Investigating the inner discs of Herbig Ae/Be stars with CO bandhead and Brγ emission

Herbig Ac/Be stars lie in the mass range between low- and high-mass young stars, and therefore offer a unique opportunity to observe any changes in the formation processes that may occur across this boundary. This paper presents medium-resolution Very Large Telescope (VLT)/X-shooter spectra of six Herbig Ac/Be stars, drawn from a sample of 91 targets, and highresolution VLT/Cryogenic Infrared Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) spectra of five Herbig Ac/Be stars, chosen based on the presence of CO first overtone bandhead emission in their spectra. The X-shooter survey reveals a low detection rate of CO first overtone emission (7 per cent), consisting of objects mainly of spectral type B. A positive correlation is found between the strength of the CO nu = 2-0 and Br gamma emission lines, despite their intrinsic linewidths suggesting a separate kinematic origin. The high-resolution CRIRES spectra are modelled, and are well fitted under the assumption that the emission originates from small scale Keplerian discs, interior to the dust sublimation radius, but outside the corotation radius of the central stars. In addition, our findings are in very good agreement for the one object where spatially resolved near-infrared interferometric studies have also been performed. These results suggest that the Herbig Ac/Be stars in question are in the process of gaining mass via disc accretion, and that modelling of high spectral resolution spectra is able to provide a reliable probe into the process of stellar accretion in young stars of intermediate to high masses.