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M. J Claussen (NRAO), A. L. Fey, K. J. Johnston, R. A. Gaume (USNO)
We present high angular resolution and high sensitivity radio observations of the T Tauri stellar system using the VLA+Pt link (a real-time fiber-optic link between the VLA and the VLBA Pt antenna, resulting in nearly a factor of two in angular resolution over the VLA's A configuration) at 8.4 and 14.9 GHz. For the first time, we unambiguously detect circularly polarized radio emission at 14.9 GHz (with angular resolution 80 milliarcseconds) from T Tau N, which has been identified with the optical star. The helicity of the circularly polarized emission from T Tau is oppositely directed from that of T Tau S, long known to be left circularly polarized. Thus the radio emission from T Tau N is clearly shown to be at least a mixture of thermal and non-thermal emission. Astrometric measurements of the relative positions of the two radio sources (T Tau N and T Tau S), taken in conjunction with previous VLA and infrared measurements, leads to interesting constraints on the orbit of the T Tau (N-S) binary system, as well as on the orbital motion of the T Tau S binary itself.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mclausse@nrao.edu