Ultraviolet spectroscopy of the hotspot in the classical T Tauri star DI Cep: observational indications of magnetically channelled accretion.

Abstract

T Tauri stars (TTS) are low-mass pre-main-sequence stars that are accreting mass from the surrounding disc. The hotspots detected in some of them are probably heated by the release of gravitational energy in the accretion of the disc material on to the star. In this work we study the UV spectrum of the hotspot detected in DI Cep to constrain the physical mechanisms heating the spot and to study the possible role of the magnetic field in channelling the accretion flow.