Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. II. Fitting observed SEDs using a large grid of pre-computed models

Abstract

We present a method to analyze the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of young stellar objects (YSOs). Our approach is to fit data with pre-computed 2-D radiation transfer models spanning a large region of parameter space. This allows us to determine not only a single set of physical parameter values but the entire range of values consistent with the multi-wavelength observations of a given source. In this way we hope to avoid any over-interpretation when modeling a set of data. We have constructed spectral energy distributions from optical to sub-mm wavelengths, including new Spitzer IRAC and MIPS photometry, for 30 young and spatially resolved sources in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region. We demonstrate fitting model SEDs to these sources, and find that we correctly identify the evolutionary stage and physical parameters found from previous independent studies, such as disk mass, disk accretion rate, and stellar temperature. We also explore how fluxes at various wavelengths help to constrain physical parameters, and show examples of degeneracies that can occur when fitting SEDs. A web-based version of this tool is available to the community at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/protostars .