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Register a new userALMA Survey of Lupus Class III Stars: Early Planetesimal Belt Formation and Rapid Disk Dispersal
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Class III stars are those in star forming regions without large non-photospheric infrared emission, suggesting recent dispersal of their protoplanetary disks. We observed 30 class III stars in the 1-3 Myr Lupus region with ALMA at ${sim}856mu$m, resulting in 4 detections that we attribute to circumstellar dust. Inferred dust masses are $0.036{-}0.093M_oplus$, ${sim}1$ order of magnitude lower than any previous measurements; one disk is resolved with radius ${sim}80$ au. Two class II sources in the field of view were also detected, and 11 other sources, consistent with sub-mm galaxy number counts. Stacking non-detections yields a marginal detection with mean dust mass ${sim}0.0048M_oplus$. We searched for gas emission from the CO J=3-2 line, and present its detection to NO Lup inferring a gas mass ($4.9 {pm} 1.1$) ${times}10^{-5} M_oplus$ and gas-to-dust ratio $1.0{pm}0.4$. Combining our survey with class II sources shows a gap in the disk mass distribution from $0.09{-}2M_oplus$ for ${>}0.7M_odot$ Lupus stars, evidence of rapid dispersal of mm-sized dust from protoplanetary disks. The class III disk mass distribution is consistent with a population model of planetesimal belts that go on to replenish the debris disks seen around main sequence stars. This suggests that planetesimal belt formation does not require long-lived protoplanetary disks, i.e., planetesimals form within ${sim}$2 Myr. While all 4 class III disks are consistent with collisional replenishment, for two the gas and/or mid-IR emission could indicate primordial circumstellar material in the final stages of protoplanetary disk dispersal. Two class III stars without sub-mm detections exhibit hot emission that could arise from ongoing planet formation processes inside ${sim}1$ au.
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We observed the K7 class III star NO Lup in an ALMA survey of the 1-3 Myr Lupus association and detected circumstellar dust and CO gas. Here we show that the J = 3-2 CO emission is both spectrally and spatially resolved, with a broad velocity width ${sim}19$kms$^{-1}$ for its resolved size ${sim}1$ (${sim}130$ au). We model the gas emission as a Keplerian disc, finding consistency, but only with a central mass of ${sim}11M_{odot}$, which is implausible given its spectral type and X-Shooter spectrum. A good fit to the data can also be found by modelling the CO emission as outflowing gas with a radial velocity ${sim}22$kms$^{-1}$. We interpret NO Lups CO emission as the first imaged class III circumstellar disc with outflowing gas. We conclude that the CO is continually replenished, but cannot say if this is from the break-up of icy planetesimals or from the last remnants of the protoplanetary disc. We suggest further work to explore the origin of this CO, and its higher than expected velocity in comparison to photoevaporative models.
The star HR 8799 hosts one of the largest known debris discs and at least four giant planets. Previous observations have found evidence for a warm belt within the orbits of the planets, a cold planetesimal belt beyond their orbits and a halo of small grains. With the infrared data, it is hard to distinguish the planetesimal belt emission from that of the grains in the halo. With this in mind, the system has been observed with ALMA in band 6 (1.34 mm) using a compact array format. These observations allow the inner edge of the planetesimal belt to be resolved for the first time. A radial distribution of dust grains is fitted to the data using an MCMC method. The disc is best fit by a broad ring between $145^{+12}_{-12}$ AU and $429^{+37}_{-32}$ AU at an inclination of $40^{+5}_{-6}${deg} and a position angle of $51^{+8}_{-8}${deg}. A disc edge at ~145 AU is too far out to be explained simply by interactions with planet b, requiring either a more complicated dynamical history or an extra planet beyond the orbit of planet b.
We present ALMA Band 6 observations of a complete sample of protoplanetary disks in the young (1-3 Myr) Lupus star-forming region, covering the 1.33 mm continuum and the 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J=2-1 lines. The spatial resolution is 0.25 arcsec with a medium 3-sigma continuum sensitivity of 0.30 mJy, corresponding to M_dust ~ 0.2 M_earth. We apply Keplerian masking to enhance the signal-to-noise ratios of our 12CO zero-moment maps, enabling measurements of gas disk radii for 22 Lupus disks; we find that gas disks are universally larger than mm dust disks by a factor of two on average, likely due to a combination of the optically thick gas emission as well as the growth and inward drift of the dust. Using the gas disk radii, we calculate the dimensionless viscosity parameter, alpha_visc, finding a broad distribution and no correlations with other disk or stellar parameters, suggesting that viscous processes have not yet established quasi-steady states in Lupus disks. By combining our 1.33 mm continuum fluxes with our previous 890 micron continuum observations, we also calculate the mm spectral index, alpha_mm, for 70 Lupus disks; we find an anti-correlation between alpha_mm and mm flux for low-mass disks (M_dust < 5), followed by a flattening as disks approach alpha_mm = 2, which could indicate faster grain growth in higher-mass disks, but may also reflect their larger optically thick components. In sum, this work demonstrates the continuous stream of new insights into disk evolution and planet formation that can be gleaned from unbiased ALMA disk surveys.
The dominant mechanism leading to the formation of brown dwarfs (BDs) remains uncertain. The most direct keys to formation, which are obtained from younger objects (pre-BD cores and proto-BDs), are limited by the very low number statistics available. We aim to identify and characterize a set of pre- and proto-BDs as well as Class II BDs in the Lupus 1 and 3 molecular clouds to test their formation mechanism. We performed ALMA band 6 (1.3 mm) continuum observations of a selection of 64 cores previously identified from AzTEC/ASTE data (1.1 mm), along with previously known Class II BDs in the Lupus 1 and 3 molecular clouds. Surveyed archival data in the optical were used to complement these observations. We expect these ALMA observations prove efficient in detecting the youngest sources in these regions, since they probe the frequency domain at which these sources emit most of their radiation. We detected 19 sources from 15 ALMA fields. Considering all the pointings in our observing setup, the ALMA detection rate was $sim$23% and the derived masses of the detected sources were between $sim$0.18 and 124 $mathrm{M_{Jup}}$. We classified these sources according to their spectral energy distribution as 5 Class II sources, 2 new Class I/0 candidats, and 12 new possible pre-BD or deeply embedded protostellar candidates. We detected a promising candidate for a Class 0/I proto-BD source and inferred the disk dust mass of a bona fide Class II BD. The pre-BD cores might be the byproduct of an ongoing process of large-scale collapse. The Class II BD disks follow the correlation between disk mass and the mass of the central object that is observed at the low-mass stellar regime. We conclude that it is highly probable that the sources in the sample are formed as a scaled-down version of low-mass star formation, although disk fragmentation may be responsible for a considerable fraction of BDs.
Resolved observations of millimetre-sized dust, tracing larger planetesimals, have pinpointed the location of 26 Edgeworth-Kuiper belt analogs. We report that a belts distance $R$ to its host star correlates with the stars luminosity $L_{star}$, following $Rpropto L^{0.19}_{star}$ with a low intrinsic scatter of $sim$17%. Remarkably, our Edgeworth-Kuiper belt in the Solar System and the two CO snow lines imaged in protoplanetary disks lie close to this $R$-$L_{star}$ relation, suggestive of an intrinsic relationship between protoplanetary disk structures and belt locations. To test the effect of bias on the relation, we use a Monte Carlo approach and simulate uncorrelated model populations of belts. We find that observational bias could produce the slope and intercept of the $R$-$L_{star}$ relation, but is unable to reproduce its low scatter. We then repeat the simulation taking into account the collisional evolution of belts, following the steady state model that fits the belt population as observed through infrared excesses. This significantly improves the fit by lowering the scatter of the simulated $R$-$L_{star}$ relation; however, this scatter remains only marginally consistent with the one observed. The inability of observational bias and collisional evolution alone to reproduce the tight relationship between belt radius and stellar luminosity could indicate that planetesimal belts form at preferential locations within protoplanetary disks. The similar trend for CO snow line locations would then indicate that the formation of planetesimals and/or planets in the outer regions of planetary systems is linked to the volatility of their building blocks, as postulated by planet formation models.
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