T Tauri stars: Physical parameters and evolutionary status

Abstract

Long-term homogeneous photometry for 35 classical T Tauri stars (cTTS) in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region (Tau-Aur SFR) has been analyzed. Reliable effective temperatures, interstellar extinctions, luminosities, radii, masses, and ages have been determined for these cTTS. The physical parameters and evolutionary status of 35 cTTS from this work and 34 weak-line T Tauri stars (wTTS) from previous studies have been compared. The luminosities, radii, and rotation periods of low-mass (0.3-1.1 Msun) cTTS are shown to be, on average, greater than those of low-mass wTTS, in good agreement with the evolutionary status of these two subgroups. The mean age of the younger subgroup of wTTS from our sample (2.3 Myr) essentially coincides with the mean duration of the protoplanetary disk accretion phase (2.3 Myr) for a representative sample of low-mass stars in seven young stellar clusters. The accretion disk dissipation time scale for the younger subgroup of cTTS (age less 4 Myr) in the Tau-Aur SFR is shown to be no greater than 0.4 Myr, in good agreement with the short protoplanetary disk dissipation time scale that is predicted by present-day protoplanetary disk evolution models.