An Observational Perspective of Transitional Disks

Transitional disks are objects whose inner disk regions have undergone substantial clearing. The Spitzer Space Telescope produced detailed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of transitional disks that allowed us to infer their radial dust disk structure in some detail, revealing the diversity of this class of disks. The growing sample of transitional disks also opened up the possibility of demographic studies, which provided unique insights. There now exist (sub)millimeter and infrared images that confirm the presence of large clearings of dust in transitional disks. In addition, protoplanet candidates have been detected within some of these clearings. Transitional disks are thought to be a strong link to planet formation around young stars and are a key area to study if further progress is to be made on understanding the initial stages of planet formation. Here we provide a review and synthesis of transitional disk observations to date with the aim of providing timely direction to the field, which is about to undergo its next burst of growth as ALMA reaches its full potential. We discuss what we have learned about transitional disks from SEDs, color-color diagrams, and imaging in the (sub)mm and infrared. We then distill the observations into constraints for the main disk clearing mechanisms proposed to date (i.e., photoevaporation, grain growth, and companions) and explore how the expected observational signatures from these mechanisms, particularly planet-induced disk clearing, compare to actual observations. Lastly, we discuss future avenues of inquiry to be pursued with ALMA, JWST, and next generation of ground-based telescopes.

Emission Lines from the Gas Disk around TW Hydra and the Origin of the Inner Hole

We compare line emission calculated from theoretical disk models with optical to sub-millimeter wavelength observational data of the gas disk surrounding TW Hya and infer the spatial distribution of mass in the gas disk. The model disk that best matches observations has a gas mass ranging from $sim10^{-4}-10^{-5}$ms for $0.06{rm AU} <r<3.5$AU and $sim 0.06$ms for $ 3.5 {rm AU} <r<200$AU. We find that the inner dust hole ($r<3.5$AU) in the disk must be depleted of gas by $sim 1-2$ orders of magnitude compared to the extrapolated surface density distribution of the outer disk. Grain growth alone is therefore not a viable explanation for the dust hole. CO vibrational emission arises within $rsim 0.5$AU from thermal excitation of gas. [OI] 6300AA and 5577AA forbidden lines and OH mid-infrared emission are mainly due to prompt emission following UV photodissociation of OH and water at $rlesssim0.1$AU and at $rsim 4$AU. [NeII] emission is consistent with an origin in X-ray heated neutral gas at $rlesssim 10$AU, and may not require the presence of a significant EUV ($h u>13.6$eV) flux from TW Hya. H$_2$ pure rotational line emission comes primarily from $rsim 1-30$AU. [OI]63$mu$m, HCO$^+$ and CO pure rotational lines all arise from the outer disk at $rsim30-120$AU. We discuss planet formation and photoevaporation as causes for the decrease in surface density of gas and dust inside 4 AU. If a planet is present, our results suggest a planet mass $sim 4-7$M$_J$ situated at $sim 3$AU. Using our photoevaporation models and the best surface density profile match to observations, we estimate a current photoevaporative mass loss rate of $4times10^{-9}$ms yr$^{-1}$ and a remaining disk lifetime of $sim 5$ million years.