AN ABSENCE OF X-RAY ACCRETION SHOCK INSTABILITY SIGNATURES IN TW HYDRAE

Abstract

Gas accreting onto T Tauri stars should form shocks that are susceptible to the classical radiative shock instability. The instability should give rise to strong periodic modulation in the X-ray emission from the shock-heated plasma. Time series analysis of soft X-rays thought to arise predominantly in an accretion shock on the classical T Tauri star TW Hydrae reveals no periodic variations and a 99% confidence pulsed fraction limit of 5% over the frequency range 0.0001-6.81 Hz. We find no clear explanation for the absence of X-ray instability signatures, but suggest that existing one-dimensional models are too simple to explain the three-dimensional shock structure, or that preheating and deceleration of the accretion stream by the damping of magnetohydrodynamic waves excited either by the shock itself, or more deeply in the stellar envelope, could ameliorate the instability in the likely case of a sub-Alfvenic shock.