The photosphere and veiling spectrum of T Tauri stars

Abstract

Using recent high signal-to-noise and high spectral resolution (R ∼ 60000) observations with VLT/UVES, we have analysed the photosphere and veiling spectrum of five T Tauri stars. With a grid of 1-dimensional plane-parallel hydrostatic model atmospheres from the MARCS consortium we have determined their atmospheric properties, calculated synthetic spectra and determined the spectrum of the veiling continuum. Our analysis of the veiling spectrum supports the view that veiling can be represented by a combination of continuum sources. However, for the most strongly accreting stars we find a broad region around 5300 Å where the derived level of veiling is consistently higher than expected from continuum sources.