
handle: 1721.1/77613
Low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stars are strong and variable X-ray emitters, as has been well established by EINSTEIN and ROSAT observatories. It was originally believed that this emission was of thermal nature and primarily originated from coronal activity (magnetically confined loops, in analogy with Solar activity) on contracting young stars. Broadband spectral analysis showed that the emission was not isothermal and that elemental abundances were non-Solar. The resolving power of the Chandra and XMM X-ray gratings spectrometers have provided the first, tantalizing details concerning the physical conditions such as temperatures, densities, and abundances that characterize the X-ray emitting regions of young star. These existing high resolution spectrometers, however, simply do not have the effective area to measure diagnostic lines for a large number of PMS stars over required to answer global questions such as: how does magnetic activity in PMS stars differ from that of main sequence stars, how do they evolve, what determines the population structure and activity in stellar clusters, and how does the activity influence the evolution of protostellar disks. Highly resolved (R>3000) X-ray spectroscopy at orders of magnitude greater efficiency than currently available will provide major advances in answering these questions. This requires the ability to resolve the key diagnostic emission lines with a precision of better than 100 km/s.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
