Time-resolved spectroscopy of the accretion disk in RW Tauri

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Accretion Disks in Algols

“…behavior has also been seen to occur in RW Tau (Kaitchuck and Honeycutt 1982a), and TZ Eri (Kaitchuck and Park, 1988).…”

“…All these systems have shown rapid variability of their disk structure. For example, the disk in RW Tau (Kaitchuck and Honeycutt, 1982a) has been seen to appear and disappear in one orbital period or less. A representative data set is presented in Figure 1 We have now sampled enough eclipses that some general properties have emerged.…”

“…In fact, when this plot is made for transient disk systems, the result is usually a scatter diagram. Figure 3 shows such a plot for U Cep (Kaitchuck, Honeycutt and Faulkner 1988) . The curve in the upper left is the expected relationship for a Keplerian disk of the measured radius.…”

“…Unfortunately, these differences are difficult to model, except for those eclipses where the emission lines are quite strong so that reliable line strengths and line ratios can be obtained. During one particularly favorable eclipse of RW Tau (Kaitchuck and Honeycutt 1982a) the trailing side of the disk was nearly isothermal with a density of -1 0 1 1 cm" 3 . On the leading side the outer regions were at a much lower density, with line ratios consistent with Menzel case B.…”

“…We have obtained time-resolved spectroscopy and UBV photometry of U Cep during 6 eclipses in a 3 month interval (Kaitchuck, Honeycutt and Faulkner, 1988). On four nights the photometry and spectroscopy were simultaneous.…”