A parametric modeling approach to measuring the gas masses of circumstellar disks
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
The disks that surround young stars are mostly composed of molecular gas, which is harder to detect and interpret than the accompanying dust. Disk mass measurements have therefore relied on large and uncertain extrapolations from the dust to the gas. We have developed a grid of models to study the dependencies of isotopologue CO line strengths on disk structure and temperature parameters and find that a combination of {sup 13}CO and C{sup 18}O observations provides a robust measure of the gas mass. We apply this technique to Submillimeter Array observations of nine circumstellar disks and published measurements of six well studied disks. We find evidence for selective photodissociation of C{sup 18}O and determine masses to within a factor of about three. The inferred masses for the nine disks in our survey range from 0.7 to 6 M {sub Jup}, and all are well below the extrapolation from the interstellar medium gas-to-dust ratio of 100. This is consistent with the low masses of planets found around such stars, and may be due to accretion or photoevaporation of a dust-poor upper atmosphere. However, the masses may be underestimated if there are more efficient CO depletion pathways than those known in molecular clouds and cold cores.
- OSTI ID:
- 22356674
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 788, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
CO GAS INSIDE THE PROTOPLANETARY DISK CAVITY IN HD 142527: DISK STRUCTURE FROM ALMA
Alma survey of lupus protoplanetary disks. I. Dust and gas masses