Radio monitoring of protoplanetary discs

Protoplanetary disc systems observed at radio wavelengths often show excess emission above that expected from a simple extrapolation of thermal dust emission observed at short millimetre wavelengths. Monitoring the emission at radio wavelengths can be used to help disentangle the physical mechanisms responsible for this excess, including free–free emission from a wind or jet, and chromospheric emission associated with stellar activity. We present new results from a radio monitoring survey conducted with Australia Telescope Compact Array over the course of several years with observation intervals spanning days, months and years, where the flux variability of 11 T Tauri stars in the Chamaeleon and Lupus star-forming regions was measured at 7 and 15 mm, and 3 and 6 cm. Results show that most sources are variable to some degree at 7 mm, indicating the presence of emission mechanisms other than thermal dust in some sources. Additionally, evidence of grain growth to centimetre-sized pebbles was found for some sources that also have signs of variable flux at 7 mm. We conclude that multiple processes contributing to the emission are common in T Tauri stars at 7 mm and beyond, and that a detection at a single epoch at radio wavelengths should not be used to determine all processes contributing to the emission.