We present a survey of optical O i emission at 6300 toward 65 T Tauri stars at the spectral resolution of ∼7 km s−1. Past work identified a highly blueshifted velocity component (HVC) tracing ...microjets and a less blueshifted low-velocity component (LVC) attributed to winds. We focus here on the LVC kinematics to investigate links between winds, jets, accretion, and disk dispersal. We track the behavior of four types of LVC components: a broad and a narrow component ("BC" and "NC," respectively) in LVCs that are decomposed into two Gaussians which typically have an HVC, and single-Gaussian LVC profiles separated into those that have an HVC ("SCJ") and those that do not ("SC"). The LVC centroid velocities and line widths correlate with the HVC EW and accretion luminosity, suggesting that LVC/winds and HVC/jets are kinematically linked and connected to accretion. The deprojected HVC velocity correlates with accretion luminosity, showing that faster jets come with higher accretion. BC and NC kinematics correlate, and their blueshifts are maximum at ∼35°, suggesting a conical wind geometry with this semi-opening angle. Only SCs include n13-31 up to ∼3, and their properties correlate with this infrared index, showing that O i emission recedes to larger radii as the inner dust is depleted, tracing less dense/hot gas and a decrease in wind velocity. Altogether, these findings support a scenario where optically thick, accreting inner disks launch radially extended MHD disk winds that feed jets, and where inner disk winds recede to larger radii and jets disappear in concert with dust depletion.
Rings are the most frequently revealed substructure in Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) dust observations of protoplanetary disks, but their origin is still hotly debated. In this ...paper, we identify dust substructures in 12 disks and measure their properties to investigate how they form. This subsample of disks is selected from a high-resolution (∼0 12) ALMA 1.33 mm survey of 32 disks in the Taurus star-forming region, which was designed to cover a wide range of brightness and to be unbiased to previously known substructures. While axisymmetric rings and gaps are common within our sample, spiral patterns and high-contrast azimuthal asymmetries are not detected. Fits of disk models to the visibilities lead to estimates of the location and shape of gaps and rings, the flux in each disk component, and the size of the disk. The dust substructures occur across a wide range of stellar mass and disk brightness. Disks with multiple rings tend to be more massive and more extended. The correlation between gap locations and widths, the intensity contrast between rings and gaps, and the separations of rings and gaps could all be explained if most gaps are opened by low-mass planets (super-Earths and Neptunes) in the condition of low disk turbulence ( = 10−4). The gap locations are not well correlated with the expected locations of CO and N2 ice lines, so condensation fronts are unlikely to be a universal mechanism to create gaps and rings, though they may play a role in some cases.
We present a high-resolution (∼0 12, ∼16 au, mean sensitivity of 50 Jy beam−1 at 225 GHz) snapshot survey of 32 protoplanetary disks around young stars with spectral type earlier than M3 in the ...Taurus star-forming region using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. This sample includes most mid-infrared excess members that were not previously imaged at high spatial resolution, excluding close binaries and objects with high extinction, thereby providing a more representative look at disk properties at 1-2 Myr. Our 1.3 mm continuum maps reveal 12 disks with prominent dust gaps and rings, 2 of which are around primary stars in wide binaries, and 20 disks with no resolved features at the observed resolution (hereafter smooth disks), 8 of which are around the primary star in wide binaries. The smooth disks were classified based on their lack of resolved substructures, but their most prominent property is that they are all compact with small effective emission radii (Reff,95% 50 au). In contrast, all disks with Reff,95% of at least 55 au in our sample show detectable substructures. Nevertheless, their inner emission cores (inside the resolved gaps) have similar peak brightness, power-law profiles, and transition radii to the compact smooth disks, so the primary difference between these two categories is the lack of outer substructures in the latter. These compact disks may lose their outer disk through fast radial drift without dust trapping, or they might be born with small sizes. The compact dust disks, as well as the inner disk cores of extended ring disks, that look smooth at the current resolution will likely show small-scale or low-contrast substructures at higher resolution. The correlation between disk size and disk luminosity correlation demonstrates that some of the compact disks are optically thick at millimeter wavelengths.
Abstract
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and photoevaporative winds are thought to play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of planet-forming disks. Here, we analyze high-resolution (Δ
v
∼ 7 ...km s
−1
) optical spectra from a sample of 115 T Tauri stars in the ∼5–10 Myr Upper Sco association and focus on the O
i
λ
6300 and H
α
lines to trace disk winds and accretion, respectively. Our sample covers a large range of spectral types and we divide it into warm (G0-M3) and cool (later than M3) to facilitate comparison with younger regions. We detect the O
i
λ
6300 line in 45 out of 87 Upper Sco sources with protoplanetary disks and 32 out of 45 are accreting based on H
α
profiles and equivalent widths. All O
i
λ
6300 Upper Sco profiles have low-velocity (centroid < −30 km s
−1
; low-velocity component (LVC)) emission and most (36/45) can be fit by a single Gaussian (SC). The single-component (SC) distribution of centroid velocities and FWHMs is consistent with MHD disk winds. We also find that the Upper Sco sample follows the same accretion luminosity−LVC O
i
λ
6300 relation and the same anticorrelation between SC FWHM and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer W3-W4 spectral indices as the younger samples. These results indicate that accretion and disk winds coevolve and that, as inner disks clear out, wind emission arises further away from the star. Finally, our large spectral range coverage reveals that cool stars have larger FWHMs normalized by stellar mass than warm stars indicating that O
i
λ
6300 emission arises closer in toward lower-mass/lower luminosity stars.
We analyze high-resolution (Δv ≤ 10 km s−1) optical and infrared spectra covering the O i λ6300 and Ne ii 12.81 m lines from a sample of 31 disks in different evolutionary stages. Following work at ...optical wavelengths, we use Gaussian profiles to fit the Ne ii lines and classify them into high-velocity component (HVC) or low-velocity component (LVC) if the line centroid is more or less blueshifted than 30 km s−1 with respect to the stellar radial velocity, respectively. Unlike for the O i, where an HVC is often accompanied by an LVC, all 17 sources with an Ne ii detection have either an HVC or an LVC. Ne ii HVCs are preferentially detected toward high accretors ( M yr−1), while LVCs are found in sources with low , low O i luminosity, and large infrared spectral index (n13-31). Interestingly, the Ne ii and O i LVC luminosities display an opposite behavior with n13-31: as the inner dust disk depletes (higher n13-31), the Ne ii luminosity increases while the O i weakens. The Ne ii and O i HVC profiles are generally similar, with centroids and FWHMs showing the expected behavior from shocked gas in microjets. In contrast, the Ne ii LVC profiles are typically more blueshifted and narrower than the O i profiles. The FWHM and centroid versus disk inclination suggest that the Ne ii LVC predominantly traces unbound gas from a slow, wide-angle wind that has not lost completely the Keplerian signature from its launching region. We sketch an evolutionary scenario that could explain the combined O i and Ne ii results and includes screening of hard (∼1 keV) X-rays in inner, mostly molecular, MHD winds.
Abstract
The detection of emission lines associated with accretion processes is a direct method for studying how and where gas giant planets form, how young planets interact with their natal ...protoplanetary disk, and how volatile delivery to their atmosphere takes place. H
α
(
λ
= 0.656
μ
m) is expected to be the strongest accretion line observable from the ground with adaptive optics systems, and is therefore the target of specific high-contrast imaging campaigns. We present MagAO-X and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data obtained to search for H
α
emission from the previously detected protoplanet candidate orbiting AS209, identified through Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations. No signal was detected at the location of the candidate, and we provide limits on its accretion. Our data would have detected an H
α
emission with
F
H
α
> 2.5 ± 0.3 × 10
−16
erg s
−1
cm
−2
, a factor 6.5 lower than the HST flux measured for PDS70 b. The flux limit indicates that if the protoplanet is currently accreting it is likely that local extinction from circumstellar and circumplanetary material strongly attenuates its emission at optical wavelengths. In addition, the data reveal the first image of the jet north of the star as expected from previous detections of forbidden lines. Finally, this work demonstrates that current ground-based observations with extreme adaptive optics systems can be more sensitive than space-based observations, paving the way to the hunt for small planets in reflected light with extremely large telescopes.
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and photoevaporative winds are thought to play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of planet-forming disks. We report the first high-resolution (Δv ∼ 6 km s−1) ...analysis of S ii λ4068, O i λ5577, and O i λ6300 lines from a sample of 48 T Tauri stars. Following Simon et al. we decompose them into three kinematic components: a high-velocity component (HVC) associated with jets, and low-velocity narrow (LVC-NC) and broad (LVC-BC) components. We confirm previous findings that many LVCs are blueshifted by more than 1.5 km s−1 and thus most likely trace a slow disk wind. We further show that the profiles of individual components are similar in the three lines. We find that most LVC-NC and LVC-BC line ratios are explained by thermally excited gas with temperatures between 5000 and 10,000 K and electron densities of ∼107-108 cm−3. The HVC ratios are better reproduced by shock models with a pre-shock H number density of ∼106-107 cm−3. Using these physical properties, we estimate for the LVC and for the HVC. In agreement with previous work, the mass carried out in jets is modest compared to the accretion rate. With the likely assumption that the LVC-NC wind height is larger than the LVC-BC, the LVC-BC is found to be higher than the LVC-NC. These results suggest that most of the mass loss occurs close to the central star, within a few au, through an MHD-driven wind. Depending on the wind height, MHD winds might play a major role in the evolution of the disk mass.
We present the first characterization of the excess continuum emission of accreting T Tauri stars between optical and near-infrared wavelengths. With nearly simultaneous spectra from 0.48 to 2.4 ...Delta *mm acquired with HIRES and NIRSPEC on Keck and SpeX on the Infrared Telescope Facility, we find significant excess continuum emission throughout this region, including the I, Y, and J bands, which are usually thought to diagnose primarily photospheric emission. The IYJ excess correlates with the excess in the V band, attributed to accretion shocks in the photosphere, and the excess in the K band, attributed to dust in the inner disk near the dust sublimation radius, but it is too large to be an extension of the excess from these sources. The spectrum of the excess emission is broad and featureless, suggestive of blackbody radiation with a temperature between 2200 and 5000 K. The luminosity of the IYJ excess is comparable to the accretion luminosity inferred from modeling the blue and ultraviolet excess emission and may require reassessment of disk accretion rates. The source of the IYJ excess is unclear. In stars of low accretion rate, the size of the emitting region is consistent with cooler material surrounding small hot accretion spots in the photosphere. However, for stars with high accretion rates, the projected area is comparable to or exceeds that of the stellar surface. We suggest that at least some of the IYJ excess emission arises in the dust-free gas inside the dust sublimation radius in the disk.
We analyze the accretion properties of 21 low-mass T Tauri stars using a data set of contemporaneous near-UV (NUV) through optical observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging ...Spectrograph and the ground-based Small and Medium Aperture Research Telescope System, a unique data set because of the nearly simultaneous broad wavelength coverage. Our data set includes accreting T Tauri stars in Taurus, Chamaeleon I, eta Chamaeleon, and the TW Hydra Association. For each source we calculate the accretion rate (M) by fitting the NUV and optical excesses above the photosphere, produced in the accretion shock, introducing multiple accretion components characterized by a range in energy flux (or density) for the first time. This treatment is motivated by models of the magnetospheric geometry and accretion footprints, which predict that high-density, low filling factor accretion spots coexist with low-density, high filling factor spots. By fitting the UV and optical spectra with multiple accretion components, we can explain excesses which have been observed in the near-IR. Comparing our estimates of M to previous estimates, we find some discrepancies; however, they may be accounted for when considering assumptions for the amount of extinction and variability in optical spectra. Therefore, we confirm many previous estimates of the accretion rate. Finally, we measure emission line luminosities from the same spectra used for the M estimates, to produce correlations between accretion indicators (H beta , Ca II K, C II, and Mg II) and accretion properties obtained simultaneously.
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