Poster abstract details

Probing the Size of the Magnetosphere of a Young Solar-Like Star
Catrina M. Hamilton, Christopher M. Johns-Krull, Reinhard Mundt, William Herbst, Joshua Winn

Abstract

The pre-main sequence binary system KH 15D (V582 Mon) offers an unique opportunity to probe the magnetosphere of a young solar-like star by virtue of the regular occultation of the star as it moves in its orbit relative to a warped circumbinary disk. This geometry effectively provides a screen, which moves over the visible star and its magnetosphere, allowing us to probe the physical structure in the immediate circumstellar environment. We have obtained high resolution spectra of this system while the star is fully visible, fully occulted, and during several ingress and egress events over the course of five contiguous observing seasons. The H-alpha line profile is a standard probe of the magnetospheric accretion flows on young stars such as KH 15D. We see dramatic changes in the H-alpha profiles as the star changes its position with respect to the occulting edge. We use these time series data to map out the size of the magnetosphere and find that it changes size dramatically from one observing season to the next.