Reverse rotation of the accretion disk in RW Aur A: Observations and a physical model

Speckle interferometry of the young binary system RW Aur was performed with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences using filters with central wavelengths of 550 nm and 800 nm and pass-band halfwidths of 20 nm and 100 nm, respectively. The angular separation of the binary components was 1.448aEuro(3) +/- 0.005aEuro(3) and the position angle of the system was 255.9A degrees +/- 0.3A degrees at the observation epoch (JD 2 454 255.9). We find using published data that these values have been changing with mean rates of +0.002aEuro(3)/yr and +0.02A degrees/yr, respectively, over the past 70 years. This implies that the direction of the orbital motion of the binary system is opposite to the direction of the disk rotation in RW Aur A. We propose a physical model to explain the formation of circumstellar accretion disks rotating in the reverse direction relative to young binary stars surrounded by protoplanetary disks. Our model can explain the characteristic features of the matter flow in RWAur A: the high accretion rate, small size of the disk around the massive component, and reverse direction of rotation.