Occultation of the T Tauri Star RW Aurigae A by its Tidally Disrupted Disk

Abstract

RW Aur A is a classical T Tauri star, believed to have undergone a reconfiguration of its circumstellar environment as a consequence of a recent fly-by of its stellar companion, RW Aur B. This interaction stripped away part of the circumstellar disk of RW Aur A, leaving a tidally disrupted arm and a short truncated circumstellar disk. We present photometric observations of the RW Aur system from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) survey showing a long and deep dimming that occurred from September 2010 until March 2011. The dimming has a depth of ~2 magnitudes, a duration of ~180 days and was confirmed by archival observations from American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). We suggest that this event is the result of a portion of the tidally disrupted disk occulting RW Aur A, specifically a fragment of the tidally disrupted arm. The calculated transverse linear velocity of the occulter is in excellent agreement with the measured relative radial velocity of the tidally disrupted arm. Using simple kinematic and geometric arguments, we show that the occulter cannot be a feature of the RW Aur A circumstellar disk, and we consider and discount other hypotheses. We also place constraints on the thickness and semi-major axis of the portion of the arm that occulted the star.

15 pages, 5 figures, 1 Table, Accepted by AJ

References in corpus (11)

• The Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Database
• The first WASP public data release
• KELT-1b: A Strongly Irradiated, Highly Inflated, Short Period, 27 Jupiter-mass Companion Transiting a mid-F Star
• Magnetospheric accretion-ejection processes in the classical T Tauri star AA
• In the Shadow of the Transiting Disk: Imaging epsilon Aurigae in Eclipse
• The Dust Properties of Eight Debris Disk Candidates as Determined by Submillimeter Photometry
• Near-Infrared Interferometric, Spectroscopic, and Photometric Monitoring of T Tauri Inner Disks
• The Peculiar Periodic YSO WL 4 in Rho Ophiuchus
• The unusual pre-main-sequence star V718 Per (HMW 15)
• Time Variability of Emission Lines for Four Active T Tauri Stars (I): October--December in 2010
• RW Aur A from the X-Wind Point of View: General Features

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Evryscope science: exploring the potential of all-sky gigapixel-scale telescopes
• Variability Properties of 4 Million Sources in the $TESS$ Input Catalog Observed with the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope Survey
• Relating jet structure to photometric variability: the Herbig Ae star HD 163296
• A tidal encounter caught in the act: modelling a star-disc fly-by in the young RW Aurigae system
• Multiple Stellar Fly-Bys Sculpting the Circumstellar Architecture in RW Aurigae
• Violent environment of the inner disk of RW Aur A probed by the 2010 and 2015 dimming events
• Identification of Young Stellar Variables with KELT for K2 I: Campaign 13 Taurus Dippers and Rotators
• Analysis of colour and polarimetric variability of RW Aur A in 2010-2018
• Another deep dimming of the classical T Tauri star RW Aur A
• Direct Measurement of Interstellar Extinction Toward Young Stars Using Atomic Hydrogen Lyman-$\alpha$ Absorption
• The disappearing act: A dusty wind eclipsing RW Aur
• The transiting dust clumps in the evolved disk of the Sun-like UXor RZ Psc
• A high resolution mid-infrared survey of water emission from protoplanetary disks
• V409 Tau As Another AA Tau: Photometric Observations of Stellar Occultations by the Circumstellar Disk
• Recurring Occultations of RW Aurigae by Coagulated Dust in the Tidally Disrupted Circumstellar Disk
• Exploring the dimming event of RW Aur A through multi-epoch VLT/X-Shooter spectroscopy
• The Mysterious Dimmings of the T Tauri Star V1334 Tau
• The nature of the 2014-2015 dim state of RW Aur revealed by X-ray, optical, and NIR observations
• Stable and Unstable Regimes of Mass Accretion onto RW Aur A
• The ASAS-SN Catalog of Variable Stars VIII: "Dipper" Stars in the Lupus Star-Forming Region
• Optical dimming of RW Aur associated with an iron rich corona and exceptionally high absorbing column density
• Evidence for Binarity and Possible Disk Obscuration in Kepler Observations of the Pulsating RV Tau Variable DF Cygni
• Time-Variable Jet Ejections from RW Aur A, RY Tau and DG Tau
• The dimming of RW Auriga. Is dust accretion preceding an outburst?
• The jet of the young star RW Aur A and related problems
• Multi-epoch, high spatial resolution observations of multiple T Tauri systems
• The PDS 110 observing campaign - photometric and spectroscopic observations reveal eclipses are aperiodic
• DM Ori: A Young Star Occulted by a Disturbance in its Protoplanetary Disk
• KELT: The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope, a Survey for Exoplanets Transiting Bright, Hot Stars
• Optical and Near-Infrared Excesses are Correlated in T Tauri Stars
• RW Aur A : SpeX Spectral Evidence for Differentiated Planetesimal Formation, Migration and Destruction in an 3 Myr Old Excited CTTS System
• The young low-mass star ISO-Oph-50: Extreme variability induced by a clumpy, evolving circumstellar disk
• MINDS. Young binary systems with JWST/MIRI: Variable water-rich primaries and extended emission
• Synergies between Exoplanet Surveys and Variable Star Research
• Warps survive beyond fly-by encounters in protoplanetary disks. RW Aur A as a case study
• First Results from the Disk Eclipse Search with KELT (DESK) Survey
• X-raying circumstellar material around young stars
• The nature of ASASSN-24fw's occultation: modelling the event as dimming by optically thick rings around a sub-stellar companion
• Exploring Young Stellar Variability with Gaia DR3 light curves