Scattering-induced intensity reduction: large mass content with small grains in the inner region of the TW Hya disk

Abstract

Dust continuum observation is one of the best methods to constrain the properties of protoplanetary disks. Recent theoretical studies have suggested that the dust scattering at the millimeter wavelength potentially reduces the observed intensity, which results in an underestimate in the dust mass. We investigate whether the dust scattering indeed reduces the observed continuum intensity by comparing the ALMA archival data of the TW Hya disk at Band 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 to models obtained by radiative transfer simulations. We find that the model with scattering by 300 ${\rm μm}$-sized grains well reproduces the observed SED of the central part of the TW Hya disk while the model without scattering is also consistent within the errors of the absolute fluxes. To explain the intensity at Band 3, the dust surface density needs to be $\sim$ 10 ${\rm g\,cm^{-2}}$ at 10 au in the model with scattering, which is 26 times more massive than previously predicted. The model without scattering needs 2.3 times higher dust mass than the model with scattering because it needs lower temperature. At Band 7, scattering reduces the intensity by $\sim$ 35% which makes the disk looks optically thin even though it is optically thick. Our study suggests the TW Hya disk is still capable of forming cores of giant planets at where the current solar system planets exist.