No Arabic abstract
The large majority of protoplanetary disks have very compact ($lesssim15,$AU) continuum emission at mm wavelengths. However, high angular resolution observations that resolve these small disks are still lacking, due to their intrinsically fainter emission compared with large bright disks. In this letter, we present $1.3,$mm ALMA data of the faint ($sim10,$mJy) disk orbiting the TTauri star CX Tau at a resolution of $sim40,$mas, $sim5,$AU in diameter. The mm-dust disk is compact, with a 68$%$ enclosing flux radius of 14$,$AU, and the intensity profile exhibits a sharp drop between 10-20$,$AU, and a shallow tail between 20-40$,$AU. No clear signatures of substructure in the dust continuum are observed, down to the same sensitivity level of the DSHARP large program. However, the angular resolution does not allow to detect substructures at a scale of the disk aspect ratio in the inner regions. The radial intensity profile resembles well the inner regions of more extended disks imaged at the same resolution in DSHARP, but with no rings present in the outer disk. No inner cavity is detected, even though the disk has been classified as a transition disk from the spectral energy distribution in the near infrared. The emission of $^{12}$CO is much more extended, with a 68$%$ enclosing flux radius of 75$,$AU. The large difference of the mm dust and gas extents ($>5$) strongly points to the occurrence of radial drift, and matches well the predictions of theoretical models.
We used new ALMA $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O(3-2) observations obtained at high angular resolution ($sim$0.2) together with previous CO(3-2) and (6-5) ALMA data and continuum maps at 1.3 and 0.8 mm in order to determine the gas properties (temperature, density, and kinematics) in the cavity and to a lesser extent in the outer disk of GG Tau A, the prototype of a young triple T Tauri star that is surrounded by a massive and extended Keplerian outer disk. By deprojecting, we studied the radial and azimuthal gas distribution and its kinematics. We also applied a new method to improve the deconvolution of the CO data and in particular better quantify the emission from gas inside the cavity. We perform local and nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium studies in order to determine the excitation conditions and relevant physical parameters inside the ring and in the central cavity. Residual emission after removing a smooth-disk model indicates unresolved structures at our angular resolution, probably in the form of irregular rings or spirals. The outer disk is cold, with a temperature $<20$ K beyond 250 au that drops quickly (r$^{-1}$). The kinematics of the gas inside the cavity reveals infall motions at about 10% of the Keplerian speed. We derive the amount of gas in the cavity, and find that the brightest clumps, which contain about 10% of this mass, have kinetic temperatures 40$-$80 K, CO column densities of a few 10$^{17}$ cm$^{-2}$, and H$_2$ densities around 10$^7$ cm$^{-3}$. Although the gas in the cavity is only a small fraction of the disk mass, the mass accretion rate throughout the cavity is comparable to or higher than the stellar accretion rate. It is accordingly sufficient to sustain the circumstellar disks on a long timescale.
We report ALMA Cycle 2 observations of 230 GHz (1.3 mm) dust continuum emission, and $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O J = 2-1 line emission, from the Upper Scorpius transitional disk [PZ99] J160421.7-213028, with an angular resolution of ~0.25 (35 AU). Armed with these data and existing H-band scattered light observations, we measure the size and depth of the disks central cavity, and the sharpness of its outer edge, in three components: sub-$mu$m-sized small dust traced by scattered light, millimeter-sized big dust traced by the millimeter continuum, and gas traced by line emission. Both dust populations feature a cavity of radius $sim$70 AU that is depleted by factors of at least 1000 relative to the dust density just outside. The millimeter continuum data are well explained by a cavity with a sharp edge. Scattered light observations can be fitted with a cavity in small dust that has either a sharp edge at 60 AU, or an edge that transitions smoothly over an annular width of 10 AU near 60 AU. In gas, the data are consistent with a cavity that is smaller, about 15 AU in radius, and whose surface density at 15 AU is $10^{3pm1}$ times smaller than the surface density at 70 AU; the gas density grades smoothly between these two radii. The CO isotopologue observations rule out a sharp drop in gas surface density at 30 AU or a double-drop model as found by previous modeling. Future observations are needed to assess the nature of these gas and dust cavities, e.g., whether they are opened by multiple as-yet-unseen planets or photoevaporation.
ALMA observations of protoplanetary disks confirm earlier indications that there is a clear difference between the dust and gas radial extents. The origin of this difference is still debated, with both radial drift of the dust and optical depth effects suggested in the literature. In this work, the feedback of realistic dust particle distributions onto the gas chemistry and molecular emissivity is investigated, with a particular focus on CO isotopologues. The radial dust grain size distribution is determined using dust evolution models that include growth, fragmentation and radial drift. A new version of the code DALI is used to take into account how dust surface area and density influence the disk thermal structure, molecular abundances and excitation. The difference of dust and gas radial sizes is largely due to differences in the optical depth of CO lines and millimeter continuum, without the need to invoke radial drift. The effect of radial drift is primarily visible in the sharp outer edge of the continuum intensity profile. The gas outer radius probed by $^{12}$CO emission can easily differ by a factor of $sim 2$ between the models for a turbulent $alpha$ ranging between typical values. Grain growth and settling concur in thermally decoupling the gas and dust components, due to the low collision rate with large grains. As a result, the gas can be much colder than the dust at intermediate heights, reducing the CO excitation and emission, especially for low turbulence values. Also, due to disk mid-plane shadowing, a second CO thermal desorption (rather than photodesorption) front can occur in the warmer outer mid-plane disk. The models are compared to ALMA observations of HD 163296 as a test case. In order to reproduce the observed CO snowline of the system, a binding energy for CO typical of ice mixtures needs to be used rather than the lower pure CO value.
The first long-baseline ALMA campaign resolved the disk around the young star HL Tau into a number of axisymmetric bright and dark rings. Despite the very young age of HL Tau these structures have been interpreted as signatures for the presence of (proto)planets. The ALMA images triggered numerous theoretical studies based on disk-planet interactions, magnetically driven disk structures, and grain evolution. Of special interest are the inner parts of disks, where terrestrial planets are expected to form. However, the emission from these regions in HL Tau turned out to be optically thick at all ALMA wavelengths, preventing the derivation of surface density profiles and grain size distributions. Here, we present the most sensitive images of HL Tau obtained to date with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at 7.0 mm wavelength with a spatial resolution comparable to the ALMA images. At this long wavelength the dust emission from HL Tau is optically thin, allowing a comprehensive study of the inner disk. We obtain a total disk dust mass of 0.001 - 0.003 Msun, depending on the assumed opacity and disk temperature. Our optically thin data also indicate fast grain growth, fragmentation, and formation of dense clumps in the inner densest parts of the disk. Our results suggest that the HL Tau disk may be actually in a very early stage of planetary formation, with planets not already formed in the gaps but in the process of future formation in the bright rings.
We model the ALMA and VLA millimeter radial profiles of the disk around HL Tau to constrain the properties of the dust grains. We adopt the disk evolutionary models of Lynden-Bell & Pringle and calculate their temperature and density structure and emission. These disks are heated by the internal viscosity and irradiated by the central star and a warm envelope. We consider a dust size distribution $n(a) da propto a^{-3.5} da $, and vary the maximum grain size in the atmosphere and the midplane, $a_{rm max}=100 mu$m, 1 mm, and 1cm. We also include dust settling and vary the dust-to-gas mass ratio from 1 to 9 times the ISM value. We find that the models that can fit the observed level of emission along the profiles at all wavelengths have an atmosphere with a maximum grain size $a_{rm max} = 100 mu$m, and a midplane with $a_{rm max}=1$ cm. The disk substructure, with a deficit of emission in the gaps, can be due to dust properties in these regions that are different from those in the rings. We test an opacity effect (different $a_{rm max}$) and a dust mass deficit (smaller dust-to-gas mass ratio) in the gaps. We find that the emission profiles are better reproduced by models with a dust deficit in the gaps, although a combined effect is also possible. These models have a global dust-to-gas mass ratio twice the ISM value, needed to reach the level of emission of the 7.8 mm VLA profile.