Multi-epoch observations have revealed the variability of pre-main sequence stars and/or their environment. Moreover, structures in orbital motion around the central star, resulting from planet-disk interaction, are predicted to cause temporal variations in the brightness distributions of protoplanetary disks. Through repeated observations with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) over nearly two decades, the ESO Archive has become a treasure chest containing high-resolution multi-epoch near- and mid-infrared observations of the potential planet-forming regions in protoplanetary disks. We aim to investigate whether the existing multi-epoch observations provide evidence for the variability of the brightness distributions of the innermost few astronomical units of protoplanetary disks and to quantify any variations detected. We present different approaches to search for evidence of temporal variations based on multi-epoch observations obtained with the VLTI instruments PIONIER, AMBER, and MIDI for 68 pre-main sequence stars. For nine objects in our sample, multi-epoch data obtained using equal baselines are available that allow us to directly detect variations in the visibilities due to temporally variable brightness distributions. Significant variations of the near-infrared visibilities obtained in different epochs with PIONIER and/or AMBER for HD 50138, DX Cha, HD 142527, V856 Sco, HD 163296, and R CrA were found. By estimating the impact of a small variation of the baseline on the measured squared visibilities, we are able to compare the data of another 12 pre-main sequence stars. Thereby, we find evidence for temporal variations of the brightness distribution of one additional object, AK Sco. Besides the two binaries DX Cha and AK Sco, HD 50138 and V856 Sco also show signs of variability caused by variations of asymmetric structures in the brightness distribution.
To understand the chemical composition of planets, it is important to know the chemical composition of the region where they form in protoplanetary disks. Due to its fundamental role in chemical and biological processes, carbon is a key element to trace. We aim to identify the carriers and processes behind the extended NIR flux observed around several Herbig stars. We compare the extended NIR flux from objects in the PIONIER Herbig Ae/Be survey with their flux in the PAH features. HD 100453 is used as a benchmark case to investigate the influence of quantum heated particles, like PAHs or very …
We present a mid-IR interferometric survey of the circumstellar environment of a specific class of post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-AGB) binaries. For this class the presence of a compact dusty disk has been postulated on the basis of various spatially unresolved measurements. Our interferometric survey was performed with the MIDI instrument on the VLTI. In total 19 different systems were observed using variable baseline configurations. Combining all the visibilities at a single wavelength at 10.7 micron, we fitted two parametric models to the data: a uniform disk (UD) and a ring model mimic…
Interferometric molecular line observations toward the 21 μm protoplanetary nebula IRAS 06530-0213
School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学物理学院）；School of physics and astronomy, Yunnan University（云南大学物理与天文学院）；CSST Science Center for the Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Greater Bay Area, Sun Yat-Sen University（中山大学粤港澳大湾区空间科学中心）
Theoretical models of grain growth predict dust properties to change as a function of protoplanetary disk radius, mass, age and other physical conditions. We lay down the methodology for a multi-wavelength analysis of (sub-)mm and cm continuum interferometric observations to constrain self-consistently the disk structure and the radial variation of the dust properties. The computational architecture is massively parallel and highly modular. The analysis is based on the simultaneous fit in the uv-plane of observations at several wavelengths with a model for the disk thermal emission and for the…
We have quantified the potential capabilities of detecting local brightness asymmetries in circumstellar disks with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in the mid-infrared wavelength range. The study is motivated by the need to evaluate theoretical models of planet formation by direct observations of protoplanets at early evolutionary stages, when they are still embedded in their host disk. Up to now, only a few embedded candidate protoplanets have been detected with semi-major axes of 20-50 au. Due to the small angular separation from their central star, only long-baseline interfer…
AB Aur, a Rosetta stone for studies of planet formation (IV): C/O estimates from CS and SO interferometric observations
Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (OAN,IGN)（国家天文台）；Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), INTA-CSIC（天体生物学中心）；Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique（毫米波射电天文学研究所）；Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS（格勒诺布尔行星学与天体物理学研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA)（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität（路德维希-马克西米利安大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）
We present the first observation of a solar prominence at $84-116$ GHz using the high resolution interferometric imaging of ALMA. Simultaneous observations in H$α$ from Białkaw Observatory and with SDO/AIA reveal similar prominence morphology to the ALMA observation. The contribution functions of 3 mm and H$α$ emission are shown to have significant overlap across a range of gas pressures. We estimate the maximum millimetre-continuum optical thickness to be $τ_\mathrm{3mm}\approx 2$, and the brightness temperature from the observed H$α$ intensity. The brightness temperature measured by ALMA is …
We present new photometric data and analysis of the long-duration UBV photoelectric observations for three candidates to protoplanetary objects - F-supergiants with IR-excesses located at large galactic latitudes, IRAS 18095+2704, IRAS 19386+0155, and IRAS 19500-1709. All three stars have revealed quasiperiodic low-amplitude variabilities caused by pulsations observed against the long-term trends of brightnesses. For IRAS 18095+2704=V887 Her we have found a pulsation period of 109 days and a linear trend of brightness under the constant colours if being averaged over the year timescale. The li…
We present a sub-arcsecond resolution survey of the 340 GHz dust continuum emission from 50 nearby protoplanetary disks, based on new and archival observations with the Submillimeter Array. The observed visibility data were modeled with a simple prescription for the radial surface brightness profile. The results were used to extract intuitive, empirical estimates of the emission "size" for each disk, $R_{\rm eff}$, defined as the radius that encircles a fixed fraction of the total continuum luminosity, $L_{\rm mm}$. We find a significant correlation between the sizes and luminosities, such tha…
An interferometric mid-infrared study of the eruptive star binary Z CMa with MATISSE/VLTI. I. Imaging the protoplanetary disks during the 2023 outburst
The surface brightness - color relationship (SBCR) is a poweful tool for determining the angular diameter of stars from photometry. It was for instance used to derive the distance of eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which led to its distance determination with an accuracy of 1%. We calibrate the SBCR for red giant stars in the 2.1 < V-K < 2.5 color range using homogeneous VEGA/CHARA interferometric data secured in the visible domain, and compare it to the relation based on infrared interferometric observations, which were used to derive the distance to the LMC. Observati…
The morphological evolution of dusty disks around young (few Myr-old) stars is pivotal to better understand planet formation. Since both dust grains and the global disk geometry evolve on short timescale, high-resolution imaging of a sample of objects may provide important hints towards such an evolution. We enlarge the sample of protoplanetary disks imaged in polarized light with high-resolution by observing the Herbig Ae/Be stars HD163296, HD141569A, and HD150193A. We integrate our data with previous datasets to paint a larger picture of their morphology. We report a weak detection of the di…
We present the first optical (590--890 nm) imaging polarimetry observations of the pre-transitional protoplanetary disk around the young solar analog LkCa 15, addressing a number of open questions raised by previous studies. We detect the previously unseen far side of the disk gap, confirm the highly eccentric scattered-light gap shape that was postulated from near-infrared imaging, at odds with the symmetric gap inferred from millimeter interferometry. Furthermore, we resolve the inner disk for the first time and trace it out to 30 AU. This new source of scattered light may contribute to the …
The 12CO Gas Structures of Protoplanetary Disks in the Upper Scorpius Region
Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛与史密森天体物理中心）；Joint ALMA Observatory（ALMA联合天文台）；University College Dublin (UCD)（都柏林大学学院）；Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics（马克斯·普朗克地外物理学研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA)（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学天文学系）；Institute of Astronomy, University（大学天文学研究所）
We developed the tool GEM-FIND that allows to constrain the morphology and brightness distribution of objects. The software fits geometrical models to spectrally dispersed interferometric visibility measurements in the N-band using the Levenberg-Marquardt minimization method. Each geometrical model describes the brightness distribution of the object in the Fourier space using a set of wavelength-independent and/or wavelength-dependent parameters. In this contribution we numerically analyze the stability of our nonlinear fitting approach by applying it to sets of synthetic visibilities with sta…
We examine the observational consequences of partial gaps being opened by planets in protoplanetary disks. We model the disk using a static alpha-disk model with detailed radiative transfer, parametrizing the shape and size of the partially cleared gaps based on the results of hydrodynamic simulations. Shadowing and illumination by stellar irradiation at the surface of the gap leads to increased contrast as the gap trough is deepened by shadowing and cooling and the far gap wall is puffed up by illumination and heating. In calculating observables, we find that multiple scattering is important …
We explore whether protoplanetary disks with self-shadowing from puffed up inner rims exhibit observable features in scattered light images. We use both self-consistent hydrostatic equilibrium calculations and parameterized models to produce the vertically puffed up inner rims. We find that, in general, the transition between the shadowed and flared regions occurs in a smooth manner over a broad radius range, and no sudden jump exists at the outer edge of the shadow in either the disk temperature or density structures. As a result, a puffed up rim cannot create sharp ring/arc/spiral-arm-like f…
Binaries with circumbinary disks are commonly found among optically bright post-AGB stars. Although clearly linked to binary interaction processes, the formation, evolution and fate of these disks are still badly understood. Due to their compactness, interferometric techniques are required to resolve them. Here, we discuss our high-quality multiwavelength interferometric data of two prototypical yet very different post-AGB binaries, AC and 89 Herculis, as well as the modeling thereof with radiative transfer models. A detailed account of the data and models of both objects is published in three…
Grain growth in protoplanetary disks is the first step towards the formation of the rocky cores of planets. Models predict that grains grow, migrate, and fragment in the disk and predict varying dust properties as a function of radius, age, and physical properties. High-angular resolution observations at more than one (sub-)mm wavelength are the essential tool for constraining grain growth and migration on the disk midplane. We developed a procedure to analyze self-consistently multi wavelength (sub-)mm continuum interferometric observations of protoplanetary disks to constrain the radial dist…
We investigate the variability of the brightness distribution and the changing density structure of the protoplanetary disk around DR Tau, a classical T Tauri star. DR Tau is known for its peculiar variations from the ultraviolet (UV) to the mid-infrared (MIR). Our goal is to constrain the temporal variation of the disk structure based on photometric and MIR interferometric data. We observed DR Tau with the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument (MIDI) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at three epochs separated by about nine years, two months, respectively. We fit the spectral…
The hydrodynamic models of the protoplanetary disk, which perturbed by the embeded low-mass companion, were calculated by our modification of GADGET-2 code. The cases of circular and eccentric orbits which can be coplanar or slightly inclined to the disk midplane were considered. The column density of test particles on the line of sight between the central star and observer was computed during the simulations. Then the column density of the circumstellar dust was calculated under the assumption that the dust and gas are well mixed with a mass ratio 1 : 100. To research the influence of the dis…
Sky models have been used in the past to calibrate individual low radio frequency telescopes. Here we generalize this approach from a single antenna to a two element interferometer and formulate the problem in a manner to allow us to estimate the flux density of the Sun using the normalized cross-correlations (visibilities) measured on a low resolution interferometric baseline. For wide field-of-view instruments, typically the case at low radio frequencies, this approach can provide robust absolute solar flux calibration for well characterized antennas and receiver systems. It can provide a re…
High-contrast scattered light observations have revealed the surface morphology of several dozens of protoplanetary disks at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Inclined disks offer the opportunity to measure part of the phase function of the dust grains that reside in the disk surface which is essential for our understanding of protoplanetary dust properties and the early stages of planet formation. We aim to construct a method which takes into account how the flaring shape of the scattering surface of an (optically thick) protoplanetary disk projects onto the image plane of the observer. …
An unsolved problem in step-wise core-accretion planet formation is that rapid radial drift in gas-rich protoplanetary disks should drive mm-/meter-sized particles inward to the central star before large bodies can form. One promising solution is to confine solids within small scale structures. Here we investigate dust structures in the (sub)mm continuum emission of four disks (TW Hya, HL Tau, HD 163296 and DM Tau), a sample of disks with the highest spatial resolution ALMA observations to date. We retrieve the surface brightness distributions using synthesized images and fitting visibilities …
We present new determinations of disk surface density, independent of an assumed dust opacity, for a sample of 7 bright, diverse protoplanetary disks using measurements of disk dust lines. We develop a robust method for determining the location of dust lines by modeling disk interferometric visibilities at multiple wavelengths. The disks in our sample have newly derived masses that are 9-27% of their host stellar mass, substantially larger than the minimum mass solar nebula. All are stable to gravitational collapse except for one which approaches the limit of Toomre-Q stability. Our mass estim…
We present H-band VLT/NACO polarized light images of the Herbig Ae/Be star HD169142 probing its protoplanetary disk as close as ~0.1" to the star. Our images trace the face-on disk out to ~1.7" (~250 AU) and reveal distinct sub-structures for the first time: 1) the inner disk (<20 AU) appears to be depleted in scattering dust grains; 2) an unresolved disk rim is imaged at ~25 AU; 3) an annular gap extends from ~40 - 70 AU; 4) local brightness asymmetries are found on opposite sides of the annular gap. We discuss different explanations for the observed morphology among which ongoing planet form…
Modern optical spectrographs and optical interferometers push the limits in the spectral and spatial regime, providing important new tools for the exploration of the universe. In this contribution I outline the complementary nature of spectroscopic & interferometric observations and discuss different strategies for combining such data. Most remarkable, the latest generation of "spectro-interferometric" instruments combine the milliarcsecond angular resolution achievable with interferometry with spectral capabilities, enabling direct constraints on the distribution, density, kinematics, and ion…
Molecular line observations are powerful tracers of the physical and chemical conditions across the different evolutionary stages of star, disk and planet formation. Using the high angular resolution and unprecedented sensitivity of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) there is now a drive to detect small-scale gas structures in protoplanetary disks that can be attributed directly to forming planets. We report high angular resolution ALMA Band 7 observations of sulphur monoxide (SO) in the nearby planet-hosting disk around Herbig star HD 100546. SO is rarely detected in evolved protoplane…
AA Tau, a classical T Tauri star in the Taurus cloud, has been the subject of intensive photometric monitoring for more than two decades due to its quasi-cyclic variation in optical brightness. Beginning in 2011, AA Tau showed another peculiar variation -- its median optical though near-IR flux dimmed significantly, a drop consistent with a 4-mag increase in visual extinction. It has stayed in the faint state since.Here we present 4.7um CO rovibrational spectra of AA Tau over eight epochs, covering an eleven-year time span, that reveal enhanced 12CO and 13CO absorption features in the $J_{\rm …
The formation scenario of a gapped disk, i.e., transitional disk, and its asymmetry is still under debate. Proposed scenarios such as disk-planet interaction, photoevaporation, grain growth, anticyclonic vortex, eccentricity, and their combinations would result in different radial distributions of the gas and the small (sub-$μ$m size) and large (millimeter size) dust grains as well as asymmetric structures in a disk. Optical/near-infrared (NIR) imaging observations and (sub-)millimeter interferometry can trace small and large dust grains, respectively; therefore multi-wavelength observations c…
Turbulence can transport angular momentum in protoplanetary disks and influence the growth and evolution of planets. With spatially and spectrally resolved molecular emission line measurements provided by (sub)millimeter interferometric observations, it is possible to directly measure non-thermal motions in the disk gas that can be attributed to this turbulence. We report a new constraint on the turbulence in the disk around HD 163296, a nearby young A star, determined from ALMA Science Verification observations of four CO emission lines (the CO(3-2), CO(2-1), 13CO(2-1), and C18O(2-1) transiti…
We analyze a sample of 12 HST-selected edge-on protoplanetary disks for which the vertical extent of the emission layers can be constrained directly. We present ALMA high angular resolution continuum images (0.1arcsec) of these disks at two wavelengths, 0.89mm and 2.06mm (respectively ALMA bands 7 and 4), supplemented with archival band 6 data (1.33mm) where available. For most sources, the millimeter continuum emission is more compact than the scattered light, both in the vertical and radial directions. Six sources are resolved along their minor axis in at least one millimeter band, providing…
Investigating Variability in Long-lived Protoplanetary Disks (>10 Myr) using NEOWISE
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati（印度科学教育研究所提鲁帕蒂分校）；Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学天文学研究所）
We present Subaru/SCExAO+CHARIS broadband ($JHK$-band) integral field spectroscopy of HD 34700 A. CHARIS data recover HD 34700 A's disk ring and confirm multiple spirals discovered in Monnier et al. (2019). We set limits on substellar companions of $\sim12\ M_{\rm Jup}$ at $0\farcs3$ (in the ring gap) and $\sim5\ M_{\rm Jup}$ at $0\farcs75$ (outside the ring). The data reveal darkening effects on the ring and spiral, although we do not identify the origin of each feature such as shadows or physical features related to the outer spirals. Geometric albedoes converted from the surface brightness …
Interferometric Survey of Stellar Parameters: Towards homogeneous FGK stars parameters and surface-brightness color relation in the context of PLATO space mission
Laboratoire Lagrange, Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS（拉格朗日实验室，蔚蓝海岸大学，蔚蓝海岸天文台，法国国家科学研究中心）；The CHARA Array of Georgia State University, Mount Wilson Observatory（佐治亚州立大学查拉阵列，威尔逊山天文台）
HD 166191 has been identified by several studies as hosting a rare and extremely bright warm debris disc with an additional outer cool disc component. However, an alternative interpretation is that the star hosts a disc that is currently in transition between a full gas disc and a largely gas-free debris disc. With the help of new optical to mid-IR spectra and Herschel imaging, we argue that the latter interpretation is supported in several ways: i) we show that HD 166191 is co-moving with the ~4 Myr-old Herbig Ae star HD 163296, suggesting that the two have the same age, ii) the disc spectrum…
[Abridged] Planet formation is expected to be enhanced around snowlines in protoplanetary disks, in particular around the water snowline. However, the close proximity of the water snowline to the host star and water in the Earth's atmosphere makes a direct detection of the water snowline in protoplanetary disks challenging. Following earlier work on protostellar envelopes, the aim of this research is to investigate the validity of HCO$^+$ and H$^{13}$CO$^+$, as tracers of the water snowline in protoplanetary disks, as HCO$^+$ is destroyed by gas-phase water. Two small chemical networks are use…
We aim to constrain the structure of the circumstellar material around the post-AGB binary and RV Tauri pulsator AC Her. We want to constrain the spatial distribution of the amorphous as well as of the crystalline dust. We present very high-quality mid-IR interferometric data that were obtained with MIDI/VLTI. We analyse the MIDI data and the full SED, using the MCMax radiative transfer code, to find a good structure model of AC Her's circumbinary disk. We include a grain size distribution and midplane settling of dust self-consistently. The spatial distribution of crystalline forsterite in th…
Circumstellar disks surrounding young stars are known to be the birthplaces of planets, and the innermost astronomical unit is of particular interest. We present new long-baseline spectro-interferometric observations of the HerbigAe star, HR5999, obtained in the H and K bands with the AMBER instrument at the VLTI, and aim to produce near-infrared images at the sub-AU spatial scale. We spatially resolve the circumstellar material and reconstruct images using the MiRA algorithm. In addition, we interpret the interferometric observations using models that assume that the near-infrared excess is d…
The signatures of dust processing and grain growth - related to the formation of rocky planets - are easily seen in mid-infrared spectral features. One important diagnostic tool in this context is the silicate feature in the spectra of young stellar objects (YSO). The low-mass YSO, DG Tau shows unique temporal variations in its silicate feature. We conducted multi-epoch observations of DG Tau with the MID-Infrared Interferometric instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to obtain the spectra of the inner and outer disk regions in order to investigate where the previously reported …
A golden age of interferometry is upon us, allowing observations at smaller scales in greater detail than ever before. In few fields has this had the huge impact as that of planet formation and the study of young stars. State of the art high angular resolution observations provide invaluable insights into a host of physical processed from accretion and sublimation, to disk winds and other outflows. In this thesis, I present the wide-ranging works of my PhD, encompassing both instrumentation and observational science. Instrumentational activities stem from the development of new generation base…
We present ALMA observations of the $98.5~\mathrm{GHz}$ dust continuum and the $\mathrm{^{13}CO}~J = 1 - 0$ and $\mathrm{C^{18}O}~J = 1 - 0$ line emissions of the protoplanetary disk associated with HD~142527. The $98.5~\mathrm{GHz}$ continuum shows a strong azimuthal-asymmetric distribution similar to that of the previously reported $336~\mathrm{GHz}$ continuum, with a peak emission in dust concentrated region in the north. The disk is optically thin in both the $98.5~\mathrm{GHz}$ dust continuum and the $\mathrm{C^{18}O}~J = 1 - 0$ emissions. We derive the distributions of gas and dust surfa…
Recent sub-millimeter observations show non-axisymmetric brightness distributions with a horseshoe-like morphology for more than a dozen transition disks. The most accepted explanation for the observed asymmetries is the accumulation of dust in large-scale vortices. Protoplanetary disks vortices can form by the excitation of Rossby-wave instability in the vicinity of a steep pressure gradient, which can develop at the edges of a giant planet carved gap or at the edges of an accretionally inactive zone. We studied the formation and evolution of vortices formed in these two distinct scenarios by…
We present a suite of ALMA interferometric molecular line and continuum images that elucidate, on linear size scales of $\sim$30--40 AU, the chemical structure of the nearby, evolved, protoplanetary disk orbiting the close binary system V4046 Sgr. The observations were undertaken in the 1.1--1.4 mm wavelength range (ALMA Bands 6 and 7) with antenna configurations involving maximum baselines of several hundred meters, yielding subarcsecond-resolution images in more than a dozen molecular species and isotopologues. Isotopologues of CO and HCN display centrally peaked morphologies of integrated e…
The European FP7 project DIANA has performed a coherent analysis of a large set of observations from protoplanetary disks by means of thermo-chemical disk models. The collected data include extinction-corrected stellar UV and X-ray input spectra (as seen by the disk), photometric fluxes, low and high resolution spectra, interferometric data, emission line fluxes, line velocity profiles and line maps. We define and apply a standardized modelling procedure to simultaneously fit all these data by state-of-the-art modelling codes (ProDiMo, MCFOST, MCMax) which solve the continuum and line radiativ…
We report on Gemini/GNIRS observations of the binary T Tauri system V582 Mon (KH 15D) at three orbital phases. These spectra allow us to untangle five components of the system: the photosphere and magnetosphere of star B, the jet, scattering properties of the ring material, and excess near-IR radiation previously attributed to a possible self-luminous planet. We confirm an early-K subgiant classification for star B and show that the magnetospheric He I emission line is variable, possibly indicating increased mass accretion at certain times. As expected, the H$_2$ emission features associated w…
We have obtained new images of the protoplanetary disk orbiting TW Hya in visible, total intensity light with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), using the newly commissioned BAR5 occulter. These HST/STIS observations achieved an inner working angle $\sim$0.2\arcsec, or 11.7~AU, probing the system at angular radii coincident with recent images of the disk obtained by ALMA and in polarized intensity near-infrared light. By comparing our new STIS images to those taken with STIS in 2000 and with NICMOS in 1998, 2004, and 2005, we demonstrate that T…
The latest observation of HL Tau by ALMA revealed spectacular concentric dust rings in its circumstellar disk. We attempt to explain the multiple ring structure as a consequence of aggregate sintering. Sintering is known to reduce the sticking efficiency of dust aggregates and occurs at temperatures slightly below the sublimation point of their constituent material. We here present a dust growth model incorporating sintering and use it to simulate global dust evolution due to sintering, coagulation, fragmentation, and radial inward drift in a modeled HL Tau disk. We show that aggregates consis…
Using 3D global hydro simulations coupled with radiative transfer calculations, we study the appearance of density waves induced by giant planets in direct imaging observations at near infrared wavelengths. We find that a 6 MJ planet in a typical disk around a 1 M_sun star can produce prominent and detectable spiral arms both interior and exterior to its orbit. The inner arms have (1) two well separated arms in roughly m=2 symmetry, (2) exhibit ~10-15 degrees pitch angles, (3) ~180-270 degrees extension in the azimuthal direction, and (4) ~150% surface brightness enhancement, all broadly consi…
Scattered light images of circumstellar disks play an important role in characterizing the planet forming environments around young stars. The characteristic size of the scattering dust grains can be estimated from the observed brightness asymmetry between the front and back side of the disk, for example using standard Mie theory. However such models often overpredict their brightness by one or two orders of magnitude, and have difficulty explaining very red disk colors. We aim to develop a dust model that explains simultaneously the observed disk surface brightness, colors and asymmetry in sc…
