AB Aurigae Resolved: Evidence for Spiral Structure

Corder, Stuartt; Eisner, J. A.; Sargent, Anneila I.

doi:10.1086/429540

Cited by 60 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Therefore, the molecular gas emission is interpreted as a large rotating disk as previous millimeter observations have shown ( Mannings & Sargent 1997;Corder et al 2005;Piétu et al 2005). Although the bulk motion of the gas disk looks agreeable with rotation, there are also velocity gradients along the minor axis.…”

Section: Molecular Gasmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…We infer a disk ( Beckwith et al 1990), a dust temperature of 26 K derived from the average intensity of the CO (3-2) emission, and a gas-to-dust mass ratio of 100. Assuming the dust continuum emission to be completely optically thin, i.e., n ¼ þ 3 ( Beckwith et al 1990), the dust emissivity index was estimated to be 0.70 from the spectral index n. The disk mass is consistent with the OVRO observations (0.009 M ; Corder et al 2005) but is smaller than the mass P05 obtained by a factor of 2. Note that the value of Piétu et al (2005) derived ( $ 1:4) from their 1.4 and 2.8 mm dust maps is without the optically thin assumption and hence is larger.…”

Section: Disk Mass and Sedmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…Corder et al (2005) obtained images of the 13 CO (1-0) line and 2.7 mm continuum emission at an angular resolution of $2 00 , and images of 12 CO (1-0) and C 18 O (1-0) line emission at lower angular resolutions with the OVRO. After subtracting a best-fit Gaussian source from their 2.7 mm dust continuum map, Corder et al see weak residuals that appear to roughly coincide with the spiral arms seen in the near-IR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Possible Molecular Spiral Arms in the Protoplanetary Disk of AB Aurigae

Lin

Ohashi

Lim

et al. 2006

ApJ

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The circumstellar dust disk of the Herbig Ae star AB Aur has been found to exhibit complex spiral-like structures in the near-IR image obtained with the Subaru Telescope. We present maps of the disk in both 12 and dust continuum at 345 GHz with the Submillimeter Array at an angular resolution of 1B0 ; 0B7 (144 ; 100 AU). The continuum emission traces a dust disk with a central depression and a maximum overall dimension of 450 AU ( FWHM ). This dust disk exhibits several distinct peaks that appear to coincide with bright features in the near-IR image, in particular the brightest inner spiral arm. The CO emission traces a rotating gas disk of size 530 ; 330 AU with a deprojected maximum velocity of 2.8 km s À1 at 450 AU. In contrast with the dust disk, the gas disk exhibits an intensity peak at the stellar position. Furthermore, the CO emission in several velocity channels traces the innermost spiral arm seen in the near-IR. We compare the observed spatial-kinematic structure of the CO emission to a simple model of a disk in Keplerian rotation and find that only the emission tracing the main spiral arm clearly lies outside the confines of our model. This emission has a net outward radial motion compared with the radial velocity predicted by the model at the location of the main spiral arms. The disk of AB Aur is therefore quite different from the Keplerian disks seen around many Herbig Ae stars. The spiral-like structures of the disk with non-Keplerian motions we revealed in 12 CO (3-2), together with the central depression of the dust disk, could be explained to be driven by the possible existence of a giant planet forming in the disk. Subject headingg s: planetary systems: protoplanetary disks -stars: individual (AB Aur)

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Section: Molecular Gasmentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: Disk Mass and Sedmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Possible Molecular Spiral Arms in the Protoplanetary Disk of AB Aurigae

Lin

Ohashi

Lim

et al. 2006

ApJ

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“…In some cases, there is a systematic uncertainty due to different PAs being reported by different authors. For example, in the case of AB Aur, Mannings & Sargent (1997) report a disk PA of 79 • while Corder et al (2005) report various possible angles ranging from 26 • to 85 • . However, such cases are not common, and are unlikely to influence conclusions regarding the whole sample.…”

Section: Does Spectropolarimetry Really Trace Circumstellar Disks?mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the alignment between the circumstellar disks and orbital planes of Herbig Ae/Be binary systems

Wheelwright¹,

Oudmaijer²,

Drew³

2011

A&A

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Context. The majority of the intermediate mass, pre-main-sequence Herbig Ae/Be stars reside in binary systems. As these systems are young, their properties may contain an imprint of the star formation process at intermediate masses (2−15 M ). However, these systems are generally spatially unresolved, making it difficult to probe their circumstellar environment to search for manifestations of their formation process, such as accretion disks. Aims. Here we investigate the formation mechanism of Herbig Ae/Be (HAe/Be) binary systems by studying the relative orientation of their binary orbits and circumstellar disks. Methods. We present linear spectropolarimetric observations of HAe/Be stars over the Hα line, which are used to determine the orientation of their circumstellar disks. In conjunction with data from the literature, we obtain a sample of 20 binaries with known disk position angles (PAs). We subsequently compare our disk PA data to a model to investigate whether HAe/Be binary systems and their disks are co-planar. Moreover, in the light of a relatively recent suggestion that some HAe/Be star spectropolarimetric signatures may not necessarily be related to circumstellar disks, we re-assess the relationship between spectropolarimetric signatures and disk PAs. We do this by comparing spectropolarimetric and high spatial resolution observations of young stellar objects (both HAe/Be and T Tauri stars). Results. We find that spectropolarimetric observations of pre-main-sequence stars do indeed trace circumstellar disks. This finding is significant above the 3σ level. In addition, our data are entirely consistent with the situation in which HAe/Be binary systems and circumstellar disks are co-planar, while random orientations can be rejected at the 2.2σ level. Conclusions. The conclusive alignment (at more than 3σ) between the disk PAs derived from linear spectropolarimetry and high spatial resolution observations indicates that linear spectropolarimetry traces disks. This in turn allows us to conclude that the orbital planes of HAe/Be binary systems and the disks around the primaries are likely to be co-planar, which is consistent with the notion that these systems form via monolithic collapse and subsequent disk fragmentation.

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“…This allows us to ignore accretion heating and model the AB Aur circumstellar disk as a passive disk, reprocessing stellar radiation (Chiang & Goldreich 1997;Dullemond et al 2001). For our models, we choose the AB Aur disk mass to be between 0.007 and 0.013 M ( Lin et al 2006) and a surface density profile that falls radially as r À1 (Corder et al 2005). The disk outer edge is truncated at 300 AU and the bulk ($80%) of the dust mass is assumed to reside in millimeter grains with an opacity that depends on wavelength as k À1 for long wavelengths.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tale of Two Herbig Ae Stars, MWC 275 and AB Aurigae: Comprehensive Models for Spectral Energy Distribution and Interferometry

Tannirkulam

Monnier

Harries

et al. 2008

Astrophysical Journal

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We present comprehensive models for the Herbig Ae stars MWC 275 and AB Aur that aim to explain their spectral energy distribution (from UV to millimeter) and long-baseline interferometry (from near-infrared to millimeter) simultaneously. Data from the literature, combined with new mid-infrared (MIR) interferometry from the Keck Segment Tilting Experiment, are modeled using an axisymmetric Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. Models in which most of the near-infrared ( NIR) emission arises from a dust rim fail to fit the NIR spectral energy distribution (SED) and sub-milliarcsecond NIR CHARA interferometry. Following recent work, we include an additional gas emission component with similar size scale to the dust rim, inside the sublimation radius, to fit the NIR SED and long-baseline NIR interferometry on MWC 275 and AB Aur. In the absence of shielding of starlight by gas, we show that the gas-dust transition region in these YSOs will have to contain highly refractory dust, sublimating at~1850 K. Despite having nearly identical structure in the thermal NIR, the outer disks of MWC 275 and AB Aur differ substantially. In contrast to the AB Aur disk, MWC 275 lacks small grains in the disk atmosphere capable of producing significant 10Y20 m emission beyond~7 AU, forcing the outer regions into the ''shadow'' of the inner disk.

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AB Aurigae Resolved: Evidence for Spiral Structure

Cited by 60 publications

References 21 publications

Possible Molecular Spiral Arms in the Protoplanetary Disk of AB Aurigae

Possible Molecular Spiral Arms in the Protoplanetary Disk of AB Aurigae

On the alignment between the circumstellar disks and orbital planes of Herbig Ae/Be binary systems

A Tale of Two Herbig Ae Stars, MWC 275 and AB Aurigae: Comprehensive Models for Spectral Energy Distribution and Interferometry

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