Probing Magnetic Fields in Protoplanetary Disk Atmospheres through Polarized Optical/IR Light Scattered by Aligned Grains
Haifeng Yang, Zhi-Yun Li
备注：
Accepted for publication on AJ. Major revision compared with the first version. Implications for observations are discussed. 21 pages (13 pages in the main text), 21 figures (14 in the main text)
Magnetic fields play essential roles in protoplanetary disks. Magnetic fields in the disk atmosphere are of particular interest, as they are connected to the wind-launching mechanism. In this work, we study the polarization of the light scattered off of magnetically aligned grains in the disk atmosphere, focusing on the deviation of the polarization orientation from the canonical azimuthal direction, which may be detectable in near-IR polarimetry with instruments such as VLT/SPHERE. We show with a simple disk model that the polarization can even be oriented along the radial (rather than azimuthal) direction, especially in highly inclined disks with toroidally dominated magnetic fields. This polarization reversal is caused by the anisotropy in the polarizibility of aligned grains and is thus a telltale sign of such grains. We show that the near-IR light is scattered mostly by $μ$m-sized grains or smaller at the $τ=1$ surface and such grains can be magnetically aligned if they contain superparamagnetic inclusions. For comparison with observations, we generate synthetic maps of the ratios of $U_ϕ/I$ and $Q_ϕ/I$, which can be used to infer the existence of (magnetically) aligned grains through a negative $Q_ϕ$ (polarization reversal) and/or a significant level of $U_ϕ/I$. We show that two features observed in the existing data, an asymmetric distribution of $U_ϕ$ with respect to the disk minor axis and a spatial distribution of $U_ϕ$ that is predominantly positive or negative, are incompatible with scattering by spherical grains in an axisymmetric disk. They provide indirect evidences for scattering by aligned non-spherical grains.
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…
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. …
Recent imaging of protoplanetary disks with high resolution and contrast have revealed a striking variety of substructure. Of particular interest are cases where near-infrared scattered light images show evidence for low-intensity annular "gaps." The origins of such structures are still uncertain, but the interaction of the gas disk with planets is a common interpretation. We study the impact that the evolution of the solid material can have on the observable properties of disks in a simple scenario without any gravitational or hydrodynamical disturbances to the gas disk structure. Even with a…
Context: Vertically hydrostatic protoplanetary disk models are based on the assumption that the main heating source, stellar irradiation, does not vary much with time. However, it is known that accreting young stars are variable sources of radiation. This is particularly evident for outbursting sources such as EX Lupi and FU Orionis stars. Aim: We investigate how such outbursts affect the vertical structure of the outer regions of the protoplanetary disk, in particular their appearance in scattered light at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Methods: We employ the 3D FARGOCA radiation-hydr…
Azimuthally asymmetric structures have been discovered in millimeter continuum emission from many protoplanetary disks. One hypothesis is that they are vortices produced by the Rossby wave instability, for example at edges of planet-opened gaps or deadzones. Confirming the vortex nature of these structures will have profound implications to planet formation. One way to test the hypothesis is to compare the observed morphology of vortex candidates in near-infrared scattered light with theoretical expectations. To this end, we synthesize the appearance of vortices in H-band polarized light by co…
We study scattered light properties of protoplanetary discs at near-infrared wavelengths for various dust size and structure by performing radiative transfer simulations. We show that different dust structures might be probed by measuring disk polarisation fraction as long as the dust radius is larger than the wavelength. When the radius is larger than the wavelength, disc scattered light will be highly polarised for highly porous dust aggregates, whereas more compact dust structure tends to show low polarisation fraction. Next, roles of monomer radius and fractal dimension for scattered light…
The variety of observed protoplanetary disks in polarimetric light motivates a taxonomical study to constrain their evolution and establish the current framework of this type of observations. We classified 58 disks with available polarimetric observations into six major categories (Ring, Spiral, Giant, Rim, Faint, and Small disks) based on their appearance in scattered light. We re-calculated the stellar and disk properties from the newly available GAIA DR2 and related these properties with the disk categories. More than a half of our sample shows disk sub-structures. For the remaining sources…
Turbulence is the dominant source of collisional velocities for grains with a wide range of sizes in protoplanetary disks. So far, only Kolmogorov turbulence has been considered for calculating grain collisional velocities, despite the evidence that turbulence in protoplanetary disks may be non-Kolmogorov. In this work, we present calculations of grain collisional velocities for arbitrary turbulence models characterized by power-law spectra and determined by three dimensionless parameters: the slope of the kinetic energy spectrum, the slope of the auto-correlation time, and the Reynolds number…
Probing dust properties through polarized scattered-light images of a sample of ring-shaped protoplanetary disks
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学）；Astronomy Department, University of California Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校天文学系）；Department of Earth Science and Astronomy, The University of Tokyo（东京大学地球科学和天文系）；School of Natural Sciences, Center for Astronomy, University of Galway（戈尔韦大学自然科学学院天文学中心）
The investigation of polarized light of protoplanetary disks is key for constraining the dust properties, disk morphology and embedded magnetic fields. However, different polarization mechanisms and the diversity of dust grain shapes and compositions lead to ambiguities in the polarization pattern. The so-called "self-scattering" of thermal, re-emitted radiation in the infrared and mm/submm is discussed as a major polarization mechanism. If the net flux of the radiation field is in radial direction, it is commonly assumed that the polarization pattern produced by scattering in a protoplanetary…
Dust evolution in protoplanetary disks from small dust grains to pebbles is key to the planet formation process. The gas in protoplanetary disks should influence the vertical distribution of small dust grains ($\sim$1 $μm$) in the disk.Utilizing archival near-infrared polarized light and millimeter observations, we can measure the scale height and the flare parameter $β$ of the small dust grain scattering surface and $^{12}$CO gas emission surface for three protoplanetary disks IM Lup, HD 163296, and HD 97048 (CU Cha). For two systems, IM Lup and HD 163296, the $^{12}$CO gas and small dust gra…
One of the main problems in planet formation, hampering the growth of small dust to planetesimals, is the so-called radial-drift barrier. Pebbles of cm to dm sizes are thought to drift radially across protoplanetary discs faster than they can grow to larger sizes, and thus to be lost to the star. To overcome this barrier, drift has to be slowed down or stopped, or growth needs to be sped up. In this paper, we investigate the role of porosity on both drift and growth. We have developed a model for porosity evolution during grain growth and applied it to numerical simulations of protoplanetary d…
Combining 3D smoothed-particle hydrodynamics and Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations, we examine the morphology of spiral density waves induced by gravitational instability (GI) in protoplanetary disks, as they would appear in direct images at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. We find that systems with disk-to-star-mass ratios q=M_disk/M_star that are ~0.25 or more may produce prominent spiral arms in NIR imaging, remarkably resembling features observed in the MWC 758 and SAO 206462 systems. The contrast of GI-induced arms at NIR wavelengths can reach a factor of ~3, and their pitch ang…
The formation of planetesimals requires that primordial dust grains grow from micron- to km-sized bodies. Dust traps caused by gas pressure maxima have been proposed as regions where grains can concentrate and grow fast enough to form planetesimals, before radially migrating onto the star. We report new VLA Ka & Ku observations of the protoplanetary disk around the Herbig Ae/Be star MWC 758. The Ka image shows a compact emission region in the outer disk indicating a strong concentration of big dust grains. Tracing smaller grains, archival ALMA data in band 7 continuum shows extended disk emiss…
Spatially resolved observations of protoplanetary discs are revealing that their inner regions can be warped or broken from the outer disc. A few mechanisms are known to lead to such 3D structures; among them, the interaction with a stellar companion. We perform a 3D SPH simulation of a circumbinary disc misaligned by $60^\circ$ with respect to the binary orbital plane. The inner disc breaks from the outer regions, precessing as a rigid body, and leading to a complex evolution. As the inner disc precesses, the misalignment angle between the inner and outer discs varies by more than $100^\circ$…
Dust grains emit intrinsic polarized emission if they are elongated and aligned in the same direction. The direction of the grain alignment is determined by external forces, such as magnetic fields, radiation, and gas flow against the dust grains. In this letter, we apply the concept of the grain alignment by gas flow, which is called mechanical alignment, to the situation of a protoplanetary disk. We assume that grains have a certain helicity, which results in the alignment with the minor axis parallel to the grain velocity against the ambient disk gas and discuss the morphology of polarizati…
One of the striking discoveries of protoplanetary disc research in recent years are the spiral arms seen in several transitional discs in polarised scattered light. An interesting interpretation of the observed spiral features is that they are density waves launched by one or more embedded (proto-)planets in the disc. In this paper we investigate whether planets can be held responsible for the excitation mechanism of the observed spirals. We use locally isothermal hydrodynamic simulations as well as analytic formulae to model the spiral waves launched by planets. Then H-band scattered light im…
High-resolution imaging reveals a large morphological variety of protoplanetary disks. To date, no constraints on their global evolution have been found from this census. An evolutionary classification of disks was proposed based on their IR spectral energy distribution, with the Group I sources showing a prominent cold component ascribed to an earlier stage of evolution than Group II. Disk evolution can be constrained from the comparison of disks with different properties. A first attempt of disk taxonomy is now possible thanks to the increasing number of high-resolution images of Herbig Ae/B…
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…
Debris disks are classically considered to be gas-less systems, but recent (sub)millimeter observations have detected tens of those with rich gas content. The origin of the gas component remains unclear; namely, it can be protoplanetary remnants and/or secondary products deriving from large bodies. In order to be protoplanetary in origin, the gas component of the parental protoplanetary disk is required to survive for $\gtrsim10{\,\rm Myr}$. However, previous models predict $\lesssim 10{\,\rm Myr}$ lifetimes because of efficient photoevaporation at the late stage of disk evolution. In the pres…
Direct imaging observations of protoplanetary disks at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths have revealed structures of potentially planetary origin. Investigations of observational signatures from planet-induced features have so far focused on disks viewed face-on. Combining 3D hydrodynamics and radiative transfer simulations, we study how the appearance of the spiral arms and the gap produced in a disk by a companion varies with inclination and position angle in NIR scattered light. We compare the cases of a $3M_{\rm J}$ and a $0.1M_{\odot}$ companion, and make predictions suitable for testing wi…
Fast inward migration of planetary cores is a common problem in the current planet formation paradigm. Even though dust is ubiquitous in protoplanetary disks, its dynamical role in the migration history of planetary embryos has not been assessed. In this Letter, we show that the scattered pebble-flow induced by a low-mass planetary embryo leads to an asymmetric dust-density distribution that is able to exert a net torque. By analyzing a large suite of multifluid hydrodynamical simulations addressing the interaction between the disk and a low-mass planet on a fixed circular orbit, and neglectin…
Over the last few years instruments such as VLT/SPHERE and Subaru/HiCIAO have been able to take detailed scattered light images of protoplanetary discs. Many of the features observed in these discs are generally suspected to be caused by an embedded planet, and understanding the cause of these features requires detailed theoretical models. In this work we investigate disc-planet interactions using the PLUTO code to run 2D and 3D hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary discs with embedded 30 M$_{\oplus}$ and 300 M$_{\oplus}$ planets on both an inclined ($i = 2.86^{\circ}$) and non-inclined o…
Recent VLT/SPHERE near-infrared imaging observations revealed two spiral arms with a near m=2 rotational symmetry in the protoplanetary disk around the ~1.7 solar mass Herbig star HD 100453. A ~0.3 solar mass M dwarf companion, HD 100453 B, was also identified at a projected separation of 120 AU from the primary. In this Letter, we carry out hydrodynamic and radiative transfer simulations to examine the scattered light morphology of the HD 100453 disk as perturbed by the companion on a circular and coplanar orbit. We find that the companion truncates the disk at ~45 AU in scattered light image…
There is evidence that protoplanetary disks--including the protosolar one--contain crystalline dust grains on spatial scales where the dust temperature is lower than the threshold value for their formation through thermal annealing of amorphous interstellar silicates. We interpret these observations in terms of an extended, magnetocentrifugally driven disk wind that transports grains from the inner disk--where they are thermally processed by the stellar radiation after being uplifted from the disk surfaces--to the outer disk regions. For any disk radius $r$ there is a maximum grain size $a_\ma…
During the past five years, the Spitzer Space Telescope and improved ground-based facilities have enabled a huge increase in the number of circumstellar disks, around young stars of Solar mass or smaller, in which the composition of the solid component has been studied with complete mid-infrared spectra. With these samples we can assess observationally the evolution of dust through the planet-forming era, in parallel with the evolution of the composition and structure of protoplanetary disks. Here we will review the progress in this endeavour, with emphasis on objects in nearby associations an…
We present a self-consistent model of a protoplanetary disk: 'ANDES' ('AccretioN disk with Dust Evolution and Sedimentation'). ANDES is based on a flexible and extendable modular structure that includes 1) a 1+1D frequency-dependent continuum radiative transfer module, 2) a module to calculate the chemical evolution using an extended gas-grain network with UV/X-ray-driven processes surface reactions, 3) a module to calculate the gas thermal energy balance, and 4) a 1+1D module that simulates dust grain evolution. For the first time, grain evolution and time-dependent molecular chemistry are in…
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 new ATCA observations at 3.3 mm of 27 young stellar objects in the rho-Oph young cluster. 25 of these sources have been detected. We analyze the sub-millimeter and millimeter SED for a subsample of 17 isolated class II protoplanetary disks and derive constraints on the grain growth and total dust mass in the disk outer regions. All the disks in our sample show a mm slope of the SED which is significantly shallower than the one observed for the ISM at these long wavelengths. This indicates that 1) class II disks in Ophiuchus host grains grown to mm/cm-sizes in their outer regions, 2)…
Three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical simulations have demonstrated that the structure of a protoplanetary disc may be strongly affected by a planet orbiting in a plane that is misaligned to the disc. When the planet is able to open a gap, the disc is separated into an inner, precessing disc and an outer disc with a warp. In this work, we compute infrared scattered light images to investigate the observational consequences of such an arrangement. We find that an inner disc misaligned by a less than a degree to the outer disc is indeed able to cast a shadow at larger radii. In our simulation…
In protoplanetary discs, the coagulation of dust grains into large aggregates still remains poorly understood. Grain porosity appears to be a promising solution to allow the grains to survive and form planetesimals. Furthermore, dust shattering has generally been considered to come only from collisional fragmentation; however, a new process was recently introduced, rotational disruption. We wrote a one-dimensional code that models the growth and porosity evolution of grains as they drift to study their final outcome when the two shattering processes are included. When simulating the evolution …
We discovered a new growth mode of dust grains to km-sized bodies in protoplanetary disks that evolve by viscous accretion and magnetically driven disk winds (MDWs). We solved an approximate coagulation equation of dust grains with time-evolving disks that consist of both gas and solid components by a one-dimensional model. With the grain growth, all solid particles initially drift inward toward the central star by the gas drag force. However, the radial profile of gas pressure, $P$, is modified by the MDW that disperses the gas in an inside-out manner. Consequently, a local concentration of s…
Context: While sub-micron- and micron-sized dust grains are generally well mixed with the gas phase in protoplanetary disks, larger grains will be partially decoupled and as a consequence have a different distribution from that of the gas. This has ramifications for predictions of the observability of protoplanetary disks, for which gas-only studies will provide an inaccurate picture. Specifically, criteria for gap opening in the presence of a planet have generally been studied for the gas phase, whereas the situation can be quite different in the dust layer once grains reach mm sizes, which i…
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 …
We present observations of three protoplanetary disks in visible scattered light around M-type stars in the Upper Scorpius OB association using the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The disks around stars 2MASS J16090075-1908526, 2MASS J16142029-1906481 and 2MASS J16123916-1859284 have all been previously detected with ALMA, and 2MASS J16123916-1859284 has never previously been imaged at scattered light wavelengths. We process our images using Reference Differential Imaging, comparing and contrasting three reduction techniques - classical subtraction, Karhunen-Loeve Image Projecti…
We present H-band polarized scattered light imagery and JHK high-contrast spectroscopy of the protoplanetary disk around HD 163296 observed with the HiCIAO and SCExAO/CHARIS instruments at Subaru Observatory. The polarimetric imagery resolve a broken ring structure surrounding HD 163296 that peaks at a distance along the major axis of 0.65 (66 AU) and extends out to 0.98 (100 AU) along the major axis. Our 2011 H-band data exhibit clear axisymmetry, with the NW- and SE- side of the disk exhibiting similar intensities. Our data are clearly different than 2016 epoch H-band observations from VLT/S…
Exploring Polarized Millimeter Emission from Protoplanetary Disks with Irregular Dust Grains
Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学射电天文学与天体物理研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC)（安达卢西亚天体物理研究所）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理研究所）；Nordic Optical Telescope（北欧光学望远镜）
The mechanisms causing millimeter-wave polarization in protoplanetary disks are under debate. To disentangle the polarization mechanisms, we observe the protoplanetary disk around HL Tau at 3.1 mm with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which had polarization detected with CARMA at 1.3 mm. We successfully detect the ring-like azimuthal polarized emission at 3.1 mm. This indicates that dust grains are aligned with the major axis being in the azimuthal direction, which is consistent with the theory of radiative alignment of elongated dust grains, where the major axis of dus…
We apply the theory of radiative torque (RAT) alignment for studying protoplanetary disks around a T-Tauri star and perform 3D radiative transfer calculations to provide the expected maps of polarized radiation to be compared with observations, such as with ALMA. We revisit the issue of grain alignment for large grains expected in the protoplanetary disks and find that mm-sized grains at midplane do not align with the magnetic field as the Larmor precession timescale for such large grains becomes longer than the gaseous damping timescale. Hence, for these grains the RAT theory predicts that th…
Recent observations of protoplanetary discs reveal disc substructures potentially caused by embedded planets. We investigate how the gas surface density in discs changes the observed morphology in scattered light and dust continuum emission. Assuming that disc substructures are due to embedded protoplanets, we combine hydrodynamical modelling with radiative transfer simulations of dusty protoplanetary discs hosting planets. The response of different dust species to the gravitational perturbation induced by a planet depends on the drag stopping time - a function of the generally unknown local g…
It is generally assumed that magnetic fields play an important role in the formation and evolution of protoplanetary disks. One way of observationally constraining magnetic fields is to measure polarized emission and absorption produced by magnetically aligned elongated dust grains. The fact that radiation also becomes linearly polarized by light scattering at optical to millimeter wavelengths complicates magnetic field studies. We characterize the linear polarization of mid-infrared radiation due to scattering of the stellar radiation and dust thermal re-emission radiation (self-scattering). …
Some circumstellar disks are observed to show prominent spiral arms in infrared scattered light or (sub-)millimeter dust continuum. The spirals might be formed from self-gravity, shadows, or planet-disk interactions. Recently, it was hypothesized that massive vortices can drive spiral arms in protoplanetary disks in a way analogous to planets. In this paper, we study the basic properties of vortex-driven spirals by the Rossby Wave Instability in 2D hydrodynamics simulations. We study how the surface density contrast, the number, and the shape of vortex-driven spirals depend on the properties o…
The coagulation of dust particles under the conditions in protoplanetary disks is investigated. The study focuses on the repulsive electrostatic barrier against growth of charged dust grains. Taking into account the photoelectric effect leads to the appearance of a layer at intermediate heights where the dust has a close to zero charge, enabling the dust grains to grow efficiently. An increase in the coagulation rate comes about not only due to the lowering of the Coulomb barrier, but also because of the electrostatic attraction between grains of opposite charge due to the non-zero dispersion …
Observations of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) at sub-mm wavelengths suggest that polarisation is caused by scattering of thermal radiation. Most of the dust models that are used to explain these observations have major drawbacks: They either use much smaller grains than expected from dust evolution models, or result in lower polarisations than observed. We investigate the effect of dust grain porosity on the polarisation due to scattering at sub-mm wavelengths arising from grains of up to mm sizes, as they are expected to be present in the midplane of PPDs. Using the effective medium theory, we …
In this paper, we reexamine the possibility of shear-driven turbulence during sedimentation of dust grains in the protoplanetary disk. The shear-driven turbulence is expected to occur before the onset of the gravitational instability for MMSN model. While according to previous studies without taking account of growth of dust grains, with the larger abundance of dust grains, the gravitational instability is indicated to occur before shear-driven turbulence. In this paper, the case with dust growth is considered, and it is found that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability tends to occur before the gra…
(abridged) In the core accretion scenario for the formation of planetary rocky cores, the first step toward planet formation is the growth of dust grains into larger and larger aggregates and eventually planetesimals. Although dust grains are thought to grow from the submicron sizes typical of interstellar dust to micron size particles in the dense regions of molecular clouds and cores, the growth from micron size particles to pebbles and kilometre size bodies must occur in protoplanetary disks. This step in the formation of planetary systems is the last stage of solids evolution that can be o…
The crucial initial step in planet formation is the agglomeration of micron-sized dust into macroscopic aggregates. This phase is likely to happen very early during the protostellar disc formation, which is characterised by active gas dynamics. We present numerical simulations of protostellar/protoplanetary disc long-term evolution, which includes gas dynamics with self-gravity in the thin-disc limit, and bidisperse dust grain evolution due to coagulation, fragmentation, and drift through the gas. We show that the decrease of the grain size to the disc periphery leads to sharp outer edges in d…
We aim to derive a simple analytic model to understand the essential properties of vertically settling growing dust grains in laminar protoplanetary discs. Separating the vertical dynamics from the motion in the disc midplane, we integrate the equations of motion for both a linear and an exponential grain growth rate. Numerical integrations are performed for more complex growth models. We find that the settling efficiency depends on the value of the dimensionless parameter gamma, which characterises the relative efficiency of grain growth with respect to the gas drag. Since gamma is expected t…
We model substructure in the protoplanetary disks around DoAr 44 and HD 163296 in order to better understand the conditions under which planets may form. We match archival millimeter-wavelength thermal emission against models of the disks' structure that are in radiation balance with the starlight heating and in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium, and then compare to archival polarized scattered near-infrared images of the disks. The millimeter emission arises in the interior, while the scattered near-infrared radiation probes the disks' outer layers. Our best model of the HD 163296 disk has dus…
We present a 1.3 mm continuum survey of protoplanetary disks in the 2-3 Myr old cluster, IC348, with the Submillimeter Array. We observed 85 young stellar objects and detected 10 with 1.3 mm fluxes greater than 2 mJy. The brightest source is a young embedded protostar driving a molecular outflow. The other 9 detections are dusty disks around optically visible stars. Our millimeter flux measurements translate into total disk masses ranging from 2 to 6 Jupiter masses. Each detected disk has strong mid-infrared emission in excess of the stellar photosphere and has Halpha equivalent widths larger …
A pathway to the formation of planetesimals, and eventually giant planets, may occur in concentrations of dust grains trapped in pressure maxima. Dramatic crescent-shaped dust concentrations have been seen in recent radio images at sub-mm wavelengths. These disk asymmetries could represent the initial phases of planet formation in the dust trap scenario, provided that grain sizes are spatially segregated. A testable prediction of azimuthal dust trapping is that progressively larger grains should be more sharply confined and furthermore the trapped grains should follow a distribution that is ma…
We investigate the evolution of grains composed of an ice shell surrounding an olivine core as they pass through a spiral shock in a protoplanetary disk. We use published three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of massive self-gravitating protoplanetary disks to extract the thermodynamics of spiral shocks in the region between 10 and 20 AU from the central star. As the density wave passes, it heats the grains, causing them to lose their ice shell and resulting in a lowering of the grain opacity. In addition, since grains of different sizes will have slightly different temperature…
