No Arabic abstract
Extreme outbursts in young stars may be a common stage of pre-main-sequence stellar evolution. These outbursts, caused by enhanced accretion and accompanied by increased luminosity, can also strongly impact the evolution of the circumstellar environment. We present ALMA and VLA observations of EX Lupi, a prototypical outburst system, at 100 GHz, 45 GHz, and 15 GHz. We use these data, along with archival ALMA 232 GHz data, to fit radiative transfer models to EX Lupis circumstellar disk in its quiescent state following the extreme outburst in 2008. The best fit models show a compact disk with a characteristic dust radius of 45 au and a total mass of 0.01 M$_{odot}$. Our modeling suggests grain growth to sizes of at least 3 mm in the disk, possibly spurred by the recent outburst, and an ice line that has migrated inward to $0.2-0.3$ au post-outburst. At 15 GHz, we detected significant emission over the expected thermal disk emission which we attribute primarily to stellar (gyro)synchrotron and free-free disk emission. Altogether, these results highlight what may be a common impact of outbursts on the circumstellar dust.
The protoplanetary disk around Ophiuchus IRS 48 shows an azimuthally asymmetric dust distribution in (sub-)millimeter observations, which is interpreted as a vortex, where millimeter/centimeter-sized particles are trapped at the location of the continuum peak. In this paper, we present 860 $mu$m ALMA observations of polarized dust emission of this disk. The polarized emission was detected toward a part of the disk. The polarization vectors are parallel to the disk minor axis, and the polarization fraction was derived to be $1-2$%. These characteristics are consistent with models of self-scattering of submillimeter-wave emission, which indicate a maximum grain size of $sim100$ $mu$m. However, this is inconsistent with the previous interpretation of millimeter/centimeter dust particles being trapped by a vortex. To explain both, ALMA polarization and previous ALMA and VLA observations, we suggest that the thermal emission at 860 $mu$m wavelength is optically thick ($tau_{rm abs}sim7.3$) at the dust trap with the maximum observable grain size of $sim100$ $mu$m rather than an optically thin case with $sim$ cm dust grains. We note that we cannot rule out that larger dust grains are accumulated near the midplane if the 860 $mu$m thermal emission is optically thick.
We present new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations for three protoplanetary disks in Taurus at 2.9,mm and comparisons with previous 1.3,mm data both at an angular resolution of $sim0.1$ (15,au for the distance of Taurus). In the single-ring disk DS Tau, double-ring disk GO Tau, and multiple-ring disk DL Tau, the same rings are detected at both wavelengths, with radial locations spanning from 50 to 120,au. To quantify the dust emission morphology, the observed visibilities are modeled with a parametric prescription for the radial intensity profile. The disk outer radii, taken as 95% of the total flux encircled in the model intensity profiles, are consistent at both wavelengths for the three disks. Dust evolution models show that dust trapping in local pressure maxima in the outer disk could explain the observed patterns. Dust rings are mostly unresolved. The marginally resolved ring in DS Tau shows a tentatively narrower ring at the longer wavelength, an observational feature expected from efficient dust trapping. The spectral index ($alpha_{rm mm}$) increases outward and exhibits local minima that correspond to the peaks of dust rings, indicative of the changes in grain properties across the disks. The low optical depths ($tausim$0.1--0.2 at 2.9,mm and 0.2--0.4 at 1.3,mm) in the dust rings suggest that grains in the rings may have grown to millimeter sizes. The ubiquitous dust rings in protoplanetary disks modify the overall dynamics and evolution of dust grains, likely paving the way towards the new generation of planet formation.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of a protoplanetary disk around the T Tauri star Sz~84 and analyses of the structures of the inner cavity in the central region of the dust disk. Sz~84s spectral energy distribution (SED) has been known to exhibit negligible infrared excess at $lambda lesssim$10~$mu$m due to the disks cavity structure. Analyses of the observed visibilities of dust continuum at 1.3~mm and the SED indicate that the size of the cavity in the disk of large (millimeter size) dust grains is 8~au in radius and that in the disk of small (sub-micron size) dust grains is 60~au in radius. Furthermore, from the SED analyses, we estimate that the upper limit mass of small dust grains at $r<$60~au is less than $sim$10$^{-3}$~$M_{rm earth}$, which is $lesssim$0.01~% of the total (small~$+$~large) dust mass at $r<$60~au. These results suggest that large dust grains are dominant at $r<$60~au, implying that dust grains efficiently grow with less efficient fragmentation in this region, potentially due to weak turbulence and/or stickier dust grains. The balance of grain growth and dust fragmentation is an important factor for determining the size of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks, and thus Sz~84 could serve as a good testbed for investigations of grain growth in such disks.
Compared to their centimeter-wavelength counterparts, millimeter recombination lines (RLs) are intrinsically brighter and are free of pressure broadening. We report observations of RLs (H30alpha at 231.9 GHz, H53alpha at 42.9 GHz) and the millimeter and centimeter continuum toward the Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object in Orion, obtained from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Science Verification archive and the Very Large Array (VLA). The RL emission appears to be arising from the slowly-moving, dense (Ne=8.4x10^6 cm^-3) base of the ionized envelope around BN. This ionized gas has a relatively low electron temperature (Te<4900 K) and small (<<10 km s^-1) bulk motions. Comparing our continuum measurements with previous (non)detections, it is possible that BN has large flux variations in the millimeter. However, dedicated observations with a uniform setup are needed to confirm this. From the H30alpha line, the central line-of-sight LSR velocity of BN is 26.3 km s^-1.
We present ALMA and VLA observations of the molecular and ionized gas at 0.1-0.3 arcsec resolution in the Class 0 protostellar system IRAS 16293-2422. These data clarify the origins of the protostellar outflows from the deeply embedded sources in this complex region. Source A2 is confirmed to be at the origin of the well known large scale north-east--south-west flow. The most recent VLA observations reveal a new ejection from that protostar, demonstrating that it drives an episodic jet. The central compact part of the other known large scale flow in the system, oriented roughly east-west, is well delineated by the CO(6-5) emission imaged with ALMA and is confirmed to be driven from within component A. Finally, a one-sided blueshifted bubble-like outflow structure is detected here for the first time from source B to the north-west of the system. Its very short dynamical timescale (~ 200 yr), low velocity, and moderate collimation support the idea that source B is the youngest object in the system, and possibly one of the youngest protostars known.