(Abridged) We aim to explore the parameters that influence the mid-infrared emission of C_2H_2 and H_2O, and if the spread observed in F_C_2H_2/F_H_2O is tracing a variation of the C/O ratio. Our work is based on the DALI 2D thermochemical model to predict spectra readily comparable to JWST/MIRI observations. To robustly model organics in inner disks, several improvements have been made: (1) carbon chemistry adapted for warm environments, (2) updated UV shielding treatment, and (3) mutual line overlap in the raytracing. We are able to reproduce the observed C_2H_2 fluxes of T Tauri disks with a solar C/O ratio. Acetylene abundance is primarily set by a balance between formation initiated by CO dissociation by X-rays and destruction of carbon chains by atomic oxygen, the latter being generated by X-ray-induced destruction of H_2O and CO. The water UV shielding and hot temperatures of the inner disk also favor acetylene formation, as they prevent the destruction of carbon chains and allow overcoming activation barriers of reactions with H_2. C_2H_2 and H_2O emissions are not only sensitive to the C/O ratio but also to the total O/H elemental abundance, supporting recent claims. In particular, we find that enhanced O/H reduces acetylene emission due to an excess of atomic oxygen. F_C_2H_2/F_H_2O is thus a promising tracer of the elemental composition of inner disks. Still, the dust size distribution also plays a key role in this line flux ratio. We find that increasing the abundance of small grains relative to large grains favors C_2H_2 flux over H_2O flux. Grain depletion does not affect the line flux ratio as previously suggested by observational works. A preliminary comparison with published JWST observations indicates a gas-phase C/O ratio below unity and suggests that enhanced O/H ratios may be common in T Tauri disks.
We present the Interactive Spectral-Line Analysis Tool (iSLAT), a python-based graphical tool that allows users to interactively explore, inspect, and fit line emission observed in molecular spectra. iSLAT adopts a simple slab model in LTE that simulates emission spectra with a small set of parameters (temperature, emitting area, column density, and line broadening) that users can adjust in real time for multiple molecules or multiple thermal components of a same molecule. A central feature of iSLAT is the possibility to interactively inspect individual lines or line clusters to visualize their properties at high resolution and identify them in the population diagram. iSLAT provides a number of additional features, including the option to identify lines that are not blended at the instrumental resolution, the possibility to save custom line lists selected by the user, and to fit and measure their properties (line flux, width, and centroid) for later analysis. In this paper we launch the tool and demonstrate it on infrared spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based instruments that provide higher resolving power. We also share curated line lists that are useful for the analysis of the forest of water emission lines observed from protoplanetary disks. iSLAT is shared with the community on GitHub.
We present the first detection of 13CCH in a protoplanetary disk (TW Hya). Using observations of C2H we measure CCH/13CCH = 65 +/- 20 in gas with a CO isotopic ratio of 12CO/13CO = 21 +/- 5 (Yoshida et al. 2022a). The TW Hya disk exhibits a gas phase C/O that exceeds unity and C2H is the tracer of this excess carbon. We confirm that the TW Hya gaseous disk exhibits two separate carbon isotopic reservoirs as noted previously (Yoshida et al. 2022a). We explore two theoretical solutions for the development of this dichotomy. One model represents TW Hya today with a protoplanetary disk exposed to a cosmic ray ionization rate that is below interstellar as consistent with current estimates. We find that this model does not have sufficient ionization in cold (T < 40 K) layers to activate carbon isotopic fractionation. The second model investigates a younger TW Hya protostellar disk exposed to an interstellar cosmic ray ionization rate. We find that the younger model has sources of ionization deeper in a colder disk that generates two independent isotopic reservoirs. One reservoir is 12C-enriched carried by methane/hydrocarbon ices and the other is 13C-enriched carried by gaseous CO. The former potentially provides a source of methane/hydrocarbon ices to power the chemistry that generates the anomalously strong C_2H emission in this (and other) disk systems in later stages. The latter provides a source of gaseous 13C-rich material to generate isotopic enrichments in forming giant planets as recently detected in the super-Jupiter TYC 8998-760-1 b by Zhang et al. (2021).
Context . The inner few AU of disks around young stars, where terrestrial planets are thought to form, are best probed in the infrared. The James Webb Space Telescope is now starting to characterize the chemistry of these regions in unprecedented detail, building on earlier results of the Spitzer Space Telescope that the planet-forming zone of disks contain a rich chemistry. One peculiar subset of sources characterized by Spitzer are the so-called CO 2 -only sources, in which only a strong 15 μm CO 2 feature was detected in the spectrum. Aims . One scenario that could explain the weak or even non-detections of molecular emission from H 2 O is the presence of a small, inner cavity in the disk. If this cavity were to extend past the H 2 O snowline, but not past the CO 2 snowline, this could strongly suppress the H 2 O line flux with respect to that of CO 2 . For this work, we aimed to test the validity of this statement. Methods . Using the thermo-chemical code Dust And LInes (DALI), we created a grid of T Tauri disk models with an inner cavity, meaning we fully depleted the inner region of the disk in gas and dust starting from the dust sublimation radius and ranging until a certain cavity radius. Cavity radii varying in size from 0.1 to 10 AU were explored for this work. We extended this analysis to test the influence of cooling through H 2 O ro-vibrational lines and the luminosity of the central star on the CO 2 /H 2 O flux ratio. Results . We present the evolution of the CO 2 and H 2 O spectra of a disk with inner cavity size. The line fluxes show an initial increase as a result of an increasing emitting area, followed by a sharp decrease. As such, when a large-enough cavity is introduced, a spectrum that was initially dominated by H 2 O lines can become CO 2 -dominated instead. However, the cavity size needed for this is around 4–5 AU, exceeding the nominal position of the CO 2 snowline in a full disk, which is located at 2 AU in our fiducial, L * = 1.4 L ⊙ model. The cause of this is most likely the alteration of the thermal structure by the cavity, which pushes the snowlines outward. In contrast, our models show that global temperature fluctuations, for example due to changes in stellar luminosity, impact the fluxes of H 2 O and CO 2 roughly equally, thus not impacting their ratio much. Alternative explanations for bright CO 2 emission are also briefly discussed. Conclusions . Our modeling work shows that it is possible for the presence of a small inner cavity to explain strong CO 2 emission in a spectrum. However, the cavity needed to do so is larger than what was initially expected. As such, this scenario will be easier to test with sufficiently high angular resolution (millimeter) observations.
Previous analyses of mid-infrared water spectra from young protoplanetary disks observed with the Spitzer-IRS found an anticorrelation between water luminosity and the millimeter dust disk radius observed with ALMA. This trend was suggested to be evidence for a fundamental process of inner disk water enrichment proposed decades ago to explain some properties of the solar system, in which icy pebbles drift inward from the outer disk and sublimate after crossing the snow line. Previous analyses of IRS water spectra, however, were uncertain due to the low spectral resolution that blended lines together. We present new JWST-MIRI spectra of four disks, two compact and two large with multiple radial gaps, selected to test the scenario that water vapor inside the snow line is regulated by pebble drift. The higher spectral resolving power of MIRI-MRS now yields water spectra that separate individual lines, tracing upper level energies from 900 to 10,000 K. These spectra clearly reveal excess emission in the low-energy lines in compact disks compared to large disks, demonstrating an enhanced cool component with T ≈ 170–400 K and equivalent emitting radius R eq ≈ 1–10 au. We interpret the cool water emission as ice sublimation and vapor diffusion near the snow line, suggesting that there is indeed a higher inward mass flux of icy pebbles in compact disks. Observation of this process opens up multiple exciting prospects to study planet formation chemistry in inner disks with JWST.
This work presents ground-based spectrally resolved water emission at R = 30,000–100,000 over infrared wavelengths covered by the JWST (2.9–12.8 μm). Two new surveys with iSHELL and the VISIR are combined with previous spectra from the CRIRES to cover parts of multiple rovibrational and rotational bands observable within telluric transmission bands, for a total of ≈160 spectra and 85 disks (30 of which are JWST targets in Cycle 1). The general expectation of a range of regions and excitation conditions traced by infrared water spectra is for the first time supported by the combined kinematics and excitation as spectrally resolved at multiple wavelengths. The main findings from this analysis are: (1) water lines are progressively narrower from the rovibrational bands at 2–9 μm to the rotational lines at 12 μm, and partly match broad and narrow emission components, respectively, as extracted from rovibrational CO spectra; (2) rotation diagrams of resolved water lines from upper-level energies of 4000–9500 K show vertical spread and curvatures indicative of optically thick emission (≈1018 cm−2) from a range of excitation temperatures (≈800–1100 K); and (3) the new 5 μm spectra demonstrate that slab model fits to the rotational lines at >10 μm strongly overpredict the rovibrational emission bands at <9 μm, implying vibrational excitation not in thermodynamic equilibrium. We discuss these findings in the context of emission from a disk surface and a molecular inner disk wind, and provide a list of guidelines to support the analysis of spectrally unresolved JWST spectra.
Large inner dust gaps in transition disks are frequently posited as evidence of giant planets sculpting gas and dust in the disk, or the opening of a gap by photoevaporative winds. Although the former hypothesis is strongly supported by the observations of planets and deep depletions in gas within the gap in some disks, many T Tauri stars hosting transition disks accrete at rates typical for an undepleted disk, raising the question of how gap opening occurs in these objects. We thus present an analysis of the structure of the transition disk around the T Tauri star DM Tau, which is strongly accreting (similar to 10(-8.3) M (circle dot) yr(-1)) and turbulent (alpha = 0.078 +/- 0.02). Using the Dust And LInes thermochemical code, we fit disk models to simultaneously reproduce the accretion rate, high level of turbulence, the gas traced by ALMA Band 6 observations of (CO)-C-12, (CO)-C-13, and (CO)-O-18 J = 2-1 lines, and the observed dust emission from the millimeter continuum and spectral energy distribution. We find a shallow depletion in gas surface density of similar to 10 relative to the outer disk and a gas-rich inner disk that is consistent with the observations. The planet mass of M (Jup) implied by the gap depth is in tension with predictions for dust trapping in a highly viscous disk, which requires a more massive planet of similar to 10 M (Jup). Photoevaporative models including a dead zone can qualitatively reproduce some features of the DM Tau disk, but still struggle to explain the high accretion rates and the observed millimeter-continuum flux.
Abstract We are conducting a survey of high-resolution near-infrared CO rovibrational spectra in protoplanetary disks around young intermediate-mass stars. We use IRTF-iSHELL with the 0.″375 and 0.″75 slits, providing 4 km s−1 and 6 km s−1 resolution and covering 4.52–5.25 μm in one single exposure. This includes part of the rovibrational R branch and most of the P branch of the CO fundamental band (Δv = 1), one of the best tracers of warm/hot gas in disks. The high quality of the spectra and the large sample covered in this survey will support multiple investigations to study the structure, kinematics, composition, and evolution of the inner 10 au in disks for years to come. The survey currently includes ∼30 stars mostly within 200 pc, complementing extensive imaging campaigns that are observing their disks at optical, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths and revealing structures and planets.
We are conducting a multi-wavelength analysis of high-resolution molecular spectra that probe the evolution of gas in the inner 10 au in protoplanetary disks. A sample of 15 disks has been combined to probe a range of inner disk structures including small and large dust cavities. Half of the sample has been observed in far-ultraviolet H 2 emission with a new HST-COS program (GO-14703), that we have combined to near-infrared spectra of CO emission as observed with VLT-CRIRES and IRTF-iSHELL. This synergic dataset traces the evolution and depletion of CO and H 2 in inner disk cavities and shows an evolving radial stratification of the molecular gas, where CO lines are narrower than H 2 lines in disks with cavities. CO rotation diagrams also show significant evolution, suggesting a change in gas excitation as CO emission recedes to larger disk radii.
Outflows driven by large-scale magnetic fields likely play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of protoplanetary disks and in setting the conditions for planet formation. We extend our 2D-axisymmetric nonideal MHD model of these outflows by incorporating radiative transfer and simplified thermochemistry, with the dual aims of exploring how heating influences wind launching and illustrating how such models can be tested through observations of diagnostic spectral lines. Our model disks launch magnetocentrifugal outflows primarily through magnetic tension forces, so the mass-loss rate increases only moderately when thermochemical effects are switched on. For typical field strengths, thermochemical and irradiation heating are more important than magnetic dissipation. We furthermore find that the entrained vertical magnetic flux diffuses out of the disk on secular timescales as a result of nonideal MHD. Through postprocessing line radiative transfer, we demonstrate that spectral line intensities and moment-1 maps of atomic oxygen, the HCN molecule, and other species show potentially observable differences between a model with a magnetically driven outflow and one with a weaker, photoevaporative outflow. In particular, the line shapes and velocity asymmetries in the moment-1 maps could enable the identification of outflows emanating from the disk surface.
Herschel 10 years after launch: science and celebration, ESAC, 13-14 May 2019 Herschel observations of evolved stars José Cernicharo IFF-CSIC. C/Serrano 121. 28006 Madrid. Spain Email:jose.cernicharo@csic.es The spectroscopic capabilities of the three instrument on board Herschel have permitted to study the submillimetre and far-infrared spectrum of the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars. In particular, the high spectral resolution and broad band coverage offered by the HIFI heterodyne instrument, has permitted the detailed study, for the first time, of the emission of water vapour in these objects. SPIRE and PACS have permitted to study the same molecule in very high excitation lines. I will summarize the results obtained by Herschel in this field devoting particular attention to the molecular content unveiled by these far-infrared observations. The sensitivity of the instruments have also permitted, in short observing times, to carry out a time monitoring of some of these objects showing the important role that infrared pumping plays in the excitation of the molecular energy levels and in the emerging emission in the rotational lines of abundant molecular species (see Figure 1). Finally, I will place these results in the context of recent observations with ALMA and other radio telescopes and interferometers.
[abridged]CO rovibrational lines are efficient probes of warm molecular gas and can give unique insights into the inner 10 AU of proto-planetary disks. Recent studies have found a relation between the ratio of lines originating from the second and first vibrationally excited state, denoted as v2/v1, and the emitting radius of CO. In disks around Herbig Ae stars the vibrational excitation is low when CO lines come from close to the star, and high when lines only probe gas at large radii (more than 5 AU). We aim to find explanations for the observed trends between CO vibrational ratio, emitting radii, and NIR excess, and identify their implications in terms of the physical and chemical structure of inner disks around Herbig stars. Slab models and full disk thermo chemical models are calculated. Simulated observations from the models are directly compared to the data. Broad CO lines with low vibrational ratios are best explained by a warm (400-1300 K) inner disk surface with gas-to-dust ratios below 1000; no CO is detected within/at the inner dust rim, due to dissociation at high temperatures. In contrast, explaining the narrow lines with high vibrational ratios requires an inner cavity of a least 5 AU in both dust and gas, followed by a cool (100-300 K) molecular gas reservoir with gas-to-dust ratios greater than 10000 at the cavity wall. In all cases the CO gas must be close to thermalization with the dust. The high gas-to-dust ratios needed to explain high v2/v1 in narrow CO lines for a subset of group I disks can naturally be interpreted as due to the dust traps that have been proposed to explain millimeter dust cavities. The broad lines seen in most group II objects indicate a very flat disk in addition to inner disk substructures within 10 AU that can be related to the substructures recently observed with ALMA.
The formation of planets occurs within protoplanetary disks surrounding young stars, resulting in perturbation of the gas and dust surface densities. Here we report the first evidence of spatially resolved gas surface density (Σ g ) perturbation toward the AS 209 protoplanetary disk from the optically thin C 18 O ( J = 2−1) emission. The observations were carried out at 1.3 mm with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at a spatial resolution of about 0.″3 × 0.″2 (corresponding to ∼38 × 25 au). The C 18 O emission shows a compact (≤60 au), centrally peaked emission and an outer ring peaking at 140 au, consistent with that observed in the continuum emission, and its azimuthally averaged radial intensity profile presents a deficit that is spatially coincident with the previously reported dust map. This deficit can only be reproduced with our physico-thermochemical disk model by lowering Σ gas by nearly an order of magnitude in the dust gaps. Another salient result is that, contrary to C 18 O, the DCO + ( J = 3−2) emission peaks between the two dust gaps. We infer that the best scenario to explain our observations (C 18 O deficit and DCO + enhancement) is a gas perturbation due to one or more forming planets, which is commensurate with previous continuum observations of the source along with hydrodynamical simulations. Our findings confirm that the previously observed dust gaps are very likely due to perturbation of the gas surface density that is induced by a planet of at least 0.2 M J in formation. Finally, our observations also show the potential of using CO isotopologues to probe the presence of one or more Saturn-mass planets.
The combination of high-resolution and sensitivity offered by ALMA is revolutionizing our understanding of protoplanetary discs, as their bulk gas and dust distributions can be studied independently. In this paper we present resolved ALMA observations of the COnlinnual emission (lambda = 1.3 min) and CO isotopologues ((CO)-C-12, (CO)-C-13, (CO)-O-18, J = 2 - 1) integrated intensity from the disc around the nearby (d = 162 pc), intermediate-mass (M-star = 1.67 M-circle dot) pre-main-sequence star CQ Tau. The data show an inner depression in continuum and in both (CO)-C-13 and (CO)-O-18 emission, We employ a Merino-chemical model of the disc reproducing both continuum and gas radial intensity profiles, together with the disc spectral energy distribution. The models show that a gas inner cavity with size between 15 and 25 au is needed to reproduce the data with a density depletion factor between similar to 10(-1) and similar to 10(-3). The radial profile of the distinct cavity in the dust continuum is described by a Gaussian ring centred at R-dust = 53 au and with a width of sigma = 13 au. Three-dimensional gas and dust numerical simulations of a disc with an embedded planet at a separation from the central star of similar to 20 au and with a mass of similar to 6-9 M-Jup reproduce qualitatively the gas and dust profiles of the CQ Tau disc. 11owever, a one-planet model appears not to be able to reproduce the dust Gaussian density profile predicted using the thermo-chemical modeling.
High resolution ALMA observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed that many, if not all primordial disks consist of ring-like dust structures. The origin of these dust rings remains unclear, but a common explanation is the presence of planetary companions that have cleared gaps along their orbit and trapped the dust at the gap edge. A signature of this scenario is a decrease of gas density inside these gaps. In recent work, Isella et al. 2016 derived drops in gas density consistent with Saturn-mass planets inside the gaps in the HD163296 disk through spatially resolved CO isotopologue observations. However, as CO abundance and temperature depends on a large range of factors, the interpretation of CO emission is non-trivial. We use the physical-chemical code DALI to show that the gas temperature increases inside dust density gaps, implying that any gaps in the gas, if present, would have to be much deeper, consistent with planet masses higher than a Jupiter mass. Furthermore, we show that a model with increased grain growth at certain radii, as expected at a snowline, can reproduce the dust rings in HD163296 equally well without the need for companions. This scenario can explain both younger and older disks with observed gaps, as gaps have been seen in systems as young <1 Myr. While the origin of the rings in HD163296 remains unclear, these modeling results demonstrate that care has to be taken when interpreting CO emission in protoplanetary disk observations.
Aims: The two stable isotopes of nitrogen, 14N and 15N, exhibit a range of abundance ratios both inside and outside the solar system. The elemental ratio in the solar neighborhood is 440. Recent ALMA observations showed HCN/HC15N ratios from 83 to 156 in six T Tauri and Herbig disks and a CN/C15 N ratio of 323 +/- 30 in one T Tauri star. We aim to determine the dominant mechanism responsible for these enhancements of 15N: low-temperature exchange reactions or isotope-selective photodissociation of N2. Methods: Using the thermochemical code DALI, we model the nitrogen isotope chemistry in circumstellar disks with a 2D axisymmetric geometry. Our chemical network is the first to include both fractionation mechanisms for nitrogen. The model produces abundance profiles and isotope ratios for several key N-bearing species. We study how these isotope ratios depend on various disk parameters. Results: The formation of CN and HCN is closely coupled to the vibrational excitation of H2 in the UV-irradiated surface layers of the disk. Isotope fractionation is completely dominated by isotope-selective photodissociation of N2. The column density ratio of HCN over HC15N in the disk's inner 100 au does not depend strongly on the disk mass, the flaring angle or the stellar spectrum, but it is sensitive to the grain size distribution. For larger grains, self-shielding of N2 becomes more important relative to dust extinction, leading to stronger isotope fractionation. Between disk radii of 50 and 200 au, the models predict HCN/HC15N and CN/C15N abundance ratios consistent with observations of disks and comets. The HCN/HC15N and CN/C15N column density ratios in the models are a factor of 2-3 higher than those inferred from the ALMA observations.
We report ALMA Cycle 2 observations of 230 GHz (1.3 mm) dust continuum emission, and $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O J = 2-1 line emission, from the Upper Scorpius transitional disk [PZ99] J160421.7-213028, with an angular resolution of ~0".25 (35 AU). Armed with these data and existing H-band scattered light observations, we measure the size and depth of the disk's central cavity, and the sharpness of its outer edge, in three components: sub-$\mu$m-sized "small" dust traced by scattered light, millimeter-sized "big" dust traced by the millimeter continuum, and gas traced by line emission. Both dust populations feature a cavity of radius $\sim$70 AU that is depleted by factors of at least 1000 relative to the dust density just outside. The millimeter continuum data are well explained by a cavity with a sharp edge. Scattered light observations can be fitted with a cavity in small dust that has either a sharp edge at 60 AU, or an edge that transitions smoothly over an annular width of 10 AU near 60 AU. In gas, the data are consistent with a cavity that is smaller, about 15 AU in radius, and whose surface density at 15 AU is $10^{3\pm1}$ times smaller than the surface density at 70 AU; the gas density grades smoothly between these two radii. The CO isotopologue observations rule out a sharp drop in gas surface density at 30 AU or a double-drop model as found by previous modeling. Future observations are needed to assess the nature of these gas and dust cavities, e.g., whether they are opened by multiple as-yet-unseen planets or photoevaporation.
Protoplanetary disks with cavities in their dust distribution, also named transitional disks, are expected to be in the middle of active evolution and possibly planet formation. In recent years, millimeter-dust rings observed by ALMA have been suggested to have their origin in dust traps, caused by pressure bumps. One of the ways to generate these is by the presence of planets, which lower the gas density along their orbit and create pressure bumps at the edge. We present spatially resolved ALMA Cycle 0 and Cycle 1 observations of CO and CO isotopologues of several famous transitional disks. Gas is found to be present inside the dust cavities, but at a reduced level compared with the gas surface density profile of the outer disk. The dust and gas emission are quantified using the physical-chemical modeling code DALI. In the majority of these disks we find clear evidence for a drop in gas density of at least a factor of 10 inside the cavity, whereas the dust density drops by at least a factor 1000. The CO isotopologue observations reveal that the gas cavities are significantly smaller than the dust cavities. These gas structures suggest clearing by one or more planetary-mass companions.