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PENELLOPE: VII. Revisiting empirical relations to measure accretion luminosity

  • E. Fiorellino
  • , J. M. Alcalá
  • , C. F. Manara
  • , C. V. Pittman
  • , P. Ábrahám
  • , L. Venuti
  • , S. Cabrit
  • , R. Claes
  • , Meigong Fang
  • , Kóspál
  • , G. Lodato
  • , K. Mauco
  • , Tychoniec

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

Context. The accretion luminosity (Lacc) in young, low-mass stars is crucial for understanding stellar formation. However, obtaining direct measurements is often hindered by limited spectral coverage and challenges in UV-excess modeling. Empirical relations linking Lacc to various accretion tracers are widely used to overcome these limitations. Aims. This work revisits these empirical relations using the PENELLOPE dataset, evaluating their applicability across different star-forming regions as well as accreting young objects other than Classical T Tauri Stars (CTTSs; Class II sources). Methods. We analyzed the PENELLOPE VLT/X-shooter dataset of 64 CTTSs, measuring fluxes of several accretion tracers and adopting the stellar and accretion parameters derived from studies based on PENELLOPE. For 61 sources, we supplemented our analysis with the ODYSSEUS HST data set, which covers a wider spectral range in NUV bands. Results. We compared the Lacc values obtained in the PENELLOPE and ODYSSEUS surveys, which employed a single hydrogen slab model (XS-fit) and a multi-column accretion shock model (HST-fit), respectively, and found statistically consistent results. Our analysis confirms that existing empirical relations, previously derived for the Lupus sample, provide reliable Lacc estimates for CTTSs in several other star-forming regions. We revisit empirical relations for accretion tracers in our dataset, based on HST-fit, with coefficients which are consistent within 1σ with XS-fit results for most lines. We also propose a method to estimate extinction using these relations and investigate the empirical relations for Brackett lines (Br8 to Br21). Conclusions. The Lacc - Lline empirical relations can be successfully used for statistical studies of accretion on young forming objects in different star-forming regions. These relations also offer a promising approach to independently estimate extinction in CTTSs, provided a sufficient number of flux-calibrated tracers are available across a broad spectral range. We confirm that near-infrared lines (Paβ and Brγ) serve as reliable tracers of Lacc in high accretors, making them valuable tools for probing accretion properties of high accreting young stars not accessible in the UVB.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA42
Number of pages26
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume704
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Dec 2025

Funding

This work has been financially supported by Large Grant INAF-2022 “YSOs Outflows, Disks and Accretion: towards a global framework for the evolution of planet forming systems (YODA)”, by Large Grant INAF-2024 “Spectral Key features of Young stellar objects: Wind-Accretion LinKs Explored in the infraRed (SKYWALKER)”, and by the European Union (ERC, WANDA, 101039452). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This work was supported by HST AR-16129 and benefited from discussions with the ODYSSEUS team, https://sites.bu.edu/ odysseus/. This work received funding from the Hungarian NKFIH project No. K-147380; by the NKFIH NKKP grant ADVANCED 149943, the NKFIH excellence grant TKP2021-NKTA-64. Project no.149943 has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the NKKP ADVANCED funding scheme. E.F. has been partially supported by project AYA2018-RTI-096188-B-I00 from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and by Grant Agreement 101004719 of the EU project ORP. J.M.A. acknowledges support from PRIN-MUR 2022 20228JPA3A “The path to star and planet formation in the JWST era (PATH)” funded by NextGeneration EU and by INAF-GoG 2022 “NIR-dark Accretion Outbursts in Massive Young stellar objects (NAOMY)”. E.F. and J.M.A. acknowledge support from the INAF MiniGrant 2023 “Investigating the planet formation: initial conditions through the mass accretion rate on protostars”. C.V.P. acknowledges funding from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant No. DGE-1840990. G.L. acknowledges support from PRIN-MUR 20228JPA3A and from the European Union Next Generation EU, CUP:G53D23000870006.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 103003 Astronomy
  • 103004 Astrophysics

Keywords

  • Circumstellar matter
  • Stars: formation
  • Stars: low-mass
  • Stars: pre-main sequence
  • Stars: solar-type
  • Stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be

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