T Tauri stellar magnetic fields: He I measurements

Abstract

We present measurements of the longitudinal magnetic field in the circumstellar environment of seven classical T Tauri stars. The measurements are based on high-resolution circular spectropolarimetry of the He I λ5876 emission line, which is thought to form in accretion streams controlled by a stellar magnetosphere. We detect magnetic fields in BP Tau, DF Tau and DN Tau, and detect statistically significant fields in GM Aur and RW Aur A at one epoch but not at others. We detect no field for DG Tau and GG Tau, with the caveat that these objects were observed at one epoch only. Our measurements for BP Tau and DF Tau are consistent, in terms of both sign and magnitude, with previous studies, suggesting that the characteristics of T Tauri magnetospheres are persistent over several years. We observed the magnetic field of BP Tau to decline monotonically over three nights, and have detected a peak field of 4 kG in this object, the highest magnetic field yet observed in a T Tauri star. We combine our observations with results from the literature in order to perform a statistical analysis of the magnetospheric fields in BP Tau and DF Tau. Assuming a dipolar field, we determine a polar field of ∼3 kG and a dipole offset of 40° for BP Tau, while the field of DF Tau is consistent with a polar field of ∼-4.5 kG and a dipole offset of 10°. We conclude that many classical T Tauri stars have circumstellar magnetic fields that are both strong enough and sufficiently globally ordered to sustain large-scale magnetospheric accretion flows. © 2005 RAS.