We present a Spitzer IRS study of variability in 14 T Tauri stars in the Taurus and Chamaeleon star-forming regions. The sample is composed of transitional and pre-transitional objects which contain holes and gaps in their disks. We detect variability between 5-38 microns in all but two of our objects on timescales of 2-3 years. Most of the variability observed can be classified as seesaw behavior, whereby the emission at shorter wavelengths varies inversely with the emission at longer wavelengths. For many of the objects we can reasonably reproduce the observed variability using irradiated disk models, particularly by changing the height of the inner disk wall by ~20%. When the inner wall is taller, the emission at the shorter wavelengths is higher since the inner wall dominates the emission at 2-8 microns. The taller inner wall casts a larger shadow on the outer disk wall, leading to less emission at wavelengths beyond 20 microns where the outer wall dominates. We discuss how the possible presence of planets in these disks could lead to warps which cause changes in the height of the inner wall. We also find that crystalline silicates are common in the outer disks of our objects and that in the four disks in the sample with the most crystalline silicates, variability on timescales of 1 week is present. In addition to explaining the infrared variability described above, planets can create shocks and collisions which can crystallize the dust and lead to short timescale variability.
Two decades ago "transitional disks" described spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of T Tauri stars with small near-IR excesses, but significant mid- and far-IR excesses. Many inferred this indicated dust-free holes in disks, possibly cleared by planets. Recently, this term has been applied disparately to objects whose Spitzer SEDs diverge from the expectations for a typical full disk. Here we use irradiated accretion disk models to fit the SEDs of 15 such disks in NGC 2068 and IC 348. One group has a "dip" in infrared emission while the others' continuum emission decreases steadily at all wa…
(Abridged) Dust particles evolve in size and lattice structure in protoplanetary disks, due to coagulation, fragmentation and crystallization, and are radially and vertically mixed in disks. This paper aims at determining the mineralogical composition and size distribution of the dust grains in disks around 58 T Tauri stars observed with Spitzer/IRS. We present a spectral decomposition model that reproduces the IRS spectra over the full spectral range. The model assumes two dust populations: a warm component responsible for the 10μm emission arising from the disk inner regions and a colder com…
We characterize the physical properties of T Chamaeleontis, a transitional T Tauri star showing UX Ori-type variability, and of its associated disc, and probe possible effects of disc clearing processes. Different spectral diagnostics are examined, based on a rich collection of optical high- and low-resolution spectra. We determine radial and projected rotational velocities, and measure equivalent widths of the Li I (6708 A) line and of the most prominent emission lines (e.g. Ha, Hb and [OI] 6300A); we analyse shape changes of photospheric lines via bisector-method, while variability in Ha and…
New data from the Herschel Space Observatory are broadening our understanding of the physics and evolution of the outer regions of protoplanetary disks in star forming regions. In particular they prove to be useful to identify transitional disk candidates. The goals of this work are to complement the detections of disks and the identification of transitional disk candidates in the Lupus clouds with data from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey. We extracted photometry at 70, 100, 160, 250, 350 and 500 $μ$m of all spectroscopically confirmed Class II members previously identified in the Lupus region…
Dust grains in the planet forming regions around young stars are expected to be heavily processed due to coagulation, fragmentation and crystallization. This paper focuses on the crystalline silicate dust grains in protoplanetary disks. As part of the Cores to Disks Legacy Program, we obtained more than a hundred Spitzer/IRS spectra of TTauri stars. More than 3/4 of our objects show at least one crystalline silicate emission feature that can be essentially attributed to Mg-rich silicates. Observational properties of the crystalline features seen at lambda > 20 mu correlate with each other, whi…
Simple molecules like H2CO and CH3OH in protoplanetary disks are the starting point for the production of more complex organic molecules. So far, the observed chemical complexity in disks has been limited due to freeze out of molecules onto grains in the bulk of the cold outer disk. Complex molecules can be studied more directly in transitional disks with large inner holes, as these have a higher potential of detection, through UV heating of the outer disk and the directly exposed midplane at the wall. We use Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 9 (~680 GHz) line data of th…
The processes that form transition disks - disks with depleted inner regions - are not well understood; possible scenarios include planet formation, grain growth and photoevaporation. Disks with spatially resolved dust holes are rare, but, in general, even less is known about the gas structure. The disk surrounding A0 star Oph IRS 48 in the nearby Rho Ophiuchus region has a 30 AU radius hole previously detected in the 18.7 micron dust continuum and in warm CO in the 5 micron fundamental ro-vibrational band. We present here Submillimeter Array 880 micron continuum imaging resolving an inner hol…
We use 2D hydrodynamic simulations of viscous disks to examine whether dynamically-interacting multiple giant planets can explain the large gaps (spanning over one order of magnitude in radius) inferred for the transitional and pre-transitional disks around T Tauri stars. In the absence of inner disk dust depletion, we find that it requires three to four giant planets to open up large enough gaps to be consistent with inferences from spectral energy distributions, because the gap width is limited by the tendency of the planets to be driven together into 2:1 resonances. With very strong tidal t…
This work presents a study of two Herbig Ae transitional discs, Oph IRS 48 and HD 169142; which both have reported rings in their dust density distributions. We use Keck-II/NIRC2 adaptive optics imaging observations in the L' filter (3.8 micron) to probe the regions of these discs inwards of ~20AU from the star. We introduce our method for investigating these transitional discs, which takes a forward modelling approach: making a model of the disc (using the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code RADMC), convolving it with point-spread functions of calibrator stars, and comparing the convolved mod…
We present \emph{Herschel} PACS observations of 8 Classical T Tauri Stars in the $\sim 7-10$ Myr old OB1a and the $\sim 4-5$ Myr old OB1b Orion sub-asscociations. Detailed modeling of the broadband spectral energy distributions, particularly the strong silicate emission at 10 $μ$m, shows that these objects are (pre)transitional disks with some amount of small optically thin dust inside their cavities, ranging from $\sim 4$ AU to $\sim 90$ AU in size. We analyzed \emph{Spitzer} IRS spectra for two objects in the sample: CVSO-107 and CVSO-109. The IRS spectrum of CVSO-107 indicates the presence …
High-energy radiation from T Tauri stars (TTS) influences the amount and longevity of gas in disks, thereby playing a crucial role in the creation of gas giant planets. Here we probe the high-energy ionizing radiation from TTS using high-resolution mid-infrared (MIR) Spitzer IRS Neon forbidden line detections in a sample of disks from IC 348, NGC 2068, and Chamaeleon. We report three new detections of [Ne III] from CS Cha, SZ Cha, and T 54, doubling the known number of [Ne III] detections from TTS. Using [Ne III]-to-[Ne II] ratios in conjunction with X-ray emission measurements, we probe high-…
We carried out optical high-resolution spectroscopy of T Tauri stars using the Subaru Telescope. Using archived data from the Keck Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, we detected forbidden lines of [S II] at 4069 A, in addition to those of [O I] at 5577 A and 6300 A, for 13 T Tauri stars. We consider that low-velocity components of these forbidden lines emanate from the wind associated with T Tauri stars. Using two flux ratios of the three lines, we simultaneously determined the hydrogen density and temperature of the winds. The winds of T Tauri stars have a hydrogen density of $2.5 \times…
This paper summarizes several results concerning the comparison between accretion-related properties of cool (T Tauri; T < 7000 K, M < 1 Msun and hot (Herbig Ae/Be; 7000 < T(K) < 13000; 1 < M(Msun) < 6) pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. This comparison gives insight into the analogies/differences in the physics of the star-disk interaction and in the physical mechanisms driving disk dissipation. Several optical and near-IR line luminosities used for low-mass objects are also valid to estimate typical accretion rates for intermediate-mass stars under similar empirical expressions. In contrast, the…
We present the complete sample of protoplanetary disks from the Gemini- Large Imaging with GPI Herbig/T-tauri Survey (Gemini-LIGHTS) which observed bright Herbig Ae/Be stars and T-Tauri stars in near-infrared polarized light to search for signatures of disk evolution and ongoing planet formation. The 44 targets were chosen based on their near- and mid-infrared colors, with roughly equal numbers of transitional, pre-transitional, and full disks. Our approach explicitly did not favor well-known, "famous" disks or those observed by ALMA, resulting in a less-biased sample suitable to probe the maj…
(abridged) We present Spitzer infrared observations to constrain disc and dust evolution in young T Tauri stars in MBM 12, a star-forming cloud at high latitude with an age of 2 Myr and a distance of 275 pc. The region contains 12 T Tauri systems, with primary spectral types between K3 and M6; 5 are weak-line and the rest classical T Tauri stars. We first use MIPS and literature photometry to compile spectral energy distributions for each of the 12 members in MBM 12, and derive their IR excesses. The IRS spectra are analysed with the newly developed two-layer temperature distribution (TLTD) sp…
When studying the evolutionary stages of protostars that form in clusters, the role of any intracluster medium cannot be neglected. High foreground extinction can lead to situations where young stellar objects (YSOs) appear to be in earlier evolutionary stages than they actually are, particularly when using simple criteria like spectral indices. To address this issue, we have assembled detailed SED characterizations of a sample of 56 Spitzer-identified candidate YSOs in the clusters NGC 2264 and IC 348. For these, we use spectra obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space…
Transitional circumstellar disks around young stellar objects have a distinctive infrared deficit around 10 microns in their Spectral Energy Distributions (SED), recently measured by the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), suggesting dust depletion in the inner regions. These disks have been confirmed to have giant central cavities by imaging of the submillimeter (sub-mm) continuum emission using the Submillimeter Array (SMA). However, the polarized near-infrared scattered light images for most objects in a systematic IRS/SMA cross sample, obtained by HiCIAO on the Subaru telescope, show no e…
We present spectra of 13 T Tauri stars in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region showing emission in Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) 5-7.5 micron spectra from water vapor and absorption from other gases in these stars' protoplanetary disks. Seven stars' spectra show an emission feature at 6.6 microns due to the nu_2 = 1-0 bending mode of water vapor, with the shape of the spectrum suggesting water vapor temperatures > 500 K, though some of these spectra also show indications of an absorption band, likely from another molecule. This water vapor emission contrasts with the abs…
Equivalent widths and line widths of Ca II infrared triplet emission lines were measured in high-resolution optical spectra of 39 young stellar objects.We found that the equivalent widths of the emission lines decrease with stellar evolution. It has been often claimed that strong chromospheric activity is generated by a dynamo process caused by fast rotation of the photosphere. However, we found no clear correlation between the strength of the Ca II lines and the stellar rotation velocity. Instead, we found that the objects with high mass accretion rates had stronger Ca II emission lines. This…
We present new X-ray and Far Ultraviolet (FUV) observations of T Tauri stars covering the age range 1 to 10 Myr. Our goals are to observationally constrain the intensity of radiation fields responsible for evaporating gas from the circumstellar disk and to assess the feasibility of current photoevaporation models, focusing on X-ray and UV radiation. We greatly increase the number of 7-10 Myr old T Tauri stars observed in the X-rays by including observations of the well populated 25 Ori aggregate in the Orion OB1a subassociation. With these new 7-10 Myr objects, we confirm that X-ray emission r…
We present a detailed study of the disk around the intermediate mass star SO 411, aiming to explain the spectral energy distribution of this star. We show that this is a transitional disk truncated at $\sim$11 au, with $\sim$0.03 lunar masses of optically thin dust inside the cavity. Gas also flows through the cavity, since we find that the disk is still accreting mass onto the star, at a rate of $\sim 5x10^{-9}$ Msun/yr. Until now, SO 411 has been thought to belong to the $\sim$3 Myr old {$σ$} Orionis cluster. However, we analyzed the second Gaia Data Release in combination with kinematic dat…
We present the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph spectrum of the Orion A protostar HOPS-68. The mid-infrared spectrum reveals crystalline substructure at 11.1, 16.1, 18.8, 23.6, 27.9, and 33.6 microns superimposed on the broad 9.7 and 18 micron amorphous silicate features; the substructure is well matched by the presence of the olivine end-member forsterite. Crystalline silicates are often observed as infrared emission features around the circumstellar disks of Herbig Ae/Be stars and T Tauri stars. However, this is the first unambiguous detection of crystalline silicate absorption …
We performed single point [C I] $^3$P$_1$-$^3$P$_0$ and CO J=4-3 observations toward three T Tauri stars, DM Tau, LkCa 15, and TW Hya, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 8 qualification model receiver installed on the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE). Two protostars in the Taurus L1551 region, L1551 IRS 5 and HL Tau, were also observed. We successfully detected [C I] emission from the protoplanetary disk around DM Tau as well as the protostellar targets. The spectral profile of the [C I] emission from the protoplanetary disk is marginally single…
Planet formation is one explanation for the partial clearing of dust observed in the disks of some T Tauri stars. Indeed studies using state-of-the-art high angular resolution techniques have very recently begun to observe planetary companions in these so-called transitional disks. The goal of this work is to use spectra of the transitional disk object LkCa 15 obtained with X-Shooter on the Very Large Telescope to investigate the possibility of using spectro-astrometry to detect planetary companions to T Tauri stars. It is argued that an accreting planet should contribute to the total emission…
The physical processes leading to the disappearance of disks around young stars are not well understood. A subclass of transitional disks, the so-called cold disks with large inner dust holes, provide a crucial laboratory for studying disk dissipation processes. IRS 48 has a 30 AU radius hole previously measured from dust continuum imaging at 18.7 micron. Using new optical spectra, we determine that IRS 48 is a pre-main sequence A0 star. In order to characterize this disk's gas distribution, we obtained AO-assisted VLT CRIRES high resolution (R ~100,000) spectra of the CO fundamental rovibrati…
The results of a spectroscopic survey of H alpha emission line stars associated with fourteen bright rimmed clouds are presented. Slit-less optical spectroscopy was carried out with the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) 2m telescope and IUCAA Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (IFOSC). H alpha emission line was detected from 173 objects. Among them 85 objects have a strong H alpha emission line with its equivalent width larger than 10 A. Those are classical T Tauri stars. 52 objects have a weak H alpha emission line with its equivalent width less than 10 A and do…
We have conducted a high-dispersion ($R \sim$ 34,000) optical spectroscopic study of 10 young stars near the cometary gloule CG 30 in the Gum Nebula, a diffuse H \textsc{ii} region home to at least 32 cometary globules. All 10 spectroscopically observed stars at the nebula's northern edge are of low mass (spectral types M4.5 - K5), have broad H$α$ emission, and show spectral veiling. Eight of the 10 are classical T Tauri stars. We spectroscopically measure the photospheric properties of CG 30 IRS 4 inside CG 30. Though embedded, CG 30 IRS 4 is T Tauri-like, with relatively slow projected rotat…
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has been returning images of transitional disks in which large asymmetries are seen in the distribution of mm-sized dust in the outer disk. The explanation in vogue borrows from the vortex literature by suggesting that these asymmetries are the result of dust trapping in giant vortices, excited via Rossby wave instability (RWI) at planetary gap edges. Due to the drag force, dust trapped in vortices will accumulate in the center, and diffusion is needed to maintain a steady state over the lifetime of the disk. While previous work derived semi-analytical…
We study particle trapping at the edge of a gap opened by a planet in a protoplanetary disk. In particular, we explore the effects of turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability on particle trapping, using global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations including Lagrangian dust particles. We study disks either in the ideal MHD limit or dominated by ambipolar diffusion (AD) that plays an essential role at the outer regions of a protoplanetary disk. With ideal MHD, strong turbulence (the equivalent viscosity parameter $α\sim 10^{-2}$) in disks prevents vortex formation…
*Context The evolution of young massive protoplanetary disks toward planetary systems is expected to include the formation of gaps and the depletion of dust and gas. *Aims A special group of flaring disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars do not show prominent silicate emission features. We focus our attention on four key Herbig Ae/Be stars to understand the structural properties responsible for the absence of silicate feature emission. *Methods We investigate Q- and N-band images taken with Subaru/COMICS, Gemini South/T-ReCS and VLT/VISIR. Our radiative transfer modeling solutions require a separatio…
We have conducted ALMA observations in the 1.3 mm continuum and 12CO (2-1), C18O (2-1) and SO (5_6-4_5) lines toward L1489 IRS, a Class I protostar surrounded by a Keplerian disk and an infalling envelope. The Keplerian disk is clearly identified in the 12CO and C18O emission, and its outer radius (~700 AU) and mass (~0.005 Msun) are comparable to those of disks around T Tauri stars. The protostellar mass is estimated to be 1.6 Msun with the inclination angle of 66 deg. In addition to the Keplerian disk, there are blueshifted and redshifted off-axis protrusions seen in the C18O emission pointi…
This paper investigates how the far-IR water ice features can be used to infer properties of disks around T Tauri stars and the water ice thermal history. We explore the power of future observations with SOFIA/HIRMES and SPICA's proposed far-IR instrument SAFARI. A series of detailed radiative transfer disk models around a representative T Tauri star are used to investigate how the far-IR water ice features at 45 and 63 micron change with key disk properties: disk size, grain sizes, disk dust mass, dust settling, and ice thickness. In addition, a series of models is devised to calculate the wa…
Aims: By studying the photospheric abundances of 4 RV Tauri stars in the LMC, we test whether the depletion pattern of refractory elements, seen in similar Galactic sources, is also common for extragalactic sources. Since this depletion process probably only occurs through interaction with a stable disc, we investigate the circumstellar environment of these sources. Methods: A detailed photospheric abundance study was performed using high-resolution UVES optical spectra. To study the circumstellar environment we use photometric data to construct the spectral energy distributions of the stars, …
We give results of a low-resolution optical spectroscopic study of the bright nebulous stars conforming the tight stellar trapezium embedded in IRAS06548-0815, of the exciting star of IRAS06547-0810, and of the stars associated with reflection nebulae (R-or N-stars) NJ065703.0-081421, NJ065714.1-081016, IRAS06548-0815 D and IRAS06548-0815 G, all objects scarcely observed and apparently pertaining to the dark cloud LDN 1655. Our results given here combined with the corresponding 2MASS near infrared photometry enables us to estimate a photometric distance to LDN1655 of 1.9 kpc and to locate the …
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations in the dust continuum (690 GHz, 0.45 mm) and 12CO J=6-5 spectral line emission, of the transitional disks surrounding the stars SAO 206462 and SR 21. These ALMA observations resolve the dust-depleted disk cavities and extended gaseous disks, revealing large-scale asymmetries in the dust emission of both disks. We modeled these disks structures with a ring and an azimuthal gaussian, where the azimuthal gaussian is motivated by the steady-state vortex solution from Lyra & Lin (2013). Compared to recent observations of HD…
As part of the "Dust, Ice, and Gas In Time (DIGIT)" Herschel Open Time Key Program, we present Herschel photometry (at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron) of 31 Weak-Line T Tauri star (WTTS) candidates in order to investigate the evolutionary status of their circumstellar disks. Thirteen stars in our sample had circumstellar disks previously known from infrared observations at shorter wavelengths, while eighteen of them had no previous evidence for a disk. We detect a total of 15 disks as all previously known disks are detected at one or more Herschel wavelengths and two additional disks are ide…
We present 5 to 36 micron mid-infrared spectra of 82 young stars in the ~2 Myr old Chamaeleon I star-forming region, obtained with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS). We have classified these objects into various evolutionary classes based on their spectral energy distributions and the spectral features seen in the IRS spectra. We have analyzed the mid-IR spectra of Class II objects in Chamaeleon I in detail, in order to study the vertical and radial structure of the protoplanetary disks surrounding these stars. We find evidence for substantial dust settling in most protoplanetary disks i…
Transitional disks around young stars are promising candidates to look for recently formed, embedded planets. Planet-disk interaction models predict that planets clear a gap in the gas while trapping dust at larger radii. Other physical mechanisms could be responsible for cavities as well. Previous observations have revealed that gas is still present inside these cavities, but the spatial distribution of this gas remains uncertain. We present high spatial resolution observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of 13CO and C18O lines of four well-studied transitiona…
Context: We have analysed Herschel-PACS spectra of 32 circumstellar disks around Herbig Ae/Be and T-Tauri stars obtained within the Herschel key programme DIGIT. In this paper we focus on the 69mu emission band of the crystalline silicate forsterite. Aims: This work provides an overview of the 69mu forsterite bands in the DIGIT sample. We aim to derive the temperature and composition of the forsterite grains. With this information, constraints can be placed on the spatial distribution of the forsterite in the disk and its formation history. Methods: Position and shape of the 69mu band are used…
(abridged) Most Class II sources (of nearby star forming regions) are surrounded by disks with weak millimeter continuum emission. These "faint" disks may hold clues to the disk dissipation mechanism. We attempt to determine the characteristics of such faint disks around classical T Tauri stars, and to explore the link between disk faintness and the proposed disk dispersal mechanisms (accretion, viscous spreading, photo-evaporation, planetary system formation). We performed high-angular resolution (0.3") imaging of a small sample of disks (9 sources) with low 1.3mm continuum flux (mostly <30 m…
We introduce a new modelling framework called FLiTs to simulate infrared line emission spectra from protoplanetary discs. This paper focuses on the mid-IR spectral region between 9.7 um to 40 um for T Tauri stars. The generated spectra contain several tens of thousands of molecular emission lines of H2O, OH, CO, CO2, HCN, C2H2, H2 and a few other molecules, as well as the forbidden atomic emission lines of SI, SII, SIII, SiII, FeII, NeII, NeIII, ArII and ArIII. In contrast to previously published works, we do not treat the abundances of the molecules nor the temperature in the disc as free par…
We present high resolution H-band polarized intensity (PI; FWHM = 0."1: 14 AU) and L'-band imaging data (FWHM = 0."11: 15 AU) of the circumstellar disk around the weak-lined T Tauri star PDS 70 in Centaurus at a radial distance of 28 AU (0."2) up to 210 AU (1."5). In both images, a giant inner gap is clearly resolved for the first time, and the radius of the gap is ~70 AU. Our data show that the geometric center of the disk shifts by ~6 AU toward the minor axis. We confirm that the brown dwarf companion candidate to the north of PDS 70 is a background star based on its proper motion. As a resu…
We present results from a spectroscopic Spitzer and Herschel mid-to-far-infrared study of the circumbinary disk orbiting the evolved (age ~12-23 Myr) close binary T Tauri system V4046 Sgr. Spitzer IRS spectra show emission lines of [Ne II], H_2 S(1), CO_2 and HCN, while Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectra reveal emission from [O I], OH, and tentative detections of H_2O and high-J transitions of CO. We measure [Ne III]/[Ne II] < 0.13, which is comparable to other X-ray/EUV luminous T Tauri stars that lack jets. We use the H_2 S(1) line luminosity to estimate the gas mass in the relatively warm surf…
We present our investigation of 319 Class II objects in Orion A observed by $Spitzer$/IRS. We also present the follow-up observation of 120 of these Class II objects in Orion A from IRTF/SpeX. We measure continuum spectral indices, equivalent widths, and integrated fluxes that pertain to disk structure and dust composition from IRS spectra of Class II objects in Orion A. We estimate mass accretion rates using hydrogen recombination lines in the SpeX spectra of our targets. Utilizing these properties, we compare the distributions of the disk and dust properties of Orion A disks to those of Taur…
We report sensitive Spitzer IRS spectroscopy in the 10-20 micron region of TW Hya, a nearby T Tauri star. The unusual spectral energy distribution of the source, that of a transition object, indicates that the circumstellar disk in the system has experienced significant evolution, possibly as a result of planet formation. The spectrum we measure is strikingly different from that of other classical T Tauri stars reported in the literature, displaying no strong emission features of water, acetylene, or HCN. The difference indicates that the inner planet formation region (within 5 AU) of the gase…
The formation scenario of a gapped disk, i.e., transitional disk, and its asymmetry is still under debate. Proposed scenarios such as disk-planet interaction, photoevaporation, grain growth, anticyclonic vortex, eccentricity, and their combinations would result in different radial distributions of the gas and the small (sub-$μ$m size) and large (millimeter size) dust grains as well as asymmetric structures in a disk. Optical/near-infrared (NIR) imaging observations and (sub-)millimeter interferometry can trace small and large dust grains, respectively; therefore multi-wavelength observations c…
(Abridged) The detection of forming planets in disks around young stars remains elusive, and state-of-the-art observational techniques provide somewhat ambiguous results. It has been reported that the pre-transitional T Tauri star LkCa 15 could host three planets; candidate planet b is in the process of formation, as inferred from its H$α$ emission. However, a more recent work casts doubts on the planetary nature of the previous detections. We have observed LkCa 15 with ISIS/WHT. The spectrograph's slit was oriented towards the last reported position of LkCa 15 b (parallel direction) and 90deg…
We analyze samples of Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra of T Tauri stars in the Ophiuchus, Taurus, and Chamaeleon I star-forming regions, whose median ages lie in the <1 to 2 Myr range. The median mid-infrared spectra of objects in these three regions are similar in shape, suggesting, on average, similar disk structures. When normalized to the same stellar luminosity, the medians follow each other closely, implying comparable mid-infrared excess emission from the circumstellar disks. We use the spectral index between 13 and 31 micron and the equivalent width of the 10 micron silicate…
Our Spitzer IRS observation of the infrared companion Glass Ib revealed fine structure emission with high ionization ([NeIII]/[NeII]=2.1 and [SIV]/[SIII]=0.6) that indicates the gas is likely illuminated by hard radiation. While models suggest extreme ultraviolet radiation could be present in T Tauri stars (Hollenbach & Gorti 2009 and references therein), this is the first detection of [SIV] and such a high [NeIII]/[NeII] ratio in a young star. We also find that Glass Ib displays the molecules HCN, CO2, and H2O in emission. Here we investigate the Glass I binary system and consider possible me…
Variability is a defining characteristic of young low-mass stars that are still accreting material from their primordial protoplanetary disk. Here we present the largest \textit{HST} variability study of Classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) to date. For 5 of these objects, we obtained a total of 25 spectra with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Mass accretion rates and the fraction of the star covered by accretion columns (i.e., filling factors) were inferred using 1D NLTE physical models whose parameters were fit within a Bayesian framework. On week long timescales, typical changes i…
We present the largest survey of spectrally resolved mid-infrared water emission to date, with spectra for 11 disks obtained with the Michelle and TEXES spectrographs on Gemini North. Water emission is detected in 6 of 8 disks around classical T Tauri stars. Water emission is not detected in the transitional disks SR 24 N and SR 24 S, in spite of SR 24 S having pre-transitional disk properties like DoAr 44, which does show water emission (Salyk et al. 2015). With R~100,000, the TEXES water spectra have the highest spectral resolution possible at this time, and allow for detailed lineshape anal…
Investigating the molecular gas in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks provides insight into how the molecular disk environment changes during the transition from primordial to debris disk systems. We conduct a small survey of molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) fluorescent emission, using 14 well-studied Classical T Tauri stars at two distinct dust disk evolutionary stages, to explore how the structure of the inner molecular disk changes as the optically thick warm dust dissipates. We simulate the observed HI-Lyman $α$-pumped H$_2$ disk fluorescence by creating a 2D radiative transfer model that…
The gas temperature structure of protoplanetary disks is a key ingredient for interpreting various disk observations and for quantifying the subsequent evolution of these systems. The comparison of low- and mid-$J$ CO rotational lines is a powerful tool to assess the temperature gradient in the warm molecular layer of disks. Spectrally resolved high-$J$ ($J_{\rm u} > 14$) CO lines probe intermediate distances and heights from the star that are not sampled by (sub-)millimeter CO spectroscopy. This paper presents new {\it Herschel}/HIFI and archival PACS observations of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO and …
