Key observational constraints for jet models in T Tauri stars are outlined, including the jet collimation scale, kinematic structure, and ejection/accretion ratio. It is shown that MHD self-collimation is most likely required. The four possible MHD ejection sites (stellar surface, inner disk edge, extended disk region, magnetosphere-disk reconnexion line) are then critically examined against observational constraints, and open issues are discussed.

We studied the structure of the H2O super maser region in Orion with VLBI angular resolution of 0.1 mas or 0.05 AU. The maser emission (F ∼ 8 MJy) was determined by highly organized structure: accretion disk, bipolar outflow, torus and surrounding shell. The accretion disk, divided into protoplanetary rings, is viewed edge-on. The disk rotates as a rigid body with velocities V ∼ ΩR and the rotation period is ∼ 170 yrs. The highly collimated bipolar outflow has a size of 9×0.7 AU, a velocity of ∼ 10 km/s. In the center a bright compact (≤0.05 AU) source – ejector is located, surrounded by a torus 0.6 AU in diameter. The outflow has a helix structure, which is determined by precession with a period of T ∼ 10 yrs. Comet-like bullets were observed on distances up to 80 AU.

Followup infrared spectroscopy is reported for V1647 Ori, a young star whose recent eruption illuminated McNeil's Nebula. Lines of HI, H2, and CO are compared to previous observations. We find that the accretion rate fell two orders of magnitude and the CO bandheads disappeared at the end of the outburst. We also report a striking metamorphosis of the fundamental CO spectrum from centrally peaked profiles to emission lines with superimposed blue-shifted absorption lines and back again one year later. This remarkable change in spectral appearance indicates that the system did not return to equilibrium immediately following the outburst. In this paper we propose a mechanism to explain the emergence of a transient post-outburst outflow.

Star-disk interaction is thought to drive the angular momentum evolution of young stars. In this review, I present the latest results obtained on the rotational properties of low mass and very low mass pre-main sequence stars. I discuss the evidence for extremely efficient angular momentum removal over the first few Myr of pre-main sequence evolution and describe recent results that support an accretion-driven braking mechanism. Angular momentum evolution models are presented and their implication for accretion disk lifetimes discussed.

The evolution of angular momentum is a key to our understanding of star formation and stellar evolution. The rotational evolution of solar-mass stars is mostly controlled by magnetic interaction with the circumstellar disc and angular momentum loss through stellar winds. Major differences in the internal structure of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs – they are believed to be fully convective throughout their lives, and thus should not operate a solar-type dynamo – may lead to major differences in the rotation and activity of these objects. Here, we report on observational studies to understand the rotational evolution of the very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.

We review the theory of the formation and gravitational collapse of magnetized molecular cloud cores, leading to the birth of T Tauri stars surrounded by quasi-Keplerian disks whose accretion is driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Some loss of magnetic flux during the collapse results typically in a dimensionless mass-to-flux ratio for the star plus disk of λ0 ≈ 4. Most of the mass ends up in the star, while almost all of the flux and the angular momentum ends up in the disk; therefore, a known mass for the central star implies a computable flux in the surrounding disk. A self-contained theory of the MRI that drives the viscous/resistive spreading in such circumstances then yields the disk radius needed to contain the flux trapped in the disk as a function of the age t. This theory yields analytic predictions of the distributions with distance ϖ from the central star of the surface density Σ(ϖ), the vertical magnetic field Bz(ϖ), and the (sub-Keplerian) angular rotation rate Ω (ϖ). We discuss the implications of this picture for disk-winds, X-winds, and funnel flows, and we summarize the global situation by giving the energy and angular-momentum budget for the overall problem.

In this review the recent development concerning the large-scale evolution of stellar magnetospheres in interaction with the accretion disk is discussed. I put emphasis on the generation of outflows and jets from the disk and/or the star. In fact, tremendous progress has occurred over the last decade in the numerical simulation of the star-disk interaction. The role of numerical simulations is essential in this area because the processes involved are complex, strongly interrelated, and often highly time-dependent. Recent MHD simulations suggest that outflows launched from a very concentrated region tend to be un-collimated. I present preliminary results of simulations of large-scale star-disk magnetospheres loaded with matter from the stellar, resp. the disk surface demonstrating how a disk jet collimates the wind from the star and also how the stellar wind lowers the collimation degree of the disk outflow.

We discuss a number of topics relevant to disk-magnetosphere interaction and how numerical simulations illuminate them. The topics include: (1) disk-magnetosphere interaction and the problem of disk-locking; (2) the wind problem; (3) structure of the magnetospheric flow, hot spots at the star's surface, and the inner disk region; (4) modeling of spectra from 3D funnel streams; (5) accretion to a star with a complex magnetic field; (6) accretion through 3D instabilities; (7) magnetospheric gap and survival of protoplanets. Results of both 2D and 3D simulations are discussed.

We present results of 3D simulations of MHD instabilities at the accretion disk-magnetosphere boundary. The instability is Rayleigh-Taylor, and develops for a large range of parameter values. It manifests itself in the form of tall, thin tongues of plasma that reach the star by penetrating through the magnetosphere in the equatorial plane. The tongues rotate around the star in the equatorial plane, and their shape and number changes with time on inner-disk dynamical timescales. In contrast with funnel flows, which deposit matter mainly in the polar region, the tongues deposit matter much closer to the stellar equator.

Stellar winds may be important for angular momentum transport from accreting T Tauri stars, but the nature of these winds is still not well-constrained. We present some simulation results for hypothetical, hot (∼ 106 K) coronal winds from T Tauri stars, and we calculate the expected emission properties. For the high mass loss rates required to solve the angular momentum problem, we find that the radiative losses will be much greater than can be powered by the accretion process. We place an upper limit to the mass loss rate from accretion-powered coronal winds of ∼ 10−11M yr−1. We conclude that accretion powered stellar winds are still a promising scenario for solving the stellar angular momentum problem, but the winds must be cool (e.g., 104 K) and thus are not driven by thermal pressure.

In this contribution we first briefly review our current knowledge on the physics of accretion discs driving self-confined jets. It will be shown that a large scale magnetic field is expected to thread the innermost disc regions, giving rise to a transition from an outer standard accretion disc to an inner jet emitting disc. We then report new progresses on the theory of star-disc interaction, allowing to explain the formation of accretion funnel flows with stellar dipole fields consistent with observational constraints. Such a connection is now not only probed by modern observations but it is also requested for spinning down protostars, which are known to be both actively accreting and contracting. This spin down most probably relies on the angular momentum removal by ejection. Two such scenarios will be addressed here, namely “accretion-powered stellar winds” (Matt & Pudritz 2005) and “Reconnection X-winds” (Ferreira, Pelletier & Appl 2000). The latter can slow down a protostar on time scales shorter or comparable to the embedded phase. It will be shown that these two scenarios are not incompatible and that transitions from one to another may even occur as they mainly depend on the stellar dynamo.

The presence of close (≲ 0.1 AU) stellar companions must greatly alter the circumstellar environment of classical T Tauri stars, including severe truncation if not elimination of circumstellar disks. It is thus remarkable how little impact the presence of a close companion has on our observable diagnostics for accretion and outflow. Emission line shapes, degrees of continuum veiling, and spectral energy distributions are all indistinguishable between single classical T Tauri stars and classical T Tauri close binaries. Some of the most classical T Tauri stars that laid the foundation for our single-star accretion-disk paradigm have turned out to have close companions. Periodicities in spectral signatures are suggestive of the presence of accretion flows from circumbinary disks to the circumstellar regions; the subsequent flow of material through the circumstellar region to the stellar surface in the presence of a stellar magnetosphere is unstudied. Observations of stellar rotation distributions in close binaries suggest that inner disk regions may act to regulate stellar angular momentum.

I review, from an observational perspective, the interactions of accretion discs with magnetic fields in cataclysmic variable stars. I start with systems where the accretion flows via a stream, and discuss the circumstances in which the stream forms into an accretion disc, pointing to stars which are close to this transition. I then turn to disc-fed systems and discuss what we know about how material threads on to field lines, as deduced from the pattern of accretion footprints on the white dwarf. I discuss whether distortions of the field lines are related to accretion torques and the changing spin periods of the white dwarfs. I also review the effect on the disc–magnetosphere interaction of disc-instability outbursts. Lastly, I discuss the temporary, dynamo-driven magnetospheres thought to occur in dwarf-nova outbursts, and whether slow-moving waves are excited at the inner edges of the disc.

Herbig Ae/Be stars are pre-main-sequence stars of intermediate mass, which are still accreting material from their environment, probably via a disk composed of gas and dust. Here we present a recent study of the geometry of the inner (AU-scale) circumstellar region around the Herbig Be star MWC 147 using long-baseline interferometry. By combining for the first time near- and mid-infrared spectro-interferometry on a Herbig star, our VLTI/AMBER and VLTI/MIDI data constrain not only the geometry of the brightness distribution, but also the radial temperature distribution in the disk. The emission from MWC 147 is clearly resolved and has a characteristic physical size of ∼1.3 AU and ∼9 AU at 2.2 μm and 11 μm respectively. This increase in apparent size towards longer wavelengths is much steeper than predicted by analytic disk models assuming power-law radial temperature distributions. For a detailed modeling of the interferometric data and the spectral energy distribution of MWC 147, we employ 2-D frequency-dependent radiation transfer simulations. This analysis shows that passive irradiated Keplerian dust disks can easily fit the SED, but predict much lower visibilities than observed, so these models can clearly be ruled out. Models of a Keplerian disk with emission from an optically thick inner gaseous accretion disk (inside the dust sublimation zone), however, yield a good fit of the SED and simultaneously reproduce the observed near- and mid-infrared visibilities. We conclude that the near-infrared continuum emission from MWC 147 is dominated by accretion luminosity emerging from an optically thick inner gaseous disk, while the mid-infrared emission also contains strong contributions from the passive irradiated dust disk.

I review the current state of knowledge regarding disk accretion in young brown dwarfs (BDs), and the interaction of the disk with the central object. In particular, I discuss (1) observations of accretion/outflow phenomena in BDs; (2) techniques for measuring accretion rates (Ṁacc); (3) the dependence of Ṁacc on the central mass from stars to brown dwarfs; (4) the temporal evolution of Ṁacc; and (5) observations of variability in the accretion line profiles. I then examine the implications of these issues for the formation mechanism of BDs, and discuss new observations that can further constrain substellar origins.

While numerous studies have been aimed at understanding the properties of young brown dwarfs relatively little exploration of their potential as drivers of outflows has occurred. Forbidden emission lines are important probes of outflows from young stellar objects, as they trace the shocks which form as an outflow interacts with the ambient medium of its driving source. While forbidden emission was identified in the spectra of young brown dwarfs, indicating the presence of outflows, these lines were weak and confined to the brown dwarf continuum position. Hence their origin in an outflow could not be confirmed. Our approach to this problem, is to analyse the forbidden line regions of brown dwarfs using spectro-astrometry. Spectro-astrometry is a novel technique which allows the user to recover spatial information from a spectrum beyond the limitations of the seeing of the observation. Using this technique we have found two brown dwarf outflows to date. In this chapter we outline this technique, describe our results for the brown dwarfs ρ-Oph 102 and 2MASS1207-3932 and discuss our future plans.

This symposium was characterized by an intense exchange of new information and by lively discussions on many aspects of the formation and early evolution of low-mass stars. The observational data presented at this meeting, obtained in spectral regions ranging from X-rays to submm waves, were found to be remarkably consistent with the current magnetospheric disc-accretion paradigm for young stellar objects. But there remain open questions, and a full understanding of the star-formation process will require much additional work.