Tidally induced warps in T Tauri discs -- II. A parametric study of spectral energy distributions

Abstract

We compute here the spectral energy distribution (SED) of warped T Tauri discs in a general way. In a previous paper we analytically calculated, in a linear approximation, the response of a circumstellar disc to tidal forces owing to a stellar companion in a non-coplanar young binary system. Here, we consider tidally induced warps of larger amplitude, and we use these previous results to parametrize the disc deformation. We then compute the energy emitted in a given direction by the system of the warped disc and central star, taking into account shadowing effects. We find that the parametrized warp model produces a broad variety of synthetic SEDs. Some of them are comparable to those of T Tauri stars with infrared excess (Class II sources), whereas others resemble Class I protostellar sources. By comparing models with actual observations of both a T Tauri star with high spectral index and a Class I source, we find that the derived warp and disc parameters are not unrealistic, and we conclude that tidal interactions in T Tauri binary systems with intermediate separations must play a role in shaping the SEDs of these stars.