The ejection of T Tauri stars from molecular clouds and the fate of circumstellar discs

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of circumstellar discs around T Tauri stars that are ejected from small stellar clusters within molecular clouds. In particular, we study how the interaction that leads to ejection may hasten the transition between Classical and Weak-lined T Tauri status. In our models, ejections of T Tauri stars at velocities of 3-10 km/s truncate the accretion disc at radii between 1 and 10 a.u., reducing the viscous evolution time of the disc so that accretion rapidly ceases. The observational appearance of the resulting systems is then dependent on the presence or absence of a stellar magnetic field. For non-magnetic stars we find that a near-infra red excess should persist due to reprocessing of stellar radiation, but that this is greatly diminished for magnetic T Tauri stars by the presence of a magnetosphere extending to corotation. In either case, there is a period when ejected stars should appear as non-accreting systems with detectable circumstellar material at wavelengths of 5 microns and beyond. We discuss the implications of these results for models in which ejected stars contribute to the halo of pre-main-sequence objects discovered from ROSAT observations of star forming regions and the All-Sky Survey.