The Solar‐System‐Scale Disk around AB Aurigae

Oppenheimer, Ben R.; Brenner, Douglas; Hinkley, Sasha; Zimmerman, Neil; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; Soummer, Rémi; Kuhn, J. R.; Graham, James R.; Perrin, Marshall D.; Lloyd, James P.; Roberts, Lewis C.; Harrington, David M.

doi:10.1086/587778

Cited by 78 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…If the inner walls are sufficiently puffed up, they can shadow the outer disk and create flat radial surface brightness profiles seen in some disks (Grady et al 2005). Polarized intensity images are a promising way to resolve protoplanetary disks (e.g., Oppenheimer et al 2008), but geometrical effects make these images difficult to interpret (e.g., Jang-Condell & Kuchner 2010; Perrin et al 2009). In a forthcoming paper, we will address how inclination and polarization affects images of disks with and without gaps.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. I. Methodology and Validation

Jang‐Condell

Turner

2012

ApJ

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We examine the observational consequences of partial gaps being opened by planets in protoplanetary disks. We model the disk using a static α-disk model with detailed radiative transfer, parameterizing 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 and derive an approximation to include these effects. A gap produced by a 200 M ⊕ (70 M ⊕ ) planet at 10 AU can lower/raise the midplane temperature of the disk by up to ∼−25%/+29% (∼−11/+19) by shadowing in the gap trough and illumination on the far shoulder of the gap. At the distance of Taurus, this gap would be resolvable with ∼0. 01 angular resolution. The gap contrast is most significant in scattered light and at thermal continuum wavelengths characteristic of the surface temperature, reducing or raising the surface brightness by up to order of magnitude. Since gap sizes are correlated with planet mass, this is a promising way of finding and determining the masses of planets embedded in protoplanetary disks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. I. Methodology and Validation

Jang‐Condell

Turner

2012

ApJ

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“…These generate long-lived, non-axisymmetric vortices due to the Rossby wave instability (RWI) at the gap edges (Lovelace & Hohlfeld 1978;Toomre 1981;Papaloizou & Pringle 1984, 1985Hawley 1987;Lovelace et al 1999). Non-axisymmetric dust clouds have been observed in transition disksat sub-mm wavelengths (Oppenheimer et al 2008;Brown et al 2009;Casassus et al 2012Casassus et al , 2013Isella et al 2013;van der Marel et al 2013), features that are usually interpreted as vortices induced by embedded protoplanets. Spiral structures, one of the hallmarks of planet-disk interactions (Goldreich & Tremaine 1979;Ogilvie & Lubow 2002;Rafikov 2002), are also seen in several transition disks in polarized scattered light (Muto et al 2012;Garufi et al 2013;Avenhaus et al 2014;Currie et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Shocks Driven by High-Mass Planets in Radiatively Inefficient Disks. I. Two-Dimensional Global Disk Simulations

Richert

Lyra

Boley

et al. 2015

ApJ

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Recent observations of gaps and non-axisymmetric features in the dust distributions of transition disks have been interpreted as evidence of embedded massive protoplanets. However, comparing the predictions of planet-disk interaction models to the observed features has shown far from perfect agreement. This may be due to the strong approximations used for the predictions. For example, spiral arm fitting typically uses results that are based on lowmass planets in an isothermal gas. In this work, we describe two-dimensional, global, hydrodynamical simulations of disks with embedded protoplanets, with and without the assumption of local isothermality, for a range of planetto-star mass ratios 1-10 M J for a 1 ⊙ M star. We use the PENCIL CODE in polar coordinates for our models. We find that the inner and outer spiral wakes of massive protoplanets ( ≳ M M 5 J ) produce significant shock heating that can trigger buoyant instabilities. These drive sustained turbulence throughout the disk when they occur. The strength of this effect depends strongly on the mass of the planet and the thermal relaxation timescale; for a M 10 J planet embedded in a thin, purely adiabatic disk, the spirals, gaps, and vortices typically associated with planetdisk interactions are disrupted. We find that the effect is only weakly dependent on the initial radial temperature profile. The spirals that form in disks heated by the effects we have described may fit the spiral structures observed in transition disks better than the spirals predicted by linear isothermal theory.

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“…As a case in point, some of the first observations of AB Aurigae in polarized scattered light showed what appeared to be a dark spot, possibly caused by the presence of a planet (Oppenheimer et al 2008;Jang-Condell 2009). Follow-up efforts showed that the lack of emission was real, but that it was not indicative of a local perturbation to the disk structure, but rather caused by the inclination of the disk decreasing the polarization fraction along the disk minor axis (Jang-Condell & Kuchner 2010;Perrin et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. Iii. Polarization

Jang‐Condell

2017

ApJ

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Polarimetric observations of T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars are a powerful way to image protoplanetary disks. However, interpretation of these images is difficult because the degree of polarization is highly sensitive to the angle of scattering of stellar light off the disk surface. We examine how disks with and without gaps created by planets appear in scattered polarized light as a function of inclination angle. Isophotes of inclined disks without gaps are distorted in polarized light, giving the appearance that the disks are more eccentric or more highly inclined than they truly are. Apparent gap locations are unaffected by polarization, but the gap contrast changes. In face-on disks with gaps, we find that the brightened far edge of the gap scatters less polarized light than the rest of the disk, resulting in slightly decreased contrast between the gap trough and the brightened far edge. In inclined disks, gaps can take on the appearance of being localized "holes" in brightness rather than full axisymmetric structures. Photocenter offsets along the minor axis of the disk in both total intensity and polarized intensity images can be readily explained by the finite thickness of the disk. Alone, polarized scattered light images of disks do not necessarily reveal intrinsic disk structure. However, when combined with total intensity images, the orientation of the disk can be deduced and much can be learned about disk structure and dust properties.

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The Solar‐System‐Scale Disk around AB Aurigae

Cited by 78 publications

References 34 publications

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. I. Methodology and Validation

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. I. Methodology and Validation

On Shocks Driven by High-Mass Planets in Radiatively Inefficient Disks. I. Two-Dimensional Global Disk Simulations

Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets. Iii. Polarization

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