The activity in the isolated T Tauri binary V4046 Sagittarii

Abstract

New photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric observations of the T Tauri binary V4046 Sgr are presented. An analysis of the observations obtained over several seasons enabled us to determine the photometric period, and hence the rotation period of the binary. The variations could be caused by cool spots since the light curves show less scatter and no sudden brightenings as noticed in other classical T Tauri stars. Though the Hα emission strength in V4046 Sgr is comparable to that in other classical T Tauri stars, it has very little near and far infrared emissions. The Hα emission may be arising from the circumbinary environment as indicated by a possible periodic trend in its strength. The polarimetric observations show the highly variable nature of the linear polarization and its position angle. This phenomenon is probably due to the changes in the geometry of the circumstellar material as well as the illumination by the star.