arXiv subjects

Leonardo Testi

Publications and source records attributed to Leonardo Testi.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

The evolution of dust-disk sizes from a homogeneous analysis of 1-10 Myr-old stars

We utilize ALMA archival data to estimate the dust disk size of 152 protoplanetary disks in Lupus (1-3 Myr), Chamaeleon I (2-3 Myr), and Upper-Sco (5-11 Myr). We combine our sample with 47 disks from Tau/Aur and Oph whose dust disk radii were estimated, as here, through fitting radial profile models to visibility data. We use these 199 homogeneously derived disk sizes to identify empirical disk-disk and disk-host property relations as well as to search for evolutionary trends. In agreement with previous studies, we find that dust disk sizes and millimeter luminosities are correlated, but show for the first time that the relationship is not universal between regions. We find that disks in the 2-3 Myr-old Cha I are not smaller than disks in other regions of similar age, and confirm the Barenfeld et al. (2017) finding that the 5-10 Myr USco disks are smaller than disks belonging to younger regions. Finally, we find that the outer edge of the Solar System, as defined by the Kuiper Belt, is consistent with a population of dust disk sizes which have not experienced significant truncation.

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arXiv2019

Long lived dust rings around HD169142

Recent ALMA observations of the protoplanetary disc around HD~169142 reveal a peculiar structure made of concentric dusty rings: a main ring at $\sim$20 au, a triple system of rings at $\sim 55-75$ au in millimetric continuum emission and a perturbed gas surface density from the $^{12}$CO,$^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O$(J=2-1)$ surface brightness profile. In this Letter, we perform three-dimensional numerical simulations and radiative transfer modeling exploring the possibility that two giant planets interacting with the disc and orbiting in resonant locking can be responsible for the origin of the observed dust inner rings structure. We find that in this configuration the dust structure is actually long lived while the gas mass of the disc is accreted onto the star and the giant planets, emptying the inner region. In addition, we also find that the innermost planet is located at the inner edge of the dust ring, and can accrete mass from the disc, generating a signature in the dust ring shape that can be observed in mm ALMA observations.

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arXiv2019

Low dust emissivities and radial variations in the envelopes of Class 0 protostars: a signature of early grain growth?

Analyzing the properties of dust and its evolution in the early phases of star formation is crucial to put constraints on the collapse and accretion processes as well as on the pristine properties of planet-forming seeds. We analyze PdBI observations at 1.3 and 3.2 mm for 12 Class 0 protostars obtained as part of the CALYPSO survey and derive dust emissivity index (beta) profiles as a function of the envelope radius at 200-2000 au scales. Most of the protostellar envelopes show low dust emissivity indices decreasing toward the central regions. The decreasing trend remains after correction of the (potentially optically-thick) central region emission, with surprisingly low beta (lower than 1) values across most of the envelope radii of NGC1333-IRAS4A, NGC1333-IRAS4B, SVS13B, and Serpens-SMM4. We discuss the various processes that could explain such low and varying dust emissivity indices at envelope radii 200-2000 au. Our observations of extremely low dust emissivity indices could trace the presence of large (mm-size) grains in Class 0 envelopes and a radial increase of the dust grain size toward the inner envelope regions. While it is expected that large grains in young protostellar envelopes could be built via grain growth and coagulation, we stress that the typical timescales required to build mm grains in current coagulation models are at odds with the youth of our Class 0 protostars. Additional variations in the dust composition could also partly contribute to the low beta we observe. The steepness of the beta radial gradient depends strongly on the envelope mass, which might favor a scenario where large grains are built in high density protostellar disks and transported to the intermediate envelope radii, for example with the help of outflows and winds.

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arXiv2019

The Radial Distribution of Dust Particles in the HL Tau Disk from ALMA and VLA Observations

Understanding planet formation requires to discern how dust grows in protoplanetary disks. An important parameter to measure in disks is the maximum dust grain size present. This is usually estimated through measurements of the dust opacity at different millimeter wavelengths assuming optically thin emission and dust opacity dominated by absorption. However, ALMA observations have shown that these assumptions might not be correct in the case of protoplanetary disks, leading to overestimation of particle sizes and to underestimation of the disk's mass. Here, we present an analysis of high quality ALMA and VLA images of the HL Tau protoplanetary disk, covering a wide range of wavelengths, from 0.8 mm to 1 cm, and with a physical resolution of $\sim$7.35 au. We describe a procedure to analyze a set of millimeter images without any assumption about the optical depth of the emission, and including the effects of absorption and scattering in the dust opacity. This procedure allows us to obtain the dust temperature, the dust surface density and the maximum particle size at each radius. In the HL Tau disk, we found that particles have already grown up to a few millimeters in size. We detect differences in the dust properties between dark and bright rings, with dark rings containing low dust density and small dust particles. Different features in the HL Tau disk seem to have different origins. Planet-disk interactions can explain substructure at the external half of the disk, but the internal rings seem to be associated to the presence of snow lines of several molecules.

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arXiv2019

Wide Bandwidth Considerations for ALMA Band 2

One of the main considerations in the ALMA Development Roadmap for the future of operations beyond 2030 is to at least double its on-sky instantaneous bandwidth capabilities. Thanks to the technological innovations of the past two decades, we can now produce wider bandwidth receivers than were foreseen at the time of the original ALMA specifications. In several cases, the band edges set by technology at that time are also no longer relevant. In this memo, we look into the scientific advantages of beginning with Band 2 when implementing such wideband technologies. The Band 2 receiver system will be the last of the original ALMA bands, completing ALMA's coverage of the atmospheric windows from 35-950 GHz, and is not yet covered by any other ALMA receiver. New receiver designs covering and significantly extending the original ALMA Band 2 frequency range (67-90 GHz) can now implement these technologies. We explore the scientific and operational advantages of a receiver covering the full 67-116 GHz atmospheric window. In addition to technological goals, the ALMA Development Roadmap provides 3 new key science drivers for ALMA, to probe: 1) the Origins of Galaxies, 2) the Origins of Chemical Complexity, and 3) the Origins of Planets. In this memo, we describe how the wide RF Band 2 system can help achieve these goals, enabling several high-profile science programmes to be executed uniquely or more effectively than with separate systems, requiring an overall much lower array time and achieving more consistent calibration accuracy: contiguous broad-band spectral surveys, measurements of deuterated line ratios, and more generally fractionation studies, improved continuum measurements (also necessary for reliable line flux measurements), simultaneous broad-band observations of transient phenomena, and improved bandwidth for 3 mm very long baseline interferometry (VLBI).

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arXiv2019

A dust and gas cavity in the disc around CQ Tau revealed by ALMA

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 continuum emission ($λ=1.3$ mm) and CO isotopologues ($^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, C$^{18}$O $J=2-1$) integrated intensity from the disc around the nearby ($d = 162$ pc), intermediate mass ($M_{\star}=1.67\,M_{\odot}$) pre-main-sequence star CQ Tau. The data show an inner depression in continuum, and in both $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O emission. We employ a thermo-chemical model of the disc reproducing both continuum and gas radial intensity profiles, together with the disc SED. 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 $\sim 10^{-1}$ and $\sim 10^{-3}$. The radial profile of the distinct cavity in the dust continuum is described by a Gaussian ring centered at $R_{\rm dust}=53\,$au and with a width of $σ=13\,$au. Three dimensional gas and dust numerical simulations of a disc with an embedded planet at a separation from the central star of $\sim20\,$au and with a mass of $\sim 6\textrm{-} 9\,M_{\rm Jup}$ reproduce qualitatively the gas and dust profiles of the CQ Tau disc. However, a one planet model appears not to be able to reproduce the dust Gaussian density profile predicted using the thermo-chemical modeling.

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arXiv2019

The time evolution of dusty protoplanetary disc radii: observed and physical radii differ

Proto-planetary disc surveys conducted with ALMA are measuring disc radii in multiple star forming regions. The disc radius is a fundamental quantity to diagnose whether discs undergo viscous spreading, discriminating between viscosity or angular momentum removal by winds as drivers of disc evolution. Observationally, however, the sub-mm continuum emission is dominated by the dust, which also drifts inwards, complicating the picture. In this paper we investigate, using theoretical models of dust grain growth and radial drift, how the radii of dusty viscous proto-planetary discs evolve with time. Despite the existence of a sharp outer edge in the dust distribution, we find that the radius enclosing most of the dust $\textit{mass}$ increases with time, closely following the evolution of the gas radius. This behaviour arises because, although dust initially grows and drifts rapidly onto the star, the residual dust retained on Myr timescales is relatively well coupled to the gas. Observing the expansion of the dust disc requires using definitions based on high fractions of the disc $\textit{flux}$ (e.g. 95 per cent) and very long integrations with ALMA, because the dust grains in the outer part of the disc are small and have a low sub-mm opacity. We show that existing surveys lack the sensitivity to detect viscous spreading. The disc radii they measure do not trace the mass radius or the sharp outer edge in the dust distribution, but the outer limit of where the grains have significant sub-mm opacity. We predict that these observed radii should shrink with time.

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arXiv2019

On the millimetre continuum flux-radius correlation of proto-planetary discs

A correlation between proto-planetary disc radii and sub-mm fluxes has been recently reported. In this Letter we show that the correlation is a sensitive probe of grain growth processes. Using models of grain growth and drift, we have shown in a companion paper that the observed disc radii trace where the dust grains are large enough to have a significant sub-mm opacity. We show that the observed correlation emerges naturally if the maximum grain size is set by radial drift, implying relatively low values of the viscous $α$ parameter $ \lesssim 0.001$. In this case the relation has an almost universal normalisation, while if the grain size is set by fragmentation the flux at a given radius depends on the dust-to-gas ratio. We highlight two observational consequences of the fact that radial drift limits the grain size. The first is that the dust masses measured from the sub-mm could be overestimated by a factor of a few. The second is that the correlation should be present also at longer wavelengths (e.g. 3mm), with a normalisation factor that scales as the square of the observing frequency as in the optically thick case.

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arXiv2018

Gas density perturbations induced by forming planet(s) in the AS 209 protoplanetary disk as seen 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 towards 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 ALMA at a spatial resolution of about 0.3$\arcsec$ $\times$ 0.2$\arcsec$ (corresponding to $\sim$ 38 $\times$ 25 au). The C$^{18}$O emission shows a compact ($\le$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 forming-planet(s), that 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$\rm_{Jupiter}$ in formation. Finally, our observations also show the potential of using CO isotopologues to probe the presence of saturn mass planet(s).

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arXiv2018

Investigating fragmentation of gas structures in OB cluster-forming molecular clump G33.92+0.11 with 1000 AU resolution observations of ALMA

We report new, $\sim$1000 AU spatial resolution observations of 225 GHz dust continuum emission towards the OB cluster-forming molecular clump G33.92+0.11. On parsec scales, this molecular clump presents a morphology with several arm-like dense gas structures surrounding the two central massive ($\gtrsim$100 $M_{\odot}$) cores. From the new, higher resolution observations, we identified 28 localized, spatially compact dust continuum emission sources, which may be candidates of young stellar objects. Only one of them is not embedded within known arm-like (or elongated) dense gas structures. The spatial separations of these compact sources can be very well explained by Jeans lengths. We found that G33.92+0.11 may be consistently described by a marginally centrifugally supported, Toomre unstable accretion flow which is approximately in a face-on projection. The arm-like overdensities are natural consequence of the Toomre instability, which can fragment to form young stellar objects in shorter time scales than the timescale of the global clump contraction. On our resolved spatial scales, there is not yet evidence that the fragmentation is halted by turbulence, magnetic field, or stellar feedback.

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arXiv2018

ALMA observations of polarized emission toward the CW Tau and DG Tau protoplanetary disks: constraints on dust grain growth and settling

We present polarimetric data of CW Tau and DG Tau, two well-known Class II disk/jet systems, obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at 870 $μ$m and 0."2 average resolution. In CW Tau, the total and polarized emission are both smooth and symmetric, with polarization angles almost parallel to the minor axis of the projected disk. In contrast, DG Tau displays a structured polarized emission, with an elongated brighter region in the disk's near side and a belt-like feature beyond about 0."3 from the source. At the same time the total intensity is spatially smooth, with no features. The polarization pattern, almost parallel to the minor axis in the inner region, becomes azimuthal in the outer belt, possibly because of a drop in optical depth. The polarization fraction has average values of 1.2% in CW Tau and 0.4% in DG Tau. Our results are consistent with polarization from self-scattering of the dust thermal emission. Under this hypothesis, the maximum size of the grains contributing to polarization is in the range 100 - 150 $μ$m for CW Tau and 50 - 70 $μ$m for DG Tau. The polarization maps combined with dust opacity estimates indicate that these grains are distributed in a geometrically thin layer in CW Tau, representing a settling in the disk midplane. Meanwhile, such settling is not yet apparent for DG Tau. These results advocate polarization studies as a fundamental complement to total emission observations, in investigations of the structure and the evolution of protoplanetary disks.

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arXiv2018

First Detection of the Simplest Organic Acid in a Protoplanetary Disk

The formation of asteroids, comets and planets occurs in the interior of protoplanetary disks during the early phase of star formation. Consequently, the chemical composition of the disk might shape the properties of the emerging planetary system. In this context, it is crucial to understand whether and what organic molecules are synthesized in the disk. In this Letter, we report the first detection of formic acid (HCOOH) towards the TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk. The observations of the trans-HCOOH 6$_{(1,6)-5(1,5)}$ transition were carried out at 129~GHz with ALMA. We measured a disk-averaged gas-phase t-HCOOH column density of $\sim$ (2-4)$\times$10$^{12}$~cm$^{-2}$, namely as large as that of methanol. HCOOH is the first organic molecules containing two oxygen atoms detected in a protoplanetary disk, a proof that organic chemistry is very active even though difficult to observe in these objects. Specifically, this simplest acid stands as the basis for synthesis of more complex carboxylic acids used by life on Earth.

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arXiv2018

Resolved millimeter-dust continuum cavity around the very low mass young star CIDA 1

Context. Transition disks (TDs) are circumstellar disks with inner regions highly depleted in dust. TDs are observed in a small fraction of disk-bearing objects at ages of 1-10 Myr. They are important laboratories to study evolutionary effects in disks, from photoevaporation to planet-disk interactions. Aims. We report the discovery of a large inner dust-empty region in the disk around the very low mass star CIDA 1 (M$_{\star} \sim 0.1-0.2$ M$_{\odot}$). Methods. We used ALMA continuum observations at 887$μ$m, which provide a spatial resolution of $0."21\times0."12$ ($\sim$15$\times$8 au in radius at 140 pc). Results. The data show a dusty ring with a clear cavity of radius $\sim$20 au, the typical characteristic of a TD. The emission in the ring is well described by a narrow Gaussian profile. The dust mass in the disk is $\sim$17 M$_{\oplus}$. CIDA 1 is one of the lowest mass stars with a clearly detected millimeter cavity. When compared to objects of similar stellar mass, it has a relatively massive dusty disk (less than $\sim5$% of Taurus Class II disks in Taurus have a ratio of $M_{\rm{disk}}/M_{\star}$ larger than CIDA 1) and a very high mass accretion rate (CIDA 1 is a disk with one of the lowest values of $M_{\rm{disk}}/\dot M$ ever observed). In light of these unusual parameters, we discuss a number of possible mechanisms that can be responsible for the formation of the dust cavity (e.g., photoevaporation, dead zones, embedded planets, close binary). We find that an embedded planet of a Saturn mass or a close binary are the most likely possibilities.

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arXiv2018

The Millimeter Continuum Size-Frequency Relationship in the UZ Tau E Disk

We present high spatial resolution observations of the continuum emission from the young multiple star system UZ Tau at frequencies from 6 to 340 GHz. To quantify the spatial variation of dust emission in the UZ Tau E circumbinary disk, the observed interferometric visibilities are modeled with a simple parametric prescription for the radial surface brightnesses at each frequency. We find evidence that the spectrum steepens with radius in the disk, manifested as a positive correlation between the observing frequency and the radius that encircles a fixed fraction of the emission ($R_{eff} \propto ν^{0.34 \pm 0.08}$). The origins of this size--frequency relation are explored in the context of a theoretical framework for the growth and migration of disk solids. While that framework can reproduce a similar size--frequency relation, it predicts a steeper spectrum than is observed. Moreover, it comes closest to matching the data only on timescales much shorter ($\le 1$ Myr) than the putative UZ Tau age (~2-3 Myr). These discrepancies are the direct consequences of the rapid radial drift rates predicted by models of dust evolution in a smooth gas disk. One way to mitigate that efficiency problem is to invoke small-scale gas pressure modulations that locally concentrate drifting solids. If such particle traps reach high continuum optical depths at 30-340 GHz with a ~30-60% filling fraction in the inner disk ($r \lesssim20$ au), they can also explain the observed spatial gradient in the UZ Tau E disk spectrum.

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arXiv2018

Stellar masses and disk properties of Lupus young stellar objects traced by velocity-aligned stacked ALMA 13CO and C18O spectra

In recent ALMA surveys, the gas distributions and velocity structures of most of the protoplanetary disks can still not be imaged at high S/N due to the short integration time. In this work, we re-analyzed the ALMA 13CO (3-2) and C18O (3-2) data of 88 young stellar objects in Lupus with the velocity-aligned stacking method to enhance S/N and to study the kinematics and disk properties traced by molecular lines. This method aligns spectra at different positions in a disk based on the projected Keplerian velocities at their positions and then stacks them. This method enhances the S/N ratios of molecular-line data and allows us to obtain better detections and to constrain dynamical stellar masses and disk orientations. We obtain 13CO detections in 41 disks and C18O detections in 18 disks with 11 new detections in 13CO and 9 new detections in C18O after applying the method. We estimate the disk orientations and the dynamical stellar masses from the 13CO data. Our estimated dynamical stellar masses correlate with the spectroscopic stellar masses, and in a subsample of 16 sources, where the inclination angles are better constrained, the two masses are in a good agreement within the uncertainties and with a mean difference of 0.15 Msun. With more detections of fainter disks, our results show that high gas masses derived from the 13CO and C18O lines tend to be associated with high dust masses estimated from the continuum emission. Nevertheless, the scatter is large (0.9 dex), implying large uncertainties in deriving the disk gas mass from the line fluxes. We find that with such large uncertainties it is expected that there is no correlation between the disk gas mass and the mass accretion rate with the current data. Deeper observations to detect disks with gas masses <1E-5 Msun in molecular lines are needed to investigate the correlation between the disk gas mass and the mass accretion rate.

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arXiv2018

GALARIO: a GPU Accelerated Library for Analysing Radio Interferometer Observations

We present GALARIO, a computational library that exploits the power of modern graphical processing units (GPUs) to accelerate the analysis of observations from radio interferometers like ALMA or the VLA. GALARIO speeds up the computation of synthetic visibilities from a generic 2D model image or a radial brightness profile (for axisymmetric sources). On a GPU, GALARIO is 150 faster than standard Python and 10 times faster than serial C++ code on a CPU. Highly modular, easy to use and to adopt in existing code, GALARIO comes as two compiled libraries, one for Nvidia GPUs and one for multicore CPUs, where both have the same functions with identical interfaces. GALARIO comes with Python bindings but can also be directly used in C or C++. The versatility and the speed of GALARIO open new analysis pathways that otherwise would be prohibitively time consuming, e.g. fitting high resolution observations of large number of objects, or entire spectral cubes of molecular gas emission. It is a general tool that can be applied to any field that uses radio interferometer observations. The source code is available online at https://github.com/mtazzari/galario under the open source GNU Lesser General Public License v3.

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arXiv2018

Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS). III. Zooming into the methanol peak of the pre-stellar core L1544

Towards the pre-stellar core L1544, the methanol (CH$_3$OH) emission forms an asymmetric ring around the core centre, where CH$_3$OH is mostly in solid form, with a clear peak 4000~au to the north-east of the dust continuum peak. As part of the NOEMA Large Project SOLIS (Seeds of Life in Space), the CH$_3$OH peak has been spatially resolved to study its kinematics and physical structure and to investigate the cause behind the local enhancement. We find that methanol emission is distributed in a ridge parallel to the main axis of the dense core. The centroid velocity increases by about 0.2~km~s$^{-1}$ and the velocity dispersion increases from subsonic to transonic towards the central zone of the core, where the velocity field also shows complex structure. This could be indication of gentle accretion of material onto the core or interaction of two filaments, producing a slow shock. We measure the rotational temperature and show that methanol is in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) only close to the dust peak, where it is significantly depleted. The CH$_3$OH column density, $N_{tot}({\rm CH_3OH})$, profile has been derived with non-LTE radiative transfer modelling and compared with chemical models of a static core. The measured $N_{tot}({\rm CH_3OH})$ profile is consistent with model predictions, but the total column densities are one order of magnitude lower than those predicted by models, suggesting that the efficiency of reactive desorption or atomic hydrogen tunnelling adopted in the model may be overestimated; or that an evolutionary model is needed to better reproduce methanol abundance.

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arXiv2018

New insights into the nature of transition disks from a complete disk survey of the Lupus star forming region

Transition disks with large dust cavities around young stars are promising targets for studying planet formation. Previous studies have revealed the presence of gas cavities inside the dust cavities hinting at recently formed, giant planets. However, many of these studies are biased towards the brightest disks in the nearby star forming regions, and it is not possible to derive reliable statistics that can be compared with exoplanet populations. We present the analysis of 11 transition disks with large cavities (>20 AU radius) from a complete disk survey of the Lupus star forming region, using ALMA Band 7 observations at 0.3" (22-30 AU radius) resolution of the 345 GHz continuum, 13CO and C18O 3-2 observations and the Spectral Energy Distribution of each source. Gas and dust surface density profiles are derived using the physical-chemical modeling code DALI. This is the first study of transition disks of large cavities within a complete disk survey within a star forming region. The dust cavity sizes range from 20-90 AU radius and in three cases, a gas cavity is resolved as well. The deep drops in gas density and large dust cavity sizes are consistent with clearing by giant planets. The fraction of transition disks with large cavities in Lupus is ~11%, which is inconsistent with exoplanet population studies of giant planets at wide orbits. Furthermore, we present a hypothesis of an evolutionary path for large massive disks evolving into transition disks with large cavities.

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