The Nature of Stellar Winds in the Star-Disk Interaction
Abstract
Stellar winds may be important for angular momentum transport from accreting
T Tauri stars, but the nature of these winds is still not well-constrained. We
present some simulation results for hypothetical, hot (~1e6 K) coronal winds
from T Tauri stars, and we calculate the expected emission properties. For the
high mass loss rates required to solve the angular momentum problem, we find
that the radiative losses will be much greater than can be powered by the
accretion process. We place an upper limit to the mass loss rate from
accretion-powered coronal winds of ~1e-11 solar masses per year. We conclude
that accretion powered stellar winds are still a promising scenario for solving
the stellar angular momentum problem, but the winds must be cool (~1e4 K) and
thus are not driven by thermal pressure.