Profiles of Strong Permitted Lines in Classical T Tauri Stars

Abstract

We present a spectral analysis of 30 T Tauri stars observed with the Hamilton echelle spectrograph over more than a decade. One goal is to test magnetospheric accretion model predictions. Observational evidence previously published supporting the model, such as emission-line asymmetry and a high frequency of redshifted absorption components, are considered. We also discuss the relation between different line-forming regions and search for good accretion rate indicators. In this work we confirm several important points of the models, such as the correlation between accretion and outflow, broad emission components that are mostly central or slightly blueshifted, and only the occasional presence of redshifted absorption. We also show, however, that the broad emission components supposedly formed in the magnetospheric accretion flow only partially support the models. Unlike the predictions, they are sometimes redshifted and are mostly found to be symmetric. The published theoretical profiles do not have a strong resemblance to our observed ones. We emphasize the need for accretion models to include a strong turbulent component before their profiles will match the observations. The effects of rotation, as well as the outflow components, will also be needed to complete the picture.