Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. II. Fitting Observed SEDs Using a Large Grid of Precomputed Models

By Thomas Robitaille, B. Whitney, R. Indebetouw, K. Wood. 2006

680 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a method to analyze the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of young stellar objects (YSOs). Our approach is to fit data with precomputed two-dimensional (2D) radiation transfer models spanning a large region of parameter space. This allows us to determine not only a single set of physical parameter values but the entire range of values consistent with the multiwavelength observations of a given source. In this way we hope to avoid any overinterpretation when modeling a set of data. We have constructed spectral energy distributions from optical to submillimeter wavelengths, including new Spitzer IRAC and MIPS photometry, for 30 young and spatially resolved sources in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region. We demonstrate fitting model SEDs to these sources and find that we correctly identify the evolutionary stage and physical parameters found from previous independent studies, such as disk mass, disk accretion rate, and stellar temperature. We also explore how fluxes at various wavelengths help to constrain physical parameters and show examples of degeneracies that can occur when fitting SEDs. A Web-based version of this tool is available to the community.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spectroscopy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7eb839fa724d6227a2494123e1c25bfa607dea0b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Spectroscopy

Citations in the corpus

VOSA: Virtual Observatory SED Analyzer. An application to the Collinder 69 open cluster (2008, methodology): “02 70 v1 [ as tr oph ] 2 A ug (SEDs hereafter) constructed from observational photometric data with the corresponding synthetic ones derived using large grids of theoretical spectra (see for example Robitaille et al. 2007).”
SPITZER SAGE SURVEY OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD. III. STAR FORMATION AND ∼1000 NEW CANDIDATE YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS (2008, methodology): “We fitted the SEDs of these outer-region data with stellar atmosphere models from Brott & Hauschildt (2005) and Kurucz (1993) using a linear regression fitter (Robitaille et al. 2007), and removed well-fitted sources, leaving 979 sources with IR excesses.”
Initial highlights of the HOBYS key program, the Herschel imaging survey of OB young stellar objects (2010, methodology): “More complex radiative transfer modeling, such as those proposed by Robitaille et al. (2007), are needed to estimate other protostellar characteristics, such as the mass and luminosity of the stellar embryo.”
THE SPITZER c2d LEGACY RESULTS: STAR-FORMATION RATES AND EFFICIENCIES; EVOLUTION AND LIFETIMES (2008, background): “Stage I and II objects occupy largely distinct regions of the various color-color diagrams but there is also significant overlap in some parts of these diagrams (Robitaille et al. 2007).”
THE MAGELLANIC MOPRA ASSESSMENT (MAGMA). I. THE MOLECULAR CLOUD POPULATION OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (2011, background): “However, the masses and ages of the YSOs are highly uncertain, as they rely on comparisons with models that are sensitive to the dust geometry and are primarily calibrated on Galactic data (Robitaille et al. 2007).”
ATLASGAL — towards a complete sample of massive star forming clumps ⋆ (2014, background): “The fitter searches through 20 000 models which probe a range of properties of both the central (proto)star and surrounding material (Robitaille et al. 2006), each of which can be viewed from 10 different viewing angles, resulting in possible 200 000 SEDs.”
STAR FORMATION IN THE CENTRAL 400 PC OF THE MILKY WAY: EVIDENCE FOR A POPULATION OF MASSIVE YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS (2009, methodology): “The SEDs of the sources are analyzed by comparing to a set of SEDs produced by a large grid of YSO models (Robitaille et al. 2006; Whitney et al. 2003b,a).”
DUST AND GAS IN THE DISK OF HL TAURI: SURFACE DENSITY, DUST SETTLING, AND DUST-TO-GAS RATIO (2015, methodology): “y have already settled to the midplane. In addition to the disc structure, an orthogonal optical jet and a molecular bipolar out ow (e.g. Mundt et al. 1990) and an envelope (Men’shchikov et al. 1999; Robitaille et al. 2007) have been reported. HL Tau was recently observed with ALMA using baselines u”
Three-Dimensional Dust Radiative Transfer ∗ (2013, methodology): “The 2D circumstellar disk modeling of SEDs in Robitaille et al. (2007) provides a template for determining the ambiguity when a complex model is applied to only a few SED points.”
THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SURVEY OF THE ORION A AND B MOLECULAR CLOUDS. I. A CENSUS OF DUSTY YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND A STUDY OF THEIR MID-INFRARED VARIABILITY (2012, background): “…excesses from dusty disks and envelopes is now well established in the literature (e.g., Allen et al. 2004, 2007; Megeath et al. 2004; Gutermuth et al. 2004, 2008; Muzerolle et al. 2004; Whitney et al. 2004; Hartmann et al. 2005; Winston et al. 2007; Muench et al. 2007; Robitaille et al. 2007).”
Dust Evolution and the Formation of Planetesimals (2016, background): “Even web-based SED fitting tools, built upon those codes are available (Robitaille et al. 2006; Robitaille et al. 2007).”