used to estimate accretion rates. Despite the origin of those correlations is unknown, this could be attributed to direct or indirect physical relations between the emission line formation and the accretion mechanism. This work shows that all (near-UV/optical/near-IR) L_acc-L_line correlations are the result of the fact that the accretion luminosity and the stellar luminosity (L_star) are correlated, and are not necessarily related with the physical origin of the line. Synthetic and observational data are used to illustrate how the L_acc-L_line correlations depend on the L_acc-L_star relationship. We conclude that because PMS stars show the L_acc-L_star correlation immediately implies that L_acc also correlates with the luminosity of all emission lines, for which the L_acc-L_line correlations alone do not prove any physical connection with accretion but can only be used with practical purposes to roughly estimate accretion rates. When looking for correlations with possible physical meaning, we suggest that L_acc/L_star and L_line/L_star should be used instead of L_acc and L_line. Finally, the finding that L_acc has a steeper dependence on L_star for T-Tauri stars than for intermediate-mass Herbig Ae/Be stars is also discussed. That is explained from the magnetospheric accretion scenario and the different photospheric properties in the near-UV.

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