The circumstellar environment of the young, low-mass dipper star JH 223

Accretion and large-scale magnetic field topology

¹ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil
² Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
³ Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), IPAC, 1200 E. California Blvd., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁴ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, I-95123 Catania, Italy
⁶ Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, 298409 Nauchny, Republic of Crimea
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
⁸ SETI Institute, 339 N Bernardo Ave, Suite 200 Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
⁹ Department of Astronomy, MC 249-17, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
¹⁰ Univ. de Toulouse, CNRS, IRAP, 14 avenue Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 11 December 2025
Accepted: 10 March 2026

Abstract

Context. Studies of magnetospheric accretion and magnetic field topology in T Tauri stars have advanced over the years, but their applications to fully convective, very-low-mass T Tauri stars remain relatively unexplored.

Aims. We aim to analyze the circumstellar environment of the very-low-mass dipper-like star JH 223 by investigating the accretion process and characterizing its large-scale magnetic field topology.

Methods. We analyzed the photometric variability of JH 223 using observations from multiple telescopes, including K2, TESS, and LCOGT across different epochs. Additionally, we used Gemini/GRACES spectroscopic and CFHT/SPIRou spectropolarimetric data to investigate the star-disk interaction and to characterize the large-scale stellar magnetic field using Zeeman-Doppler imaging.

Results. JH 223 is a fully convective classical T Tauri star with an age of about 3 Myr and a mass of 0.4 M_⊙. The large-scale surface magnetic field is predominantly poloidal, with a 250 G dipolar component. The dipole field strength and the mass accretion rate indicate that the disk gas truncation radius is located near the corotation radius (6 ± 1 R_★). The star-disk interaction, combined with the inclined dipole, generates accretion columns that warp the inner disk. As the star rotates, this warp periodically obscures the stellar surface every 3.31 days, producing the dipper light curves. The same period is also detected in variations of the radial velocity and the longitudinal magnetic field. The accretion columns, traced by strong redshifted absorption components in Hα and He I 1083nm, are associated with the inner disk warp, as they occur around the same rotational phase. The accretion process in JH 223 is dynamic, transitioning from an unstable to a stable regime over a few weeks, consistent with predictions from magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the star-disk interaction.

Conclusions. Results from multi-technique observations suggest that the magnetospheric accretion model remains valid for fully convective very-low-mass young stars.