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Issue A&A Volume 387, Number 2, May IV 2002 Page(s) 550 - 559 Section Formation, structure and evolution of stars DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20020407

A&A 387, 550-559 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20020407

Circumbinary disk evolution

R. Günther and W. Kley

Institut für Astronomie & Astrophysik, Abt. Computational Physics, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

(Received 21 January 2002 / Accepted 14 March 2002 )

Abstract
We study the evolution of circumbinary disks surrounding classical T Tau stars. High resolution numerical simulations are employed to model a system consisting of a central eccentric binary star within an accretion disk. The disk is assumed to be infinitesimally thin, however a detailed energy balance including viscous heating and radiative cooling is applied. A novel numerical approach using a parallelized Dual-Grid technique on two different coordinate systems has been implemented. Physical parameters of the setup are chosen to model the close system of DQ Tau and AK Sco , as well as the wider systems of GG Tau and UY Aur . Our main findings are for the tight binaries a substantial flow of material through the disk gap which is accreted onto the central stars in a phase dependent process. We are able to constrain the parameters of the systems by matching both accretion rates and derived spectral energy distributions to observational data where available.

Key words: accretion, accretion disks -- binaries: general -- hydrodynamics -- methods: numerical

Offprint request: R. Günther, rguenth@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de

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