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Accepted to the The Astrophysical Journal
Preprint typeset using L
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ANOMALOUS ACCRETION ACTIVITY AND THE SPOTTED NATURE OF THE DQ TAU BINARY SYSTEM
Jeffrey S. Bary
1,2
& Michael S. Petersen
1,3
Accepted to the The Astrophysical Journal
ABSTRACT
We report the detection of an anomalous accretion are in the tight eccentric pre-main-sequence
binary system DQ Tau. In a multi-epoch survey consisting of randomly acquired low to moderate
resolution near-infrared spectra obtained over a period of almost ten years, we detect a signicant
and simultaneous brightening of four standard accretion indicators (Ca ii infrared triplet, the Paschen
and Brackett series H i lines, and He i 1.083 m), on back-to-back nights ( = 0.372 & 0.433) with
the are increasing in strength as the system approached apastron ( = 0.5). The mass accretion
rate measured for the anomalous are is nearly an order of magnitude stronger than the average
quiescent rate. While previous observations established that frequent, periodic accretion ares phased
with periastron passages occur in this system, these data provide evidence that orbitally-modulated
accretion ares occur near apastron, when the stars make their closest approach to the circumbinary
disk. The timing of the are suggests that this outburst is due to interactions of the stellar cores
(or the highly truncated circumstellar disks) with material in non-axisymmetric structures located at
the inner edge of the circumbinary disk. We also explore the optical/infrared spectral type mismatch
previously observed for T Tauri stars and successfully model the shape of the spectra from 0.8 to 1.0
m and the strengths of the TiO and FeH bands as manifestations of large cool spots on the surfaces
of the stellar companions in DQ Tau. These ndings illustrate that a complete model of near-infrared
spectra of many T Tauri stars must include parameters for spot lling factors and temperatures.
Subject headings: stars: pre-main-sequence stars: accretion stars: formation stars: individual
(DQ Tau)
1. INTRODUCTION
Since the initial discovery of a hot jupiter orbiting
51 Peg, exoplanet searches have rmly established that
planetary systems, though unexpectedly diverse, are
quite common in the Galaxy. While the interaction
between a forming planet and its circumstellar disk
successfully explains orbital migration and the exis-
tence of hot jupiters, the similarly complex orbital
dynamics in binary and higher-order multiple star
systems might lead to the conclusion that planets
should be rare in such systems. Hence, initial searches
for exoplanets selectively surveyed stars thought to
be single star systems. However, it has become ap-
parent that planets do not form solely around single
stars, as many exoplanet host stars have been revealed
to be components of widely separated binary and
higher-order multiple systems (e.g., Patience et al.
2002; Eggenberger et al. 2004; Mugrauer et al. 2007;
Takeda et al. 2008; Mugrauer & Neuh auser 2009).
While these detections demonstrate that planets may
form in the circumstellar disks orbiting individual stars
in young multiple systems, Kepler 16b, 34b, 35b, and
47b and c indicate that planets also form in circumbi-
nary disks orbiting tight binaries (Doyle et al. 2011;
Welsh et al. 2012; Orosz et al. 2012).
Observational surveys of main and pre-main-
1
Colgate University, Department of Physics & Astronomy,
13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346
2
Visiting Astronomer, Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay,
CEA/Irfu Universite Paris-Diderot CNRS/INSU, 91191 Gif-sur-
Yvette, France
3
University of Massachusetts, Department of Astronomy, 710
North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003
sequence solar-type stars have rmly established
that more than half form in binary and multiple
systems (e.g., Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Ghez et al.
1993; Reipurth & Zinnecker 1993; Leinert et al. 1993;
Simon & Prato 1995; Duchene et al. 2007). In fact, a
notably higher multiplicity rate has been determined for
pre-main-sequence stars suggesting that a substantial
fraction of single eld stars formed in multiple systems.
These results along with those of the exoplanet surveys,
underscore the importance of studying the eects of
multiplicity on the formation of stars and planetary
systems. Therefore, robust models of planet formation
including the more dynamically complex multi-star
systems with their combinations of circumstellar and
circumbinary (circumsystem) material must be regarded
as equally important for understanding planet formation
and explaining the diversity of planetary systems.
The recent Kepler detections of circumbinary planets
highlight the importance that understanding the dynam-
ics of these complex systems will have on the study of
star and planet formation. The interactions of the stellar
components with the circumbinary disks and the forma-
tion of planets within the circumbinary material must be
considered when developing models of the complex star-
disk interactions between the forming stars, their indi-
vidual circumstellar disks, and the circumbinary(system)
disk.
At present, hydrodynamic simulations of the com-
plex interactions between binary protostars with cir-
cumstellar and circumbinary disks lay a founda-
tion for characterizing the impact of multiplicity on
the formation and evolution of planets in such sys-
tems (Artymowicz et al. 1991; Artymowicz & Lubow
2 Bary & Petersen
1994; Artymowicz & Lubow 1996; Rozyczka & Laughlin
1997; G unther & Kley 2002; Pierens & Nelson 2008a,b;
Hanawa et al. 2010; de Val-Borro et al. 2011). These
simulations depict how the central sources in a binary
system each truncate the outer region of the companions
circumstellar disk, while quickly clearing a dynamically
unstable region located between the central stars and the
inner region of the circumbinary disk. Once the inner
disks are cut o from the larger reservoir of circumbi-
nary material, the truncated inner disks will accrete
onto the central star on a timescale expected to be too
short to allow for the formation of a planetary system.
Observations of scattered light and continuum emission
from dust grains in the circumstellar and circumbinary
disks have conrmed the existence of nearly dust-free
gaps in several nearby binary systems (i.e., GG Tau,
SR 24, DQ Tau; Dutrey et al. 1994; Roddier et al. 1996;
Jensen & Mathieu 1997; McCabe et al. 2002; Krist et al.
2002, 2005; Pietu et al. 2011).
Simulations of young binary systems also provide
a physical understanding of how circumbinary disk
material falls into the unstable region via high-
velocity streams of gas and dust (Artymowicz & Lubow
1996; Rozyczka & Laughlin 1997; G unther & Kley 2002;
de Val-Borro et al. 2011). The streams of material, also
referred to as streamers, will fall towards the stel-
lar companions either replenishing the inner circumstel-
lar disks or perhaps accreting directly onto the sur-
faces of the stellar components. In the cases of SR 24
and GG Tau, scattered light (H-band) and millimeter
continuum observations provide evidence that the un-
stable regions are not completely devoid of material
(Mayama et al. 2010; Pietu et al. 2011); these observa-
tions lend support to the theory that predicts accretion
streams. In fact, both hint at the presence of narrow
streams of gas and dust owing from the circumbinary
disk to the inner circumstellar disks. For the GG Tau
system, known to possess a distinctive circumbinary ring
with an inner radius of 180 AU, a recent high spatial
resolution image of molecular hydrogen emission shows
a ridge of shock-excited gas located within the circumbi-
nary disk and near the edge of the truncation region of
the inner circumstellar disks (Beck et al. 2012). The H
2
emission is spatially coincident with the location of the
dust streamers and appears to conrm the existence of
streamers in the GG Tau A system.
1.1. The DQ Tau System
The DQ Tau system, the subject of the study presented
here, is a tight binary (P 15.8 days; Huerta et al. 2005)
located in the nearby Taurus-Auriga star forming region
(D 140 pc; Age 1-3 Myr). DQ Tau possesses two
nearly equal mass stars (M
a
+ M
b
1.3 M

) with a
high orbital eccentricity (e = 0.556; Mathieu et al. 1997).
For this binary system, possessing a semi-major axis of
0.13 AU, the inner truncation radius of the circumbi-
nary disk should reside at 0.4 AU. The spectral energy
distribution (SED) shows both near- and mid-infrared
excesses suggesting the presence of both a circumbinary
disk and warm dust in the environment of the circusmtel-
lar disks (Strom et al. 1989; Skrutskie et al. 1990). Re-
cent Keck Interferometer observations and modeling of
the K-band excess emission conrm that the warm dust
must exist in the region where circumstellar disk material
should reside with an extent of 0.1-0.2 AU (Boden et al.
2009). Combined with previous detections of warm CO
line emission (T1200 K; R0.1 AU; Carr et al. 2001),
these observations suggest that the dynamically cleared
region located within the circumbinary disk contains dust
and gas, leading to the conclusion that material is con-
tinually drawn inward from the outer disk.
For high-eccentricity binary systems such as DQ Tau,
hydrodynamic models predict that orbitally-modulated
accretion activity should result in accretion ares oc-
curring at periastron passes of the stellar companions
(G unther & Kley 2002; de Val-Borro et al. 2011). Quasi-
periodic ares phased with periastron in the DQ Tau
system were rst observed, using broad-band photom-
etry, by Mathieu et al. (1997). Subsequent multi-
epoch optical and near-infrared spectroscopic observa-
tions detected increases in the uxes of several stan-
dard accretion signatures similarly phased with perias-
tron passages in DQ Tau and two other tight binaries,
UZ Tau E and AK Sco (Basri et al. 1997; Huerta et al.
2005; Jensen et al. 2007; Bary et al. 2008). For these sys-
tems, in which the stellar companions come within a few
stellar radii of one another, the aring could be explained
by interacting magnetospheres and are likely the cause
of millimeter and X-ray ares observed in the DQ Tau
and UZ Tau E systems (Salter et al. 2008; Salter et al.
2010; Getman et al. 2011; Kosp al et al. 2011). As the
stars recede, the strength of the interaction between the
magnetospheres diminishes rapidly with increasing dis-
tance. The length of the millimeter and X-ray ares is
on the order of hours, while the optical photometric and
spectral feature ares last for several days or as much as
a third of the orbit. Noting that the longer ares occur
relatively far in orbital phase from periastron passage,
Jensen & Mathieu (1997) argue that accretion activity is
most likely responsible for this aring. Therefore, these
observations likely conrm the hydrodynamical model
predictions that material from the circumbinary disk can
ow into the unstable region, replenishing the inner cir-
cumstellar disks.
For widely-separated young binary systems, accretion
streams provide a mechanism for increasing the lifetimes
of the individual circumstellar disks, potentially impact-
ing the formation of planets in such systems. While it
may be unreasonable to expect planets to form on stable
orbits in the tidally-truncated circumstellar disks asso-
ciated with the stellar companions in the DQ Tau sys-
tem, the recent Kepler detections of circumbinary plan-
ets clearly indicate that the circumbinary disk is a viable
site for planet formation. While star-disk interactions
play an important role in the evolution of planet-forming
disks in single star systems, star-star-circumbinary disk
interactions are presumed to be equally important in the
evolution of circumbinary planetary systems. In addi-
tion, as described by Artymowicz & Lubow (1996) and
Rozyczka & Laughlin (1997), the structure of a tight bi-
nary that is in the process of clearing a gap in the in-
ner region of its circumbinary disk is analogous to the
structure of a transitional disk system in which a gas
giant planet is suspected of clearing a gap in the inner
region of a circumstellar disk. The potential for anal-
ogous orbitally-modulated accretion activity in transi-
tional disk systems underscores the importance of study-
ing young binary systems and their star-star-disk inter-
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 3
Fig. 1. Two epochs of normalized NIR spectra of DQ Tau acquired with CorMASS at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.
The observation taken on 2003 December 4 UT captured the system during an outburst phase as indicated by the presence of strong H i
and Ca ii infrared triplet emission lines. The lower spectrum 2003 December 13 UT, obtained eight days after the spectrum above, shows
little evidence of H i or Ca ii emission suggesting that relatively little accretion activity is occurring during this point in the orbital phase
of the system. The bottom panel shows the spectrum of an M2.5V spectral standard (Gliese 381) from the SpeX library Rayner et al.
(2009). The resolution of the standard star spectrum has been degraded to match the resolution of CorMASS. Following the plot format
from Vacca & Sandell (2011), regions of poor atmospheric transmission are identied by the gray (<80%) and dark gray (<20%) vertical
boxes.
actions.
In this paper, we present a multi-epoch spectroscopic
study of pulsed-accretion activity in the DQ Tau system.
We use near-infrared (IR) spectral accretion signatures
(i.e., H i, Ca ii, and He i) to establish an average mass
accretion rate for the system in its quiescent accretion
phase. We report for the rst time the detection of an
anomalous accretion are well outside of the usual perias-
tron related activity, timed more closely in orbital phase
with an apastron passage of the system. The detection is
discussed in the context of current hydrodynamic models
of star-star-disk-disk interactions. The moderate resolu-
tion spectra allow for the determination of the infrared
spectral type of the DQ Tau system based on the spec-
tral shape, molecular absorption features, and metallic
absorption lines. Similar to previous studies of near-IR
spectra of T Tauri stars (TTSs), we nd a discrepancy
between the spectral types previously derived from op-
tical spectroscopy and the near-IR spectral type. Other
authors have also noted a color anomaly at IR wave-
lengths for TTSs and have suggested that both discrep-
ancies may be related to the existence of large cool spots
on the surfaces of these stars (Gullbring et al. 1998a,b).
We construct simple synthetic spectra to represent a
spotted star from spectral standards and perform a t
to a representative DQ Tau spectra. We solve simulta-
neously for visual extinction, photospheric temperature,
spot temperature, and spot lling factor by tting the
strong TiO and FeH bands and the shape of the near-IR
spectrum. The best ts cover a small region of param-
eter space and demonstrate that the existence of large,
cool spots are reasonable explanations for the observed
optical/IR spectral mismatch and the color anomaly.
2. OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION
The multi-epoch data presented in this study were col-
lected over the past ten years using three dierent instru-
ments (CorMASS, TripleSpec, and SpeX) mounted on
three dierent telescopes. The initial observations were
made as part of a larger spectroscopic variability study of
near-IR emission lines observed from actively accreting
TTSs (Bary et al. 2008). The survey utilized CorMASS
(Cornell-Massachusetts Slit Spectrograph; Wilson et al.
2001), a low-resolution (R300) cross-dispersed near-IR
spectrograph that provides continuous wavelength cover-
age from 0.8 to 2.5 m. Data were collected on the 1.8-m
Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) atop
Mt. Graham in Arizona from 2003 December through
2005 January. In 2005, CorMASS was moved to Apache
Point Observatory (APO) in New Mexico where it was
positioned at the Naysmith focus of the 3.5-m Astrophys-
ical Research Consortium (ARC) telescope. The survey
4 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 2. Plotted are 18 epochs of DQ Tau spectra from 1.07 to 1.15 m to highlight the variations of the He i and Pa features at
1.083 m and 1.0938 m, respectively. For the epochs where SpeX and TripleSpec data of higher resolution were collected, we present both
the full resolution spectrum (bold) and a spectrum degraded to the resolution of the CorMASS data (gray). The higher resolution spectra
containing the He i feature show how the blueshifted absorption feature waxes and wanes and changes shape. In addition, the degraded
spectra demonstrate the utility of the high resolution spectra for measuring the quiescent accretion activity and the unusual strength of
the Pa feature associated with the potential apastron are at = 0.372 and 0.433.
continued as spectra were collected at APO in late 2005
and early 2006. As part of the larger variability study,
CorMASS observations of DQ Tau were not phased with
the orbital period. Instead, they were collected ran-
domly when telescope time was available and the tar-
gets were well positioned. Additional observations of the
DQ Tau system were collected during 2010 January and
2012 October observing runs with TripleSpec (TSpec;
Wilson et al. 2004), also mounted on the ARC telescope
at APO. An instrumental cousin of CorMASS, TSpec
is a cross-dispersed near-IR spectrograph providing con-
tinuous wavelength coverage from 0.9 to 2.5 m with an
order of magnitude higher resolving power (R3,000). In
addition, three consecutive nights of data were acquired
at the IRTF during 2011 November, using SpeX, also
a cross-dispersed near-IR spectrograph providing nearly
continuous wavelength coverage from 0.8 to 2.4 m in the
short-wavelength cross-dispersed mode (SXD; R2000).
Table 1 summarizes the observations including the or-
bital phases at which the measurements were taken.
The slit dimensions are 1.

6 and 0.

75 in width and 12.

2
and 5.

7 in length for CorMASS on the VATT and APO,

respectively. For TSpec at APO and SpeX at IRTF, the
dimensions are 1.

1 and 0.

5 in width and 45

and 15

in length, respectively. Observations of both DQ Tau

and telluric calibration sources with CorMASS+VATT,
TSpec+APO, and SpeX+IRTF were made using a stan-
dard ABBA nod pattern, allowing for an ecient use
of telescope time and accurate removal of thermal back-
ground, sky emission lines, and dark current. The small
slit length for CorMASS+APO required target data to
be accompanied by a sky observation of equal exposure
time, in which the telescope was nodded to a blank sky
position within a few arcseconds of the target. While the
object + sky observations are slightly less ecient than
nodding, both techniques allow for accurate removal of
background, sky lines, and dark current.
Data reduction was performed using the IDL Spextool
package and its adaptations for CorMASS and TSpec, all
designed to process cross-dispersed data (Cushing et al.
2004). Each spectrum was wavelength calibrated using
resolved OH telluric emission features. HD 26710, a G2V
star was used as the telluric standard for most CorMASS
observations. In two epochs, an observation of an alter-
nate telluric calibrator gave better results (see Table 1
for details). For CorMASS observations, H i Paschen
and Brackett absorption features present in the telluric
spectrum were removed by linear interpolation between
the continuum points that bracket the feature. Corrected
spectra were then multiplied by a blackbody function
matching the temperature of the telluric calibration star
to preserve the continuum shape of the DQ Tau spectra.
For TSpec and Spex observations, nal telluric correction
was performed using an A0V star, and the telluric cor-
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 5
Fig. 3. Plotted are 18 epochs of DQ Tau spectra from 1.266 to 1.30 m to highlight the variations in the Pa feature at 1.2818 m. For
the epochs where SpeX and TripleSpec data of higher resolution were collected, we present both the full resolution spectrum (bold) and
a spectrum degraded to the resolution of the CorMASS data (gray). The higher resolution spectra illustrate the changes in the strength
and shape of the Pa feature, including the appearance of a redshifted absorption component to the line in the = 0.666 observation.
The degraded spectra demonstrate the utility of the high resolution spectra for measuring the quiescent accretion activity and the unusual
strength of the Pa feature associated with the potential apastron are at = 0.372 and 0.433.
rection procedure built-in to the SpeX and TSpec reduc-
tion package. This procedure creates a telluric correction
spectrum by generating a synthetic spectrum of the A0V
calibrator star based on a model spectrum of Vega. The
resulting synthetic A0V spectrum of the calibration star
is then divided by the observed spectrum to remove H i
features and weak metal lines. The target star spectrum
is then multiplied by this telluric correction spectrum
removing telluric features and the instrumental response
function, while preserving the photospheric features and
shape of the spectral energy distribution (for details see
Vacca et al. 2003).
Figure 1 presents two epochs of telluric corrected
DQ Tau spectra over the full wavelength coverage ob-
tained with CorMASS on the VATT. The two spectra
were obtained eight days apart on 2003 December 4 and
13 UT with orbital phases, equal to 0.876 and 0.437, re-
spectively. In the spectrum taken on December 4, strong
emission features associated with the Paschen and Brack-
ett H i series and the Ca ii infrared triplet are clearly
detected. For comparison, the spectrum of a M2.5V star
obtained from the IRTF Spectral Library (Rayner et al.
2009) is included with its resolution degraded to match
that of CorMASS.
3. RESULTS
The multi-epoch low- and moderate-resolution near-IR
spectra collected over the past ten years for this project
provide the opportunity to study several dierent aspects
of the DQ Tau system. We rst present measurements
of the mass accretion rate based on the strengths of the
H i emission lines. Using the eleven observations that do
not show any aring signature, we determine an average
quiescent mass accretion rate for the system and use this
to establish the existence of an anomalously strong accre-
tion are located near one of the apastron passes. Next,
as a probe of possible dierent modes of accretion activ-
ity in the system, we compare the H i line ratios during
outburst and quiescent phases and use those to inde-
pendently determine the temperature and density of the
accreting gas in both accretion regimes using a new line
excitation model (Kwan & Fischer 2011). In the next
section, we present an analysis of the spectral shapes
and molecular and atomic photospheric absorption fea-
tures resulting in a determination of the infrared spectral
type for DQ Tau. The discrepant IR spectral type leads
us to formulate a simple spot model that successfully
replicates the TiO and FeH band features and oers a co-
herent explanation for both the optical/IR spectral type
discrepancies and color anomalies observed for TTSs. Fi-
nally, we place an upper limit on the emission from the
v = 1 0 S(1) H
2
feature at 2.12 m, which we dis-
cuss in the context of shocks associated with accretion
6 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 4. Plotted are 18 epochs of DQ Tau spectra from 2.125 to 2.195 m to highlight the variations in the Br feature at 2.1655 m.
For the epochs where SpeX and TripleSpec data of higher resolution were collected, we present both the full resolution spectrum (bold) and
a spectrum degraded to the resolution of the CorMASS data (gray). The higher resolution spectra illustrate the changes in the strength
of the Br feature. In the few moderate resolution spectra, we note the lack of a redshifted absorption feature. The degraded spectra
demonstrate the utility of the high resolution spectra for measuring the quiescent accretion activity and the unusual strength of the Br
feature associated with the potential apastron are at = 0.372 and 0.433.
streamers falling inward from the circumbinary disk.
3.1. Accretion Flare Indicators
Optical and near-IR hydrogen emission features (i.e.,
Balmer, Paschen, and Brackett series) are dening char-
acteristics of the classical T Tauri classication of pre-
main-sequence stars. These features are accepted as
signposts for the presence of circumstellar material and
indicators of accretion activity. In the paradigm of
magnetospherically-guided accretion, matter free-falls
from the circumstellar disk toward the stellar surface
guided by the large-scale dipole-like stellar magnetic
eld. The material slams into the stellar photosphere,
releasing energy as a shock front forms a hot spot on
the surface of the star, heating both the shocked gas
and the trailing column of infalling material. Ionization
and recombination of hydrogen in the dense gas ows
are thought to be responsible for the majority of ux
produced in the H i emission lines present in the spec-
tra of TTSs. For some T Tauri systems, recent obser-
vations have demonstrated that a small fraction of the
hydrogen emission is spatially extended and associated
with outowing gas (Beck et al. 2010; Coey et al. 2010;
Davis et al. 2011). While the contribution of emission
from the outows to the integrated line ux is negligible
for most T Tauri systems, it is potentially more impor-
tant for less evolved, embedded Class I systems. Given
Fig. 5. Plotted are the values of the accretion luminosity deter-
mined from the Pa line luminosities using the Muzerolle relations
as a function of orbital phase. Filled circles represent detections,
while open circles designate upper limits. Error bars on the values
of Lacc are strictly measurement uncertainties. Note that some
error bars are smaller than the symbol size. Error bars on the or-
bital phases are derived from Huerta et al. (2005) uncertainties in
the orbital period and are propagated through time using perias-
tron on JD 2449582.54 as the origin. The dashed horizontal line
indicates the average value of Lacc measured during the quiescent
portion of the orbit.
the relationship between accretion and outows and the
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 7
TABLE 1
DQ Tau Observations
UT Date Telescope+Instr. Orbital Telluric
Phase
a
Calibrator
2003/12/04 VATT+CorMASS 0.876
0.027
0.082
HD 26710
2003/12/13 0.437
0.028
0.084

2003/12/14 0.500
0.028
0.084

2003/12/15 0.565
0.028
0.084

2003/12/16 0.627
0.028
0.084

2005/01/29 0.479
0.031
0.093

2005/10/16 APO+CorMASS 0.033
0.031
0.093
HIP 20899
2006/01/15 0.713
0.034
0.102
HD 26710
2006/01/18 0.897
0.034
0.102

2006/01/19 0.037
0.034
0.102

2006/10/04 0.372
0.035
0.107

2006/10/05 0.433
0.034
0.102
HIP 19767
2010/01/04 APO+TSpec 0.539
0.045
0.135
HD 283558
2010/01/04 0.546
0.045
0.135

2010/01/06 0.666
0.045
0.135

2011/11/12 IRTF+SpeX 0.402
0.048
0.139
HD24555
2011/11/13 0.466
0.048
0.139
HD34203
2011/11/14 0.528
0.048
0.139

2012/10/02 APO+TSpec 0.961
0.051
0.148
HD37887
2012/10/02 0.962
0.051
0.148

2012/10/02 0.975
0.051
0.148

a
Orbital phases were calculated beginning on Julian date
2449582.54 using the orbital period of 15.8016
0.002
0.006
measured by
Huerta et al. (2005).
fact that many observational studies have shown that
emitting H i gas correlates well with other tracers of ac-
creting gas, it is reasonable to conclude that H i line
emission remains a trusted proxy for determining mass
accretion rates in TTS systems. The wavelength cover-
age of CorMASS, TSpec, and SpeX and multiple epochs
of observations provides the opportunity to study several
hydrogen transitions simultaneously in the Paschen and
Brackett series and to measure the variations in mass
accretion rates as a function of orbital phase.
In addition to the H i features, the He i 1.083 m
feature is another well-studied spectral characteristic of
many TTSs that falls within the wavelength coverage of
CorMASS, TSpec, and SpeX (e.g., Beristain et al. 2001;
Dupree et al. 2005; Edwards et al. 2006; Fischer et al.
2008). At moderate resolution, this feature may appear
with a P Cygni and/or inverse P Cygni prole, possessing
either a blue-shifted or a red-shifted absorption compo-
nent, or both. Models of this feature describe the for-
mation in either accreting and/or outowing gas with
moderate success (Kwan et al. 2007; Fischer et al. 2008).
We monitor the strength of this feature and the appear-
ance of absorption components as a potential indicator
of diering modes of accretion activity in the DQ Tau
system.
Lastly, the Ca ii infrared triplet near 0.85 m has
also been observed to correlate with accretion activ-
ity (Muzerolle et al. 1998; Azevedo et al. 2006) and falls
within the wavelength coverage of CorMASS and SpeX.
We will assume that the presence of the H i and Ca ii
emission features directly indicate ongoing mass accre-
tion in the DQ Tau system.
3.2. Hydrogen Line Variability
Fig. 6. The Paschen decrement plotted for an observation of
DQ Tau on 2003 December 04 UT and includes ve Paschen series
lines with detectable line uxes. The observed line ratios are open
diamonds connected by a solid line. The ve best KF model ts
are overplotted and ordered in the gure legend by goodness-of-t.
These models tightly constrain the density, yet do not distinguish
between the temperatures in the KF models.
Fig. 7. Same as Figure 6 for observation of DQ Tau on 2006
October 05 UT.
Fig. 8. Same as Figure 6 for observation of DQ Tau on 2012
October 02 UT.
Figure 2 shows the variations in strength of both the
He i and Pa emission features. Notably, the He i feature
remains strongly in emission throughout the entire orbit
8 Bary & Petersen
of the system with only moderate variations in strength.
The moderate resolution spectra available at = 0.402,
0.466, 0.528, 0.539, 0.546, and 0.666 show that the struc-
ture of the feature undergoes some interesting variations.
For instance, the appearance of the blue-shifted absorp-
tion feature at = 0.546 and 0.666 suggests the pres-
ence of a variable outowing wind (v 200-300 km s
1
)
in the system since the feature is much weaker or com-
pletely absent at the other orbital phases. The presence
of the blue-shifted absorption component in the He i fea-
ture observed in a few epochs of the moderate resolution
spectra suggest that some of the variation observed in the
low-resolution spectra are correlated with the presence or
absence of the blue-shifted absorption component. The
Pa feature becomes undetectable in two epochs of the
low-resolution data. As expected for orbitally-modulated
accretion, the Pa feature appears strongest in epochs
near periastron. The TSpec and SpeX spectra collected
far enough from periastron allow us to condently detect
this feature during the quiescent phase of the orbit.
Figures 3 and 4 similarly show Pa and Br features
simultaneously collected with the He i and Pa features
presented in Figure 2. Pa has a larger ux than Pa
and, as a result, is more easily detected during the qui-
escent accretion phase of the orbit. The moderate res-
olution spectra provide insight into the structure of the
line and a higher signal-to-noise ratio with which to bet-
ter estimate the mass accretion rate. In most epochs
for which we have moderate resolution spectra, the fea-
ture appears slightly asymmetric with a sharp edge on
the red side of the line. Due to the presence of a no-
table photospheric absorption feature (unidentied by
Rayner et al. 2009) in the spectra of late K and early
M main-sequence stars, we conclude that the asymmetry
of Pa is most likely due to this photospheric feature.
For all epochs, there is no clear evidence in any of the
Paschen and Brackett series features for the red-shifted
absorption component frequently reported for hydrogen
lines in the near-IR spectra of accreting TTSs.
3.3. Quiescent Phase Mass Accretion Rates
Mass accretion rates in T Tauri systems are most
reliably determined by measuring excess Balmer con-
tinuum emission at wavelengths shorter than the
Balmer jump (Valenti et al. 1993; Gullbring et al. 1998a;
Herczeg & Hillenbrand 2008). However, the observed
correlations between mass accretion rates and infrared
H i and the Ca ii infrared triplet emission line luminosi-
ties have led to empirical relationships relating infrared
line strengths to mass accretion rates (Muzerolle et al.
1998). Using the following empirical relations,
log(
L
acc
L

) = (1.140.16) log(
L
Pa
L

) +(3.150.58) (1)
log(
L
acc
L

) = (1.26 0.19) log(

L
Br
L

) +(4.43 0.79) (2)

we can calculate the accretion luminosities from the Pa
and Br line luminosities. We then use the following
formula,
Fig. 9. Plotted as a two-dimensional surface are the reduced

2
-values for the dierent temperature and density model ts to
the observed Paschen decrement values from 2003 December 04
UT. The trough in the front of the surface locates the models
that are the best ts to the data and indicates the small range of
best t densities, while doing little to constrain the temperatures
over the 7500 K to 12500 K range in the models. For instance,
the steep ride of the surface for high temperatures and densities,
strongly rule out the possibility of the emitting gas being both hot
and dense by KF model standards.
Fig. 10. Same as Figure 9 for observations of DQ Tau on 2006
October 05 UT.
Fig. 11. Same as Figure 9 for observations of DQ Tau on 2012
October 02 UT.
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 9
log

M
M

= log

L
acc
L

+log

log

log (7.18)
(3)
to convert the accretion luminosity to a mass accretion
rate. In Table 2, we present the equivalent widths and
upper limits of the four strongest hydrogen emission lines
(Pa, Pa, Pa, and Br) and the 1.083 m He i feature
as well as the accretion luminosities and mass accretion
rates. We note that the log

M
M
of the accretion luminosi-
ties presented were determined using the stronger, higher
signal-to-noise ratio Pa line luminosity. In Section 3.6,
we discuss the determination of the spectral type of the
DQ Tau system from which we base a mass and stellar
radius (M

= 1.3 M

and R

= 1.6 R

, respectively)
for the determination of

M. In Figure 5, we plot the
accretion luminosity versus orbital phase.
The randomly collected data sample the strengths of
the emission features throughout the entire orbital phase,
though they do not provide continuous coverage of any
one full orbit of the system. Using H i and the Ca ii lines
as indicators of accretion activity, we detect evidence
of accretion ares in eight epochs of observations lo-
cated near four dierent periastron passages ( = 0.033,
0.037, 0.713, 0.876, 0.897, 0.961, 0.962, and 0.975; see
Table 2). The ares are denoted by a strengthening
of several Paschen and Brackett series H i emission fea-
tures, as is shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4. Upper lim-
its are placed on the strengths of the emission features
during the quiescent portion of the orbit when the line
strengths fall below our sensitivity thresholds (see Fig-
ure 5). To determine a quiescent (non-aring) accretion
rate, we select epochs which do not indicate aring ac-
tivity (weak Hydrogen features, low intra-night variabil-
ity) to estimate the mean quiescent mass accretion rate
as 6.72
3.09
2.17
10
10
M

yr
1
(this corresponds, via
linear mapping, to a quiescent accretion luminosity of -
1.76 0.1 log

Lacc
L

). We note that our value for the

quiescent mass accretion rate compares favorably with
the estimate of 6 10
10
M

yr
1
(Gullbring et al.
1998a), which was derived from the excess Balmer con-
tinuum emission.
3.4. Pulsed-Accretion Activity: Anomalous Flare Near
Apastron
Selecting the previously-dened quiescent observa-
tions, we nd (as noted above) a mean accretion luminos-
ity of log

Lacc
L

= 1.76, with a dispersion of = 0.1.

Interpreted in this context, the rst night of the pro-
posed anomalous are at = 0.372 is a 2.3- outlier,
while the second night of the are at = 0.433 is a
5.51- outlier. In fact, the line strengths and accretion
luminosities on these two nights compare more favorably
to the periastron accretion ares, which have a mean
accretion luminosity of log

Lacc
L

= 0.845 and a dis-

persion of = 0.125. The second night of the are is
more consistent with originating in the periastron ar-
ing distribution (3.65-) than the quiescent distribution
(5.51-). Note also that an observation at = 0.71 ex-
hibits a 5.01- are. Based on the photometric monitor-
ing of Mathieu et al. (1997), such a are constrained to
within = 0.3 of periastron, would have been con-
sidered one of the periastron ares. Therefore, we did
not consider it part of the quiescent portion of the orbit
nor anomalous in anyway. Unfortunately, additional ob-
servations from the same orbit were not acquired and we
cannot comment on whether the system is simply experi-
encing an early beginning to a periastron accretion are
or if this is a completely random event. The data also
do not posses temporal coverage within 0.8 0.35
to denitively say that infrared periastron ares are sim-
ilarly constrained in phase as the optical ares.
The fact that the anomalous apastron are or out-
burst occurs when the stars are near their greatest
separation strengthens the conclusions of Jensen et al.
(2007) that the aring events are not solely pro-
duced by the interaction of the stellar magneto-
spheres, a potential aring mechanism originally pro-
posed by Basri et al. (1997). Neither the hydrody-
namic model of Artymowicz & Lubow (1996) nor that of
G unther & Kley (2002) predict signicant pulsed accre-
tion activity occurring near periastron. Unfortunately,
we only have two observations preceding the apastron
passage. As a result, we do not know if an increase in
the accretion activity continues as the binary approaches
apastron and whether that behavior is then followed by
a decay or if the increased activity continues through
the rest of the orbit. Previous data collected at multiple
wavelengths show relatively little variation in the quies-
cent emission levels of the H i features at both optical
and infrared wavelengths.
The simulations of G unther & Kley (2002) and
de Val-Borro et al. (2011) provide a framework for con-
sidering the nature of the accretion are observed at
apastron. Both simulations predict that perturbations
in the circumbinary disk will lead to the formation of
irregularly-shaped, non-axisymmetric structures extend-
ing inwards from the inner edge of the disk. The presence
of such structures coinciding with the close passage of one
or both stellar cores at apastron, may lead to an enhance-
ment of the mass accretion rate such as that observed in
the anomalous are. If the size, shape, density, and posi-
tion of these structures vary considerably over time, such
events may be both rare and aperiodic. The viscosity of
the disk is a key parameter to the size and extent of such
structures. Therefore, additional detections of apastron
ares, including durations and distances from the disk at
which the ares begin should provide rough constraints
on the viscosity of material in the circumbinary disk. We
plan to continue the spectroscopic monitoring of DQ Tau
and extend these observations to high-resolution to com-
pare kinematics of the accretion line diagnostics in both
the quiescent and are states.
3.5. Physical Conditions of the Accreting Hydrogen Gas
In addition to being excellent proxies for measuring
the mass accretion rates in TTSs, the multiple near-
IR hydrogen lines collected simultaneously in the cross-
dispersed data allow us to probe the temperature and
density of the accreting gas. By comparing the values
of multiple hydrogen line ratios to those predicted by
temperature and density dependent hydrogen line exci-
tation models, we can search for the models that pro-
duce the most statistically signicant ts to the data
10 Bary & Petersen
TABLE 2
DQ Tau Line Measurements
Orbital He i Pa Pa Pa Br log

Lacc
L

log

M
M

yr
1

Phase
a
W

A) W

A) W

A) W

A) W

A)
0.033
0.031
0.093
-11.400.52 -5.190.52 -6.590.52 -8.910.62 -6.631.03 -1.030.05 -8.440.05
0.037
0.034
0.102
-28.670.52 -6.190.52 -11.050.52 -16.530.62 -9.61.03 -0.720.03 -8.130.03
0.372
0.035
0.107
-8.570.52 -1.010.52 -4.510.52 -3.270.62 -1.530.16 -8.940.16
0.402
0.048
0.139
-11.400.19 -0.700.19 -1.770.19 -2.300.23 -1.4620.38 -1.700.07 -9.110.07
0.433
0.034
0.102
-8.890.52 -2.220.52 -2.980.52 -6.160.62 -3.491.03 -1.210.08 -8.620.08
0.437
0.028
0.084
-8.840.52 -1.780.62 -1.830.35 -9.240.35
0.466
0.048
0.139
-10.450.19 -0.850.19 -2.290.19 -2.360.23 -1.550.38 -1.690.07 -9.100.07
0.479
0.031
0.093
-6.770.52 -2.700.52 -3.260.52 -2.400.62 -2.431.03 -1.680.23 -9.090.23
0.500
0.028
0.084
-7.610.52 -1.820.34 -9.230.34
0.528
0.048
0.139
-10.990.19 -0.790.19 -1.890.19 -2.950.23 -1.740.38 -1.580.05 -8.990.05
0.539
0.045
0.135
0.94,-7.800.09 -0.820.09 -1.220.09 -1.800.11 -2.780.18 -1.820.04 -9.230.04
0.546
0.045
0.135
1.01,-7.000.09 -0.970.09 -1.160.09 -1.410.11 -1.410.13 -1.940.06 -9.350.06
0.565
0.028
0.084
-7.490.52 -1.560.52 -2.430.62 -1.670.23 -9.080.23
0.627
0.028
0.084
-7.660.52 -2.060.52 -3.040.52 -2.070.62 -3.011.03 -1.800.32 -9.210.32
0.666
0.045
0.135
1.02,-7.440.09 -1.110.09 -1.65 0.11 -1.610.18 -1.860.05 -9.270.05
0.713
0.034
0.102
-10.900.52 -1.900.52 -5.970.52 -5.590.62 -1.260.09 -8.670.09
0.876
0.027
0.082
-9.540.52 -6.240.52 -6.670.52 -11.980.62 -6.751.03 -0.880.04 -8.440.04
0.897
0.034
0.102
-22.850.52 -3.860.52 -4.920.52 -9.180.62 -5.711.03 -1.020.05 -8.430.05
0.961
0.051
0.148
1.56,-21.450.19 -6.290.19 -12.560.19 -16.560.23 -6.250.38 -0.720.01 -8.130.01
0.962
0.051
0.148
1.58,-21.620.19 -7.900.19 -12.650.19 -16.050.23 -6.170.38 -0.740.01 -8.150.01
0.975
0.051
0.148
1.21,-18.520.19 -5.620.19 -10.490.19 -13.800.23 -4.930.38 -0.810.01 -8.220.01
a
Orbital phases were calculated beginning on Julian date 2449582.54 using the orbital period of 15.8016
0.002
0.006
measured by Huerta et al. (2005).
and constrain the gas temperature and density. If the
emitting gas is located in the accretion column, either
at the point where it is loaded into the ow or where it
resides in the column (or both), the physical conditions
of this gas may be revealed by such a tting procedure.
Previously, Bary et al. (2008) used line ratios from over
70 spectra of actively accreting TTSs and the well-known
case B line excitation model, which assumes a recombin-
ing hydrogen gas in which transitions above the Lyman
series are optically thin, to solve for the average tem-
perature and density of accreting gas in TTS systems.
Bary et al. (2008) found a range of electron densities
(10
9
cm
3
10
11
cm
3
) that were in good agree-
ment with those predicted by magnetospheric accretion
models. However, the temperatures constrained by the
best t models (T
gas
2000 K) were considerably lower
than the typical 6000 K T
gas
12000 K predicted for
accreting gas (Muzerolle et al. 2001). A new line excita-
tion model developed by Kwan & Fischer (2011), speci-
ed for infalling/outowing gas (|v| = 150 km s
1
), in-
cludes line opacity as a free parameter, in addition to
gas density, kinetic temperature, an ionizing ux, and
a local velocity gradient. The Kwan-Fischer (KF) line
excitation model places the emitting gas within a few
stellar radii of the stellar surface and includes photoion-
ization as an excitation mechanism. Using the data from
Bary et al. (2008), the KF models found a best t den-
sity of N
H
10
11
cm
3
for temperatures in the range of
8750 K T
gas
310
4
K and N
H
5 10
11
for tem-
peratures T
gas
7500 K. Temperatures returned by the
KF models are in better agreement with the accretion
models. This result suggests that the case B models are
not the appropriate line excitation models for accreting
gas and that the H i line emission arises from collisional
excitation, rather than from a recombining gas.
The DQ Tau system with its periodic accretion ares
provides a unique opportunity to search for changes in
the physical conditions of the accreting gas with mass
accretion rate. While we have 20 distinct epochs of ob-
servations, ten epochs are low-resolution CorMASS spec-
tra that were not sensitive enough to detect multiple H i
features during the quiescent phases of the orbit, making
the line ratio analysis described above impossible with
this data set. Using data from one moderate resolution
spectrum during periastron and the two low-resolution
spectra that caught the system during a are, one during
periastron and another near apastron, we measured the
line ratios for ve Paschen series lines. We compared the
observed Pan/Pa decrement for each of these epochs to
the range of KF models (10
9
cm
3
N
H
10
12
cm
3
;
Edwards et al. 2013). In Figure 6, 7, and 8, we present
plots of the Paschen decrement for the ve lines with
measurable uxes for these three epochs. We nd that
our data constrain the densities to be between N
H
equals
6.3 10
10
cm
3
and 1.0 10
12
cm
3
, while placing no
meaningful constraint on the gas temperatures between
7500 K to 12500 K. Figures 9, 10, and 11 present three-
dimensional surface plots of the reduced
2
-values for
the density and temperatures. The trough that runs
from low temperature to high temperature over a small
range of densities clearly illustrates the wide range of
acceptable temperatures for the accreting gas, while si-
multaneously demonstrating the KF models ability to
constrain the gas density. Given the large uncertain-
ties in our measurements of the line ratios, we cannot
constrain the range of temperatures and densities well
enough over the three epochs to detect variations of the
physical conditions of the accreting gas. In the future,
with the addition of more high signal-to-noise resolution
spectra during both quiescent and accretion are epochs,
we hope to search for variations in the physical conditions
of the gas as a function of accretion activity.
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 11
Fig. 12. A sequence of near-infrared spectra from the Spex IRTF Spectral Library (Rayner et al. 2009) spanning 0.8 to 2.45 m are
presented in normalized ux units. Interspersed is a SpeX observation of DQ Tau taken on 2011 November 13 UT corrected with the
three dierent published values of the visual extinction. The three dereddened DQ Tau spectra are positioned so as to be bracketed by the
spectral standards that best match the overall shape of the spectrum. Many of the strongest metallic photospheric absorption features are
identied. Following the plots from Vacca & Sandell (2011), regions of poor atmospheric transmission (<20%) are denoted by dark gray
and regions of moderate atmospheric transmission (<80% are denoted by light gray vertical bars.
3.6. Spectral Classication
The moderate-resolution near-IR spectra collected
with SpeX and TSpec provide an opportunity to mea-
sure a spectral type for DQ Tau from a wavelength region
inaccessible to previous spectroscopic studies that were
centered only on visible wavelengths (e.g., Joy & Abt
1974; Herbig 1977; Basri et al. 1997). Using the IRTF
SpeX Spectral Library (Rayner et al. 2009), we begin
by following a similar spectral typing procedure outlined
in Vacca & Sandell (2011), which involves comparisons
of spectral shapes and the strengths of molecular and
metallic features. We make additional comparisons to
giant stars using spectral standards from the SpeX li-
brary and model spectra from Coelho et al. (2005) to
test surface gravity eects. After nding compelling ev-
idence for a much cooler spectral type than previously
reported for DQ Tau and demonstrating the inability of
variations in surface gravity to simultaneously account
for the observed strengths of the TiO and FeH bands,
we investigate the potential eects of large cool spots on
the surfaces of the stellar companions. We show that
composite spectra of warm photospheres and large, cool
spots produce reasonable ts to the TiO bands at 0.85
and 0.88 m and the FeH feature
4
at 0.99 m. These ts
4
The iron hydride band is commonly referred to as the Wing-
Ford band (Wing & Ford 1969)
also distinguish between the three dierent values of A
V
published for DQ Tau.
3.6.1. IR Spectral Typing
In Figure 12, we present a sequence of spectral stan-
dards taken from the SpeX library that spans the range of
spectral types previously determined for the DQ Tau sys-
tem (M0V, M1V, and K4-5V/M1-1.5V; Joy & Abt 1974;
Herbig 1977; Basri et al. 1997). Bracketed by the main-
sequence standards that share the same general spec-
tral shape are three DQ Tau spectra generated from one
SpeX observation collected on 2011 November 13 UT
and corrected for reddening using three values of the
visual extinction (A
V
) taken from the literature: 0.97,
2.0, and 2.13 (Kenyon & Hartmann 1995; Mathieu et al.
1997; Strom et al. 1989) and the extinction law found in
Martin & Whittet (1990). Figure 12 clearly shows that
one magnitude dierence in visual extinction ( A
V
= 1)
can account for considerable variation in the shape of
the DQ Tau spectrum shortward of 1.5 m, which would
result in a spectral type mismatch. For example, M4V-
M6V seems appropriate for DQ Tau with an A
V
of 0.97
whereas M0V-M2V is best for an A
V
of 2.0 or 2.13.
The presence of several molecular absorption features
provide another means for spectral typing. Broad water
absorption bands at 1.4 and 1.9 m strongly aect the
overall spectral shape, producing the hump-like or tri-
12 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 13. A comparison of M dwarf spectra from the SpeX library to one epoch of DQ Tau taken on 2011 November 14 UT over
0.8-1.1 m. All spectra have been dereddened and normalized. A visual extinction of A
V
= 0.97 (Kenyon & Hartmann 1995) was used for
DQ Tau. The spectral sequence of M dwarfs chosen to bracket the DQ Tau spectra is based primarily on the strengths of the TiO bands
at 0.85 and 0.88 m and the FeH band at 0.99 m. The residual spectrum is the dierence between the DQ Tau and the M3.5V spectrum.
angular features in the H- and K-bands (see Figure 12).
The magnitude of the hump in the H band is best approx-
imated by the M5V and M6V standards over the entire
range of A
V
, while the feature in the K-band is better
t by M3-3.5V. It is important to note that the H-band
spectra of young stars has a more pronounced triangular
shape as compared to the more smoothly rounded fea-
tures in the spectra of evolved eld stars (Lucas et al.
2001; Allers et al. 2007; Allers & Liu 2013). Thus the
shape of the DQ Tau spectrum in the H band will not
be perfectly matched by the spectral shape of the more
evolved standards in the SpeX library. Nonetheless, clear
variations in the strength of the H-band feature are evi-
dent in Figure 12
5
.
In addition to the broad water absorption features in
the DQ Tau spectrum, we note the presence of the fol-
lowing molecular features: (1) TiO absorption bands at
0.85 and 0.88 m, (2) FeH at 0.99 m, (3) a strong H
2
O
band at 1.33 m, and (4)
12
CO bandheads in the K-
band. The strengths of the TiO absorption bands at
0.85 and 0.88 m, though slightly aected by the choice
of A
V
, are much deeper than those of the K5-M2V spec-
tra for all values of A
V
. Figure 13 provides a direct com-
parison between a dereddened DQ Tau spectrum (2011
5
We note that the H-band feature is poorly t by the M7V
spectral standard, making M6V a rm limit to later-type M stars
and explaining why it is not included in the gure.
November 14 UT
6
; A
V
= 0.97) and the spectral stan-
dards that bracket DQ Tau between 0.8 and 1.1 m.
Based on the strengths of the TiO bands and the FeH
feature, ts between the main-sequence standards and
DQ Tau constrain the spectral type to be between an
M3 and M4V over the 0.85-1.0 m wavelength range, a
value 2-3 spectral classes cooler than quoted in the lit-
erature. Schiavon et al. (1997) clearly demonstrate that
the FeH feature heavily depends on the surface gravity
with cool dwarf stars possessing the strongest FeH fea-
tures. Therefore, the strength of the FeH feature, in ad-
dition to suggesting a cooler spectral type, also indicates
a dwarf-like surface gravity for these stars.
Figure 14 shows the DQ Tau spectrum between 1.1
and 1.35 m, which includes the H
2
O feature at 1.33 m.
The strength of the H
2
O feature is best t in the M2.5V
to M3.5V spectral type range. Figure 15 contains the K-
band and several CO bandhead absorption features. The
CO feature strengths were best t between an M3.5V and
M4.5V, in rough agreement with the spectral type sug-
gested by the spectral shape in the K-band. Any signi-
cant continuum veiling in the K-band due to an infrared
excess would result in a determination of spectral types
corresponding to higher temperatures than the that of
the actual photosphere. Therefore, M3.5V-M4.5V are
6
A dierent night is used for this gure due to the high quality
of data near 0.8 m. We note that the accretion activity was
measured to be the same on both nights.
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 13
Fig. 14. A comparison of M dwarf SpeX library spectra to one epoch of DQ Tau taken on 2011 November 13 UT over 1.1-1.35 m.
The spectral sequence of M dwarfs is chosen to bracket the DQ Tau spectra based primarily on the strength of the H
2
O feature at 1.33 m.
upper limits to the spectral type determination from the
K-band. Regardless of the visual extinction value we
choose to adopt, the strengths of these molecular fea-
tures collectively and denitively suggest a spectral type
cooler than those previously proposed for the DQ Tau
system, with the earliest type being an M2.5V and other
features suggesting a type as cool as an M6V.
On the other hand, the strength of temperature sen-
sitive metal lines such as K i at 1.16934, 1.17761, and
1.51725 m (see Figures 12 and 14) and several Mg i fea-
tures at 1.18314, 1.4881874, 1.50518, 1.57450, 1.57533,
and 1.71133 m (see Figures 14 and 16) indicate a bet-
ter match with slightly early-M-type spectral standards,
M2V and M0V, in agreement with those found in the lit-
erature. Joy & Abt (1974) used the strengths of TiO
absorption bands at visible wavelengths to determine
a spectral type of M0V. Herbig (1977) later classied
DQ Tau as an M1V based on ratios of metallic lines in the
optical (5850 < < 6700

A). Most recently, Basri et al.
(1997), using high-resolution echelle spectra, reported an
M1-1.5V type based upon the strength of the TiO band
at 7125

A. However, in the same study, a comparison
of the ratio of the temperature sensitive 6210.7

A Sc i
line to a pair of nearby temperature insensitive Fe i lines
resulted in a far earlier spectral type of K4-5V. Contin-
uum veiling was discussed as a potential explanation for
the inconsistency in spectral types (Basri et al. 1997).
However, the line ratios were formed from spectral fea-
tures in a narrow region of the spectrum, which should
have mitigated any eects of veiling on the spectral type.
Basri et al. (1997) also suggested that the discrepancy
may be due to cool star spots or strong chromospheric
activity, but suggested that clear evidence in support of
either scenario did not exist. Therefore, Basri et al. con-
cluded that the lower surface gravity of the pued-up
T Tauri star photospheres may lead to a strengthening of
the TiO band, resulting in a cooler spectral type relative
to that determined by the metallic lines.
3.6.2. Testing Spectral-Type Dependence on log g
The SpeX Spectral Library also includes spectral stan-
dards for giant stars over the spectral range presented in
Figure 12; these standards enable us to test the sugges-
tion that the pued-up photospheres aect the spec-
tral typing. In other words, do warm pued-up or
giant stars have TiO bands in the IR with strengths
comparable to those observed in DQ Tau? In Figure
17, we compare two dereddened DQ Tau spectra to the
spectra of giant stars in a spectral type range similar
to those presented in Figure 12. By visual inspection,
the DQ Tau TiO features at 0.85, 0.86, and 0.88 m are
clearly stronger than that of the giant stars as cool as
an M4III. The low pressure photospheres of giant stars
cannot account for the optical/IR spectral type discrep-
ancy we observe for DQ Tau. In addition to the TiO fea-
ture, the giant spectra also appear to lack the pronounced
triangular spectral shape in the H-band and have com-
paratively weak FeH and H
2
O absorption features also
suggesting that the photospheres in the DQ Tau system
are more like that of a dwarf than a giant star.
14 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 15. A comparison of M dwarf SpeX library spectra to one epoch of DQ Tau taken on 2011 November 13 UT over 2.0-2.4 m.
Note that the strengths of the CO bandheads at 2.2935, 2.3227, 2.3525, and 2.3830 m are more similar to those of the later M5-6V than
the earlier M2-4V spectral types. However, the strengths of the Na i, Mg i, Al i, and Ca i metallic lines more closely agree with the earlier
spectral types.
We investigated this further, using a library of syn-
thetic spectra (0.3 m 1.8 m) calculated
by Coelho et al. (2005) to probe the dependence of
the TiO and FeH feature strengths on surface grav-
ity. The library covers a broad range of eec-
tive temperatures (3500 K T 7000 K), metal-
liticies (-2.5 [
Fe
H
] +0.5), and surface gravities
(0.0 log g 5.0). Figure 18 plots two model spectra
over a wavelength region that includes a portion of the
visible and very near-IR (0.65 m 1.0 m) for two
stars with T = 4500 K (roughly a K4-5 per Basri et al.
1997), solar metallicity, and log g values of 3.5 and 4.5.
The lower log g value of 3.5 represents a pued up
TTS
7
, while 4.5 corresponds to a main-sequence star.
The two model spectra were normalized over the same
wavelength region and subtracted to produce the resid-
uals plotted in the bottom panel. The magnitude of the
residuals clearly shows that there is no discernible dier-
ence in the TiO features at 0.71 and 0.85 m between
the spectra with dierent log g values. A similar dif-
ferencing of spectra between the target DQ Tau and the
log g = 3.5 model spectrum ([DQTau - 3.5]) shows that
the strength of the TiO and the FeH absorption features
7
Using the stellar parameters from Mathieu et al. (1997) of
0.65 M

and 1.6 R

for the mass and radius for both stellar sources

in DQ Tau, we calculated a log g of 3.8. For the purpose of this
comparison plot, we rounded down to 3.5 rather than up to 4.0 to
magnify any potential dependence on log g.
in DQ Tau far exceeds that of both model spectra. If the
DQ Tau stars have surface temperatures on the order of
a K4 or K5 spectral type, lower surface gravity is not
a strong enough eect to account for the strength of the
TiO features observed in this study and by Basri et al.
(1997).
Since most studies have determined DQ Tau to have
an M0V to M1.5V spectral type, we also compare the
strengths of the TiO bands in the synthetic spectra of two
3500 K stars (roughly the T
eff
for an M2III-V), again
with log g values of 3.5 and 4.5 in Figure 19. A compar-
ison to model spectra in Figure 18 shows that the TiO
features for the cooler stars are clearly much stronger and
closer approximations of the TiO absorption in DQ Tau,
as should be expected. The residuals left by dierencing
the synthetic spectra with dierent surface gravities and
cooler temperatures show evidence for some dependence
on surface gravity with the TiO features in the star with
the lower log g value appearing stronger. Once again, we
subtract the low surface gravity spectrum from DQ Tau
([DQ Tau-3.5]) and nd that the TiO features are slightly
stronger in the photospheres of the DQ Tau stars. How-
ever, what is most telling about the lack of sensitivity
of the IR spectral type on log g is the strength of the
FeH absorption feature at 0.99 m. In contrast to the
synthetic spectra of the 4500 K stars, the spectra of the
3500 K stars both possess FeH, a result of the temper-
ature sensitivity of this feature. However, the two stars
with dierent surface gravities have similarly strong FeH
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 15
Fig. 16. A comparison of M dwarf spectra from the SpeX library to one epoch of DQ Tau taken on 2011 November 13 UT over
1.45-1.77 m. The same M dwarf spectral standards presented in Figure 13 are presented here over a region of the spectrum containing
several temperature sensitive metallic absorption features. Note that the strengths of the Mg i, Al i, and K i features clearly suggest a
spectral type earlier than an M2V for DQ Tau.
features both of which are clearly weaker than the FeH
in the spectrum of DQ Tau. According to the study of
Schiavon et al. (1997), FeH is strongest in the spectra
of the coolest, dwarf stars (lowest temperature, highest
surface gravity). According to the comparison made in
Figure 18, the higher surface gravity of the log g = 4.5 is
not enough to account for the strength of the FeH fea-
ture. Figure 18 also demonstrates that a photospheric
temperature of 3500 K is not low enough to produce an
FeH feature as strong as is observed in DQ Tau. In or-
der to simultaneously t the TiO features and the FeH
feature in DQ Tau, a synthetic spectrum with a lower
photospheric temperature (cooler than an M2) and/or a
slightly higher surface gravity (greater than an M2III) is
required. Therefore, we conclude that strengths of both
the FeH and the TiO features indicate that a low sur-
face gravity associated with the pued up envelopes
of contracting TTSs cannot account for the discrepancy
between the infrared and optical spectral types for such
sources.
3.6.3. Color Anomalies & Star Spots
Using infrared measurements, Gullbring et al. (1998b)
and Fischer et al. (2011) demonstrated that weak-line
or non-accreting TTSs appear brighter at longer wave-
lengths than main-sequence stars of the same spectral
types. One result of this color anomaly is that A
V
values
determined from IR photometry will be larger than those
determined from optical photometry. Gullbring et al.
(1998a,b) and Fischer et al. (2011) nd systematically
larger values of A
V
for both non-accreting and accret-
ing TTSs as compared to values determined from optical
wavelengths. Gullbring et al. also demonstrate that spec-
tral types derived for their sample of wTTSs will be later
types when determined from longer wavelengths, similar
to what we nd for DQ Tau in the previous section (see
Figures 4 and 5 from; Gullbring et al. 1998b).
We used near-IR photometry from
Kenyon & Hartmann (1995) to calculate A
V
for DQ Tau
(M1V) and found A
V
= 3.6 and 6.6 from E(J K)
and E(H K)
8
, respectively. Dereddening the DQ Tau
spectra with such large values for A
V
would drastically
aect the shape of the infrared continuum, forcing it
to appear as a much earlier type star. Gullbring et al.
(1998b) suggest that very large axisymmetric spots may
be responsible for the color anomalies and dierences in
values of A
V
.
A dening characteristic of TTSs is their irregular pho-
tometric variability (Joy 1945, 1949), with one of the
well-established sources of variability being the rotation
and evolution of large, cool star spots on their surfaces
(Bouvier & Bertout 1989; Herbst et al. 1994). The spot
temperatures and fractional coverage of the stellar sur-
faces in TTSs are shown to be similar to those found
8
We used
A
V
E(JK)
= 5.82 and
A
V
E(HK)
= 15.3, respectively.
Also note that the eect would have been magnied if we had
assumed a spectral type earlier than M1V.
16 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 17. A comparison of M and K giant star standard spectra to DQ Tau spectra (2011 November 13 UT) dereddened with two values
of interstellar extinction Av = 0.97 and 2.0. The TiO feature at 0.85 m is considerably stronger in the DQ Tau spectrum than that of
the early M and late K giant spectral standards. Also note the absence and relative weakness of the FeH feature at 0.99 m in the giant
star spectra.
on RS CVn stars (Hall 1972; Bouvier & Bertout 1989).
Considerable eort has been committed to understand-
ing the sizes and temperatures of spots on the surfaces
of magnetically active stars, perhaps, more so than have
been carried out for TTSs. Spot sizes, temperatures, and
locations are deduced from photometric light-curve mod-
eling and spectral line diagnostics (i.e., Doppler imaging;
Strassmeier 2009). Relying on the fact that spots on ac-
tive, low surface gravity stars are similar to those on
TTSs, we discuss ndings from a few studies of the TiO
molecular bands in the photospheres of TTSs and RS
CVn stars that are relevant for the analysis we perform
below.
Ne et al. (1995), ONeal et al. (1996), and
ONeal et al. (1998) used high-resolution spectroscopy
of the TiO bands in the spectra of several RS CVn-
type stars to constrain the spot and non-spot surface
temperatures as well as the spot sizes. In these three
papers, the authors developed a technique for tting the
RS CVn spectra using inactive G and K stars as spectral
standards for the non-spotted photosphere and inactive
M standards for the spots. For late-type active stars,
ONeal et al. (1998) found spot temperatures between
3400 and 3900 K and spot lling factors between 0.1 and
0.5 (10% and 50% fractional coverage, respectively), in
good agreement with photometric light-curve modeling.
Herbst & Levreault (1990) and Berdyugina et al.
(1992) rst showed that variations in the strengths of the
TiO bands near 7100

A correlated with the existence,
rotation, and evolution of cool star spots on the sur-
faces of TTSs. In light of this correlation, the anomalous
strengths of both the TiO and FeH absorption features in
the spectra of DQ Tau may strongly suggest the presence
of cool spots on the surfaces of the DQ Tau companions
(Schiavon et al. 1997). Inspired by the evidence point-
ing towards the contribution of cool spots to the spectral
type discrepancy, the inability of surface gravity eects to
reproduce the strengths of the TiO and FeH features, and
the spectral tting technique developed by ONeal et al.
(1998), we attempted to t the TiO features at 0.85 and
0.88 m and the FeH feature at 0.99 m to determine if
cool spots could be responsible for the spectral type dis-
crepancy observed for DQ Tau. Modeling of the entire
near-IR spectra would require a disk model to account
for the infrared excess emission beyond 1 m. Therefore,
we focus on tting the DQ Tau spectra in the spectral
window from 0.8 to 1.0 m and reserve the inclusion of
disk models and associated parameters to future study.
Main-sequence spectral standards from the SpeX li-
brary were used to construct composite spectra, rep-
resentative of spotted stars. We chose M0V and M1V
standard spectra to represent the photosphere based on
optically-derived spectral types. M6V and M7V stan-
dards were chosen to represent the spot temperatures
of 3050 K and 2650 K, respectively. Composite spectra
were calculated for six spot lling factors (f
sp
0.1, 0.2,
0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6). The spot lling factors weighted
the contributions of the spectra produced by the spots
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 17
Fig. 18. In the upper panel, two synthetic spectra (gray) for T
eff
= 4500 K stars with solar metallicity are plotted with dierent values
for log g, 3.5 and 4.5, from 0.70 m to 1.0 m includes two TiO bands at 0.71 and 0.85 m. The lower g-value corresponds to that of a
sub-giant, K5IV, while the higher value is that of a K5V star. Bracketed by the two model spectra is the relevant portion of a dereddened
(A
V
= 0.97) SpeX spectrum of DQ Tau (black; 2011 November 13 UT) in which the TiO absorption band centered on 0.85 m is clearly
visible. In the lower panel, two residuals are plotted. The gray residual is the dierence of the two synthetic spectra [3.5 4.5], while
the solid residual is the dierence of DQ Tau and the log g = 3.5 spectrum. The small variations in the rst residual illustrate that there
is little dierence in the strength of the TiO band for the dierence in log g between a main sequence and a subgiant star with the same
temperature. The second residual shows that the spectral shape and strength of the TiO feature in DQ Tau is not approximated well by a
T = 4500 K star with either values of log g.
to the nal composite spectra. A goodness-of-t to the
observed DQ Tau spectrum was determined by nding
the composite spectrum with the minimum
2
-value for
the two dierent photosphere and spot temperatures, six
spot lling factors, and two of the published values of
A
V
: 0.97 and 2.13.
The best ts to the TiO features and the spectral
shape between 0.8 and 1.0 m was given by an M1V
photosphere (M1V
ph
) and a spot temperature of 3050 K
(M6V
sp
), with spot lling factors, f
sp
= 0.4 and 0.5, and
A
V
= 0.97 (see Figures 20 and 21). The
2
-values, which
are calculated from the residuals for all of the data points
in the spectral window, presented in Table 3 indicate that
the M0V
ph
+M6V
sp
model with f
sp
= 0.6 is the best t.
While the t of the spectral shape is slightly better, the
t to the FeH feature is extremely poor. Therefore, we
dismiss this model as the best overall t to the DQ Tau
spectrum. We also take the M1V
ph
+M6V
sp
model with
f
sp
= 0.4 to be a slightly better t than the f
s
= 0.5
model based on the tting of the FeH feature. The FeH
feature is best t by the smaller spot size, f
sp
= 0.3
for the M1V
ph
+M6V
sp
model. Based on the work of
Schiavon et al. (1997), we can interpret this discrepancy
between ts to the TiO and the FeH as a combination of
the strict low temperature sensitivity of the FeH feature
combined with its dependence on log g. In other words,
both a higher spot temperature and/or a smaller log g
for the model star could account for the spot size dis-
crepancy. This is observed in the models with the hotter
M0V photosphere as the larger spot size f
sp
= 0.4 pro-
duces the best t to the FeH feature.
The atomic absorption features of Na ii and Ca ii in-
frared triplet are much weaker in the best-t models as
demonstrated by the residuals in Figures 20 and 21. The
Ca ii absorption lines in the spectrum of DQ Tau are
likely lled in partially by Ca ii emission related to the
accretion activity in the system as well as continuum
veiling. The Na ii features though less aected by accre-
tion activity, will also be aected by any veiling at these
shorter wavelengths. We discuss diculties associated
with measuring veiling in this region of the spectrum in
the following section.
In determining the signicance of the ts, it is also im-
portant to note that for the larger value of A
V
= 2.13,
the TiO bands and overall spectral shape in the 0.8-
1.0 m window were t reasonably well by models with
the smallest spot lling factor of 0.1 (see Figure 22).
However, the poor t at the shortest wavelengths in this
spectral region as well as the poor approximation of the
FeH band by the smaller spot size result in the com-
18 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 19. Similar to Figure 18, in the upper panel, two synthetic spectra for T
eff
= 3500 K stars (similar to M2) with solar metallicity
and log g of 3.5 and 4.5 bracket a dereddened spectrum of DQ Tau (2011 November 13 UT). In the lower panel, the light gray residual is
the dierence between the two synthetic spectra [3.5 4.5], while the solid line results from subtracting the log g = 3.5 synthetic spectrum
from DQ Tau. Note that the spectral shape is t well with a signicant residual left for the longer wavelength portion of the TiO band.
paratively large
2
-values. Even though the
2
-values
steadily decrease with spot size for both M1V
ph
models,
the poor approximation of the FeH feature leads us to
conclude that spots with f
sp
< 0.1 are not viable mod-
els for DQ Tau. Table 3 presents the
2
-values for the
twenty dierent combinations of spot sizes and photo-
spheric and spot temperatures.
Based on the quality of the ts of the models possess-
ing the larger spots and the smaller A
V
values of 0.97,
we conclude that large, cool star spots make signicant
contributions to the near-infrared spectra of the DQ Tau
system and may partially account for the color anomaly
and optical/infrared spectral type discrepancies previ-
ously observed for many TTSs.
Such a conclusion is relevant for at least two recent
studies that address the near-IR spectral types of TTSs.
First, Vacca & Sandell (2011) present a detailed study of
TW Hya, an accreting TTS in the TW Hydra Associa-
tion (Kastner et al. 1997). Based on the comparison of
multiple atomic and molecular features and the strengths
of the water absorption features at 1.4, 1.9, and 2.7 m to
spectral standards in the SpeX Library, Vacca & Sandell
revised the spectral type for TW Hya from a K7V to an
M2.5V. The results of our study suggest that large star
spots may account the spectral mismatch for this source
as well, explaining why the molecular components and
the near-IR spectral shape of TW Hya would indicate
a signicantly later spectral type for the source. A sec-
ond study, McClure et al. (2013), presented a detailed
investigation of SpeX spectra of 10 accreting TTSs in
the Taurus-Auriga star forming region. McClure et al.
(2013) used optical spectra to determine the spectral
types and then went about tting simultaneously for A
V
,
veiling (r

), and the IR continuum excess. For stars with

small spots, the results from this study should accurately
describe both the stellar photospheres and IR continuum
excesses associated with these sources. However, should
any of these stars have large star spots, we nd that
the determination of IR continuum excesses measured for
these sources will be impacted, with the value of A
V
be-
ing most strongly aected. Therefore, one must address
the strength of the molecular features and the spectral
shape of the IR continuum when solving for A
V
, veiling,
and continuum excess.
3.7. Veiling & Spectral Variability
Having established both a spectral type and visual ex-
tinction, we proceed to measure the veiling as a func-
tion of wavelength. We follow a standard measure-
ment procedure based on equivalent widths of several
temperature sensitive metallic lines in the dereddened
spectrum and derive the veiling without taking spots
into account (Fischer et al. 2011; Vacca & Sandell 2011;
McClure et al. 2013). Note that we do not simultane-
ously solve for veiling, visual extinction, and infrared ex-
cess as Fischer et al. (2011) and McClure et al. (2013).
Instead, we assume an M1V spectral type, A
V
= 0.97,
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 19
Fig. 20. Two panels showing ts of a spotted star to a DQ Tau spectrum (2011 November 13 UT) dereddened with two dierent
values of visual extinction: A
V
= 0.97 and 2.13. The spotted star spectrum (gray) is a composite of an M1V standard representing the
photosphere and a cooler M6V standard representing the spot with 40% coverage. Corresponding residuals are plotted in the adjacent,
bottom panel. The DQ Tau spectrum with A
V
= 0.97 provides a superior t to the spotted star spectrum.
TABLE 3

2
-values for Spotted Star Model Fits
Spot Filling Factor M0V
ph
+M6Vsp M1V
ph
+M6Vsp M0V
ph
+M7Vsp M1V
ph
+M7Vsp
(fs) (A
V
=0.97, 2.13) (A
V
=0.97, 2.13) (A
V
=0.97, 2.13) (A
V
=0.97, 2.13)
0.1 5.82, 1.17 2.48, 1.02 6.42, 1.32 2.86, 0.95
0.2 4.32, 0.92 1.58, 1.37 5.42, 1.09 2.22, 1.10
0.3 2.88, 0.94 0.84, 2.07 4.33, 0.93 1.58, 1.40
0.4 1.59, 1.37 0.38, 3.27 3.16, 0.92 0.97, 1.95
0.5 0.65, 2.46 0.37, 5.22 1.97, 1.21 0.51, 2.95
0.6 0.35, 4.63 1.18, 8.27 0.92, 2.11 0.40, 4.75
and no infrared excess. The veiling measurements for all
epochs with moderate spectral resolution are presented
in Table 4 and Figure 23. Based on the strengths of the
accretion indicators, we know that the magnitudes of the
periastron accretion ares vary from passage to passage.
Therefore, it is not surprising to see in Figure 23 that the
veiling is not always the highest at periastron for all lines
measured. The same can be said for the veiling outside
periastron passage where the values also uctuate and
indicate that, for some lines, the veiling can remain high
through much of the orbit. Despite the range of values
measured for veiling at periastron, a general trend sug-
gests that veiling is consistently higher at periastron than
the rest of the orbit.
The formation of the molecular absorption features
within cool spots indicates the potential for variability in
the strengths of the 0.85 and 0.88 m TiO and 0.99 m
FeH bands in DQ Tau due to the rotation of the stars
and evolution of the spots (Herbst & Levreault 1990;
Berdyugina et al. 1992), in addition to veiling of the
features and the potential for heating during accretion
events. In Figure 24, we present 15 epochs of DQ Tau
spectra for which we have data on both the TiO and FeH
bands, plotting the percent dierence between a DQ Tau
reference spectrum taken at apastron ( = 0.500) during
an apparent quiescent accretion phase and each of the
spectra that show clear evidence for variability in both
the continuum shape and strength of spectral features.
Visual inspection of these spectra reveal signicant vari-
ations in the strength of the TiO features, but less so
for the FeH feature. The shape and depth of the fea-
tures are roughly consistent for observations outside of
20 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 21. Same as Figure 20, this gure shows a slightly better t for a spot size of 50%.
TABLE 4
Veiling Measurements by Orbital Phase
Orbital r
FeH
r
KI
r
MgI
r
FeI
r
MgI
r
FeI
r
MgI
r
AlI
r
AlI
r
AlI
r
NaI
Phase 0.99 m 1.169 m 1.183 m 1.189 m 1.244 m 1.264 m 1.588 m 1.673 m 1.676 m 2.117 m 2.206 m
0.402 0.52 0.73 1.25 0.68 0.64 0.80 0.66 1.26 1.01 1.73 1.58
0.466 0.45 0.76 1.19 0.78 0.71 1.26 0.70 1.81 0.04
0.539 0.46 0.85 1.56 1.02 0.75 0.88 0.91 1.76 1.78 2.03 1.75
0.546 0.48 0.83 1.47 0.98 0.77 0.95 0.98 1.72 1.95 2.33 1.63
0.666 0.49 0.81 1.85 1.03 0.76 0.93 1.10 1.58 1.97 1.95
0.961 0.56 1.09 1.09 1.84 1.10 1.17 1.01 1.59 2.23 2.43
0.962 0.52 1.19 1.00 1.90 1.09 1.14 1.08 1.72 2.17 2.42
0.963 0.56 1.05 1.45 1.25 0.89 1.01 0.86 1.91 2.36 2.40 2.13
periastron passes, with the exception of = 0.372 and
0.433. In general, the largest variations in the strengths
of both the atomic and molecular features coincide with
epochs when the star is experiencing an increase in accre-
tion activity. The TiO bands weaken signicantly during
epochs in which the accretion indicators are in or near
a are state, including the two exceptional are epochs
taken near apastron. However, one epoch very near pe-
riastron ( = 0.897) shows little evidence of variation
from the reference spectrum and thus retains a strong
TiO band. Interestingly, the increase in strength of the
Ca ii and H i features should correlate with a lling
in of the TiO features due to veiling associated with the
accretion activity.
The majority of the data that includes both the TiO
and FeH bands are low resolution CorMASS spectra,
making dicult a simultaneous measurement of the veil-
ing in both the TiO and FeH features. Establishing a
continuum level in order to measure the strength of the
TiO features also increases the uncertainty in such a mea-
surement. In addition, a measurement of the strength of
the TiO band is complicated by the contribution of the
Ca ii emission features residing within the TiO band,
which increases the uncertainty in the measurement of
the TiO feature and the estimate of its variability. As-
suming that the variation in the strength of the feature is
due solely to veiling and after smoothing over the calcium
features, we estimate r
TiO
to be 0.4 during epochs in
the quiescent phase of the orbit ( = 0.404, 0.460, and
0.530) for which we have SpeX observations, and con-
servatively estimate a lower limit of r
TiO
0.6 and an
upper limit of 1.0 for the heightened accretion activity
occurring in the periastron passages observed with Cor-
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 21
Fig. 22. Same as Figure 20, this gure shows a poor t for a spot size of 10% for A
V
= 0.97. However, modestly good ts are found
for the higher values of visual extinction.
Fig. 23. Plot of veiling, r

, for eleven spectral features, in-

cluding the molecular FeH feature for the eight epochs for which
we have moderate resolution spectra (see data in Table 3). The
color coded data points identify veiling measurements with ,
orbital phase dierence from periastron (e.g., = 0.666 becomes
= 0.334). The general trend is that the veiling is highest for pe-
riastron passes ( = 0.0), which correspond with the highest level
accretion activity. Note the small variation in the veiling measured
by the FeH feature.
MASS
9
. This is a signicantly larger range of veiling than
those measured for FeH. If both features, as suggested by
the spot models, originate in large cool spots, we would
9
Note that TSpec does not oer wavelength coverage of the TiO
features
expect them to vary in concert with one another. How-
ever, we do expect the FeH to be most strongly associated
with the spots given its substantially lower dissociation
energy of 1.6 eV as compared to the 6.8 eV for the TiO
molecule. Unfortunately, the limited spectral resolution
of our current data set limits our ability to draw a mean-
ingful conclusion about the variability of these features.
Future data sets with greater resolving power and high
signal to noise will be important for probing the sources
of variability such as veiling, spot evolution, spot heat-
ing, and stellar rotation.
3.8. H
2
Emission from Accretion Shocks
Hartigan et al. (1995) and Basri et al. (1997) observe
forbidden line emission with features possessing both
blue- and red-shifted velocity components characteris-
tic of a disk wind. However, we nd no evidence in
the literature for a molecular outow associated with
DQ Tau binary. In a recent high-spatial resolution spec-
tral imaging study of GG Tau Aa and Ab, another binary
system that possesses standard indicators of outowing
gas (Hartigan & Kenyon 2003), but no evidence for a
molecular outow, Beck et al. (2012) nd evidence for
shocked molecular hydrogen emission (v = 1-0 S(1) at
2.1218 m) residing inside the inner truncation radius of
the circumbinary disk in this system. While this study
lacks the spectral resolution necessary to determine if the
gas is conned to an accretion streamer or an outowing
wind, previous high resolution long-slit spectroscopy of
the 2.1218 m feature constrains the bulk motion of the
22 Bary & Petersen
Fig. 24. Fifteen epochs of DQ Tau spectra taken with CorMASS and SpeX, which include the TiO bands at 0.85 and 0.88 m, are
plotted from 0.8-1.3 m. Variations in both the strength of the TiO absorption bands and the shapes of the continua are clear. We
note that the TiO bands are weakest in epochs associated with accretion ares, indicated by the strongest H i and Ca ii triplet emission
( = 0.033, 0.037, 0.372, 0.433, & 0.876).
gas to within 1 km s
1
of systemic velocity for GG Tau A
(Bary et al. 2003). With a full width at half maximum
of 14 km s
1
, it is not likely that the molecular gas is
entrained in a fast moving bipolar outow. Therefore,
Beck et al. conclude that the H
2
gas most likely traces
shocked molecular gas resulting from accretion streamers
falling inward from the circumbinary disk.
If this novel stimulation mechanism is responsible for
the emitting H
2
gas in GG Tau A, it may also be capa-
ble of producing similarly excited H
2
emission in a sys-
tem like DQ Tau. Uniquely, in the case of DQ Tau, the
dynamics of the system provides predictable accretion
ares that may result in variable emission from shocked
H
2
conned to the accretion streams. Given the strength
of the H
2
emission detected in the GG Tau A system, we
searched the only moderate resolution spectrum taken
of DQ Tau at periastron on 2 October 2012 UT for the
2.12 m H
2
emission. Not surprisingly, without a high
resolution spectrum, the feature was not detected and an
upper limit of 6.0 10
14
ergs s
1
cm
2
was measured.
Indeed, at this sensitivity, the GG Tau A H
2
emission
feature (F
2.12
= 6.9 10
15
ergs s
1
cm
2
) would not
have been detected. We plan to observe DQ Tau at high-
spectral resolution during a periastron passage in the fu-
ture to further test the idea of shocked gas as part of
accretion streamers in binary systems.
4. SUMMARY
Using a rich spectroscopic dataset, we have explored
many aspects of the DQ Tau binary system. We lever-
aged the fact that the variations in accretion activity are
orbitally-modulated and thus predictable to study ac-
cretion in this system, detecting what appears to be a
surprising accretion are phased with an apastron pas-
sage in the system. Such an enhancement of the ac-
cretion activity likely suggests that the inner radius of
the circumbinary disk is not smooth. Predictions of
irregularly-shaped, non-axisymmetric structures extend-
ing inwards from the circumbinary disk provide a reason-
able explanation for the nature and rarity of the apastron
ares. Apastron are events could be an important step
towards constraining the viscosity of the circumbinary
disk. A dedicated monitoring program will be needed to
characterize such accretion events. The applicability of
orbitally-modulated accretion activity to young single-
star systems possessing a forming giant planet in a cir-
cumstellar disk highlights the importance for continuing
the study of accretion in this context. With respect to
measuring the physical conditions of the accreting gas,
we nd that higher spectral resolution data with high
signal-to-noise ratios are needed. Dedicated monitoring
of DQ Tau and similar tight, accreting binary systems is
exactly what is needed to build up on the insights gained
from this study.
We also have demonstrated that large star spots have
the potential to account for several aspects of the op-
tical/IR spectral type mismatches previously observed
Accretion and Spots in DQ Tau 23
Fig. 25. Plots of the percent dierence for ve epochs of DQ Tau over 0.8 to 1.3 m in which the 2003 December 14 UT observation
at = 0.500 was used as the reference spectrum. Both the reference and target spectra were normalized to the continuum near 1.02 m
before the spectra were subtracted and then divided by the reference spectrum. Variations in the shape of the continuum and strength
of the predominant spectral features are clearly depicted. The TiO feature experiences some of the most signicant variability with the
exception of the = 0.897 near periastron. We note that the TiO bands are weakest in epochs associated with accretion ares, indicated
by the strongest H i and Ca ii triplet emission ( = 0.033, 0.037, 0.372, 0.433, & 0.876).
for TTSs, but often overlooked. Given the impact on
the shape of the IR spectral and the strength of sev-
eral molecular features, large cool star spots should be
included as parameters when modeling the infrared spec-
tra of TTSs. With the acquisition of broader wavelength
coverage spectra with higher resolution, we plan to build
upon the rudimentary models presented here by expand-
ing the parameter space for photospheric and spot tem-
peratures and adding veiling eects and basic disk mod-
els.
The authors would like to thank Tracy Beck, Suzan
Edwards, Bill Herbst, Praveen Kundurthy, Sean Matt,
James Muzerolle, Matt Nelson, Dawn Peterson, Ricardo
Schiavon, Mike Skrutskie, Bill Vacca, and John Wilson
for contributions and useful discussions regarding many
aspects of this work. We thank David Whelan for col-
lecting one of the TripleSpec observations. MSP ac-
knowledges partial funding support from the Division of
Natural Sciences at Colgate University through the sum-
mer research program. Thanks to David Weintraub for
a close reading and comments on the initial manuscript.
We also thank the telescope operators from Apache Point
Observatory, Russet McMillan and Jack Dembicky, as
well as Bill Golisch at the IRTF. Also thanks to Sean
Matt and Sacha Brun for graciously hosting JSBs visit
to CEA Saclay. JSB recognizes the seminal contributions
to the study of spotted stars made by his former teacher
and mentor, Douglas S. Hall. The authors thank the
anonymous referee for useful comments and suggestions
regarding this work. This study made use of SAO/ADS
and the Simbad database.
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