arXiv subjects

Mario Flock

Publications and source records attributed to Mario Flock.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Characterization of Ring Substructures in the Protoplanetary Disk of HD 169142 from Multi-Wavelength ALMA Observations

We present a detailed multi-wavelength characterization of the multi-ring disk of HD 169142. We report new ALMA observations at 3 mm and analyze them together with archival 0.89 and 1.3 mm data. Our observations resolve three out of the four rings in the disk previously seen in high-resolution ALMA data. A simple parametric model is used to estimate the radial profile of the dust optical depth, temperature, density, and particle size distribution. We find that the multiple ring features of the disk are produced by annular accumulations of large particles, probably associated with gas pressure bumps. Our model indicates that the maximum dust grain size in the rings is $\sim1$ cm, with slightly flatter power-law size distributions than the ISM-like size distribution ($p\sim3.5$) found in the gaps. In particular, the inner ring ($\sim26$ au) is associated with a strong and narrow buildup of dust particles that could harbor the necessary conditions to trigger the streaming instability. According to our analysis, the snowlines of the most important volatiles do not coincide with the observed substructures. We explore different ring formation mechanisms and find that planet-disk interactions are the most likely scenario to explain the main features of HD 169142. Overall, our multi-wavelength analysis provides some of the first unambiguous evidence of the presence of radial dust traps in the rings of HD 169142. A similar analysis in a larger sample of disks could provide key insights on the impact that disk substructures have on the dust evolution and planet formation processes.

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arXiv2019

Intrinsic polarisation of elongated porous dust grains

ALMA observations revealed recently polarised radiation of several protoplanetary disks in the (sub-)millimetre wavelength range. Besides self-scattering of large particles, thermal emission by elongated grains is a potential source for the detected polarisation signal. We calculate the wavelength dependent absorption and intrinsic polarisation of spheroidally shaped, micrometre and sub-millimetre sized dust grains using the discrete dipole approximation. In particular, we analyse the impact of dust grain porosity which appears to be present in disks when small grains coagulate to form larger aggregates. For the first time our results show that (a) the intrinsic polarisation decreases for increasing grain porosity and (b) the polarisation orientation flips by 90 degree for certain ratios of wavelength to grain size. We present a new method to constrain grain porosity and the grain size in protoplanetary disks using multi-wavelength polarisation observations in the far-infrared to millimetre wavelengths. Finally, we find that moderate grain porosities ($\mathcal{P}\lesssim0.7$) potentially explain the observed polarisation fraction in the system HD 142527 while highly porous grains ($\mathcal{P}>0.7$) fail unless the grain's axis ratio is extraordinarily large.

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arXiv2019

An analytical model of radial dust trapping in protoplanetary disks

We study dust concentration in axisymmetric gas rings in protoplanetary disks. Given the gas surface density, we derived an analytical total dust surface density by taking into account the differential concentration of all the grain sizes. This model allows us to predict the local dust-to-gas mass ratio and the slope of the particle size distribution, as a function of radius. We test this analytical model comparing it with a 3D magneto-hydrodynamical simulation of dust evolution in an accretion disk. The model is also applied to the disk around HD 169142. By fitting the disk continuum observations simultaneously at $λ= 0.87$, 1.3, 3.0 mm, we obtain a global dust-to-gas mass ratio $ε_{\rm global} = 1.05 \times 10^{-2}$ and a viscosity coefficient $α= 1.35 \times 10^{-2}$. This model can be easily implemented in numerical simulations of accretion disks.

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arXiv2018

Dust-Pileup at the Dead-Zone Inner Edge and Implications for the Disk Shadow

We perform simulations of the dust and gas disk evolution to investigate the observational features of a dust-pileup at the dead-zone inner edge. We show that the total mass of accumulated dust particles is sensitive to the turbulence strength in the dead zone, $α_{\rm dead}$, because of the combined effect of turbulence-induced particle fragmentation (which suppresses particle radial drift) and turbulent diffusion. For a typical critical fragmentation velocity of silicate dust particles of $1~{\rm m~s^{-1}}$, the stress to pressure ratio $α_{\rm dead}$ needs to be lower than $3 \times 10^{-4}$ for dust trapping to operate. The obtained dust distribution is postprocessed using the radiative transfer code RADMC-3D to simulate infrared scattered-light images of the inner part of protoplanetary disks with a dust pileup. We find that a dust pileup at the dead-zone inner edge, if present, casts a shadow extending out to $\sim 10~{\rm au}$. In the shadowed region the temperature significantly drops, which in some cases yields even multiple water snow lines. We also find that even without a dust pileup at the dead-zone inner edge, the disk surface can become thermally unstable, and the excited waves can naturally produce shadows and ring-like structures in observed images. This mechanism might account for the ring-like structures seen in the scattered-light images of some disks, such as the TW Hya disk.

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arXiv2018

Turbulent and wind-driven accretion in dwarf novae threaded by a large scale magnetic field

Dwarf novae (DNe) are accreting white dwarfs that show eruptions due to a thermal-viscous instability in the accretion disk. The outburst timescales constrain $α$, the ratio of the viscous stress to the thermal pressure, and so the mechanism of angular momentum transport. The eruptive state has $α\approx0.1$ while the quiescent state has $α\approx0.03$. Turbulent transport due to the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) is generally considered to be the source of angular momentum transport in DNe. Here, we perform 3D local magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shearing box simulations including vertical stratification, radiative transfer and a net constant vertical magnetic flux to investigate how transport changes between the outburst and quiescent states of DNe. We find that a constant $B_z$ provides a higher $α$ in quiescence than in outburst, in opposition to what is expected. Including resistivity quenches MRI turbulence in quiescence, suppressing transport, unless the magnetic field is high enough, which again leads to $α\approx0.1$. A major difference between simulations with a net poloidal flux and simulations without is that angular momentum transport in the former is shared between turbulent and wind-driven transport. We find that wind-driven transport dominates in quiescence even for low magnetic fields $\sim 1$ G. This can have a major impact on observational signatures since wind-driven transport does not heat the disk. Furthermore, wind transport cannot be reduced to an $α$ prescription. We provide fits for $α$ and the wind torque with $β$, ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure. We conclude that the evolution of the thermal-viscous instability, and its consequences on the outburst cycles of CVs, needs to be seriously revised to take into account that most of the accretion energy may be carried away by a wind instead of being locally dissipated.

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arXiv2018

Kinematic links and the co-evolution of MHD winds, jets, and inner disks from a high-resolution optical [OI] survey

We present a survey of optical [OI] emission at 6300 Å toward 65 TTauri stars at the spectral resolution of $\sim7$ km/s. Past work identified a highly blueshifted velocity component (HVC) tracing microjets, and a less blueshifted low-velocity-component (LVC) attributed to winds. We focus here on the LVC kinematics to investigate links between winds, jets, accretion, and disk dispersal. We track the behavior of four types of LVC components: a broad and narrow component ("BC" and "NC") in LVCs that are decomposed into two Gaussians, which typically have an HVC, and the single-Gaussian LVC profiles separated into those that have an HVC ("SCJ") and those that do not ("SC"). LVC centroid velocities and line widths correlate with HVC equivalent width and accretion luminosity, suggesting that LVC/winds and HVC/jets are kinematically linked and connected to accretion. The deprojected HVC velocity correlates with accretion luminosity, showing that faster jets come with higher accretion. BC and NC kinematics correlate and their blueshifts are maximum at $\sim 35^{\circ}$, suggesting a conical wind geometry with this semi-opening angle. Only SCs include $n_{13-31}$ up to $\sim3$ and their properties correlate with this infrared index, showing that [OI] emission recedes to larger radii as the inner dust is depleted, tracing less dense/hot gas and a decrease in wind velocity. All together, these findings support a scenario where optically thick, accreting inner disks launch radially-extended MHD disk winds that feed jets, and where inner disk winds recede to larger radii and jets disappear in concert with dust depletion.

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arXiv2018

A New Look at T Tauri Star Forbidden Lines: MHD Driven Winds from the Inner Disk

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and photoevaporative winds are thought to play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of planet-forming disks. We report the first high-resolution ($Δv\sim$6\kms) analysis of [S II] $λ$4068, [O I] $λ$5577, and [O I] $λ$6300 lines from a sample of 48 T Tauri stars. Following Simon et al. (2016), we decompose them into three kinematic components: a high-velocity component (HVC) associated with jets, and a low-velocity narrow (LVC-NC) and broad (LVC-BC) components. We confirm previous findings that many LVCs are blueshifted by more than 1.5 kms$^{-1}$ thus most likely trace a slow disk wind. We further show that the profiles of individual components are similar in the three lines. We find that most LVC-BC and NC line ratios are explained by thermally excited gas with temperatures between 5,000$-$10,000 K and electron densities $\sim10^{7}-10^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$. The HVC ratios are better reproduced by shock models with a pre-shock H number density of $\sim10^{6}-10^{7}$ cm$^{-3}$. Using these physical properties, we estimate $\dot{M}_{\rm wind}/\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ for the LVC and $\dot{M}_{\rm jet}/\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ for the HVC. In agreement with previous work, the mass carried out in jets is modest compared to the accretion rate. With the likely assumption that the NC wind height is larger than the BC, the LVC-BC $\dot{M}_{\rm wind}/\dot{M}_{\rm acc}$ is found to be higher than the LVC-NC. These results suggest that most of the mass loss occurs close to the central star, within a few au, through an MHD driven wind. Depending on the wind height, MHD winds might play a major role in the evolution of the disk mass.

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arXiv2018

Temperature, Mass and Turbulence: A Spatially Resolved Multi-Band Non-LTE Analysis of CS in TW~Hya

Observations of multiple rotational transitions from a single molecule allow for unparalleled constraints on the physical conditions of the emitting region. We present an analysis of CS in TW~Hya using the $J=7-6$, $5-4$ and $3-2$ transitions imaged at $\sim 0.5^{\prime\prime}$ spatial resolution, resulting in a temperature and column density profile of the CS emission region extending out to 230~au, far beyond previous measurements. In addition, the 15~kHz resolution of the observations and the ability to directly estimate the temperature of the CS emitting gas, allow for one of the most sensitive searches for turbulent broadening in a disk to date. Limits of $v_{\rm turb} \lesssim 0.1 c_s$ can be placed across the entire radius of the disk. We are able to place strict limits of the local H$_2$ density due to the collisional excitations of the observed transitions. From these we find that a minimum disk mass of $3 \times 10^{-4}~M_{\rm sun}$ is required to be consistent with the CS excitation conditions and can uniquely constrain the gas surface density profile in the outer disk.

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arXiv2018

Witnessing Planetary Systems in the Making with the Next Generation Very Large Array

The discovery of thousands of exoplanets over the last couple of decades has shown that the birth of planets is a very efficient process in nature. Theories invoke a multitude of mechanisms to describe the assembly of planets in the disks around pre-main-sequence stars, but observational constraints have been sparse on account of insufficient sensitivity and resolution. Understanding how planets form and interact with their parental disk is crucial also to illuminate the main characteristics of a large portion of the full population of planets that is inaccessible to current and near-future observations. This White Paper describes some of the main issues for our current understanding of the formation and evolution of planets, and the critical contribution expected in this field by the Next Generation Very Large Array.

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arXiv2017

Radiation Hydrodynamical Turbulence In Protoplanetary Disks: Numerical Models and Observational Constraints

Planets are born in protostellar disks, which are now observed with enough resolution to address questions about internal gas flows. Candidates for driving the flows include magnetic forces, but ionization state estimates suggest much of the gas mass decouples from magnetic fields. Thus, hydrodynamical instabilities could play a major role. We investigate disk dynamics under conditions typical for a T Tauri system, using global 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations with embedded particles and a resolution of 70 cells per scale height. Stellar irradiation heating is included with realistic dust opacities. The disk starts in joint radiative balance and hydrostatic equilibrium. The vertical shear instability (VSI) develops into turbulence that persists up to at least 1600 inner orbits (143 outer orbits). Turbulent speeds are a few percent of the local sound speed at the midplane, increasing to 20%, or 100 m/s, in the corona. These are consistent with recent upper limits on turbulent speeds from optically thin and thick molecular line observations of TW Hya and HD 163296. The predominantly vertical motions induced by the VSI efficiently lift particles upwards. Grains 0.1 and 1 mm in size achieve scale heights greater than expected in isotropic turbulence. We conclude that while kinematic constraints from molecular line emission do not directly discriminate between magnetic and nonmagnetic disk models, the small dust scale heights measured in HL Tau and HD 163296 favor turbulent magnetic models, which reach lower ratios of the vertical kinetic energy density to the accretion stress.

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arXiv2017

On Shocks Driven by High-mass Planets in Radiatively Inefficient Disks. III. Observational Signatures in Thermal Emission and Scattered Light

Recent observations of the protoplanetary disk around the Herbig Be star HD 100546 show two bright features in infrared (H and L' bands) at about 50 AU, with one so far unexplained. We explore the observational signatures of a high mass planet causing shock heating in order to determine if it could be the source of the unexplained infrared feature in HD 100546. More fundamentally, we identify and characterize planetary shocks as an extra, hitherto ignored, source of luminosity in transition disks. The RADMC-3D code is used to perform dust radiative transfer calculations on the hydrodynamical disk models, including volumetric heating. A stronger shock heating rate by a factor 20 would be necessary to qualitatively reproduce the morphology of the second infrared source. Instead, we find that the outer edge of the gap carved by the planet heats up by about 50% relative to the initial reference temperature, which leads to an increase in the scale height. The bulge is illuminated by the central star, producing a lopsided feature in scattered light, as the outer gap edge shows an asymmetry in density and temperature attributable to a secondary spiral arm launched not from the Lindblad resonances but from the 2:1 resonance. We conclude that high-mass planets lead to shocks in disks that may be directly observed, particularly at wavelengths of 10 mm or longer, but that they are more likely to reveal their presence in scattered light by puffing up their outer gap edges and exciting multiple spiral arms.

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arXiv2017

The properties of the inner disk around HL Tau: Multi-wavelength modeling of the dust emission

We conducted a detailed radiative transfer modeling of the dust emission from the circumstellar disk around HL Tau. The goal of our study is to derive the surface density profile of the inner disk and its structure. In addition to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array images at Band 3 (2.9mm), Band 6 (1.3mm), and Band 7 (0.87mm), the most recent Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 7mm were included in the analysis. A simulated annealing algorithm was invoked to search for the optimum model. The radiative transfer analysis demonstrates that most radial components (i.e., >6AU) of the disk become optically thin at a wavelength of 7mm, which allows us to constrain, for the first time, the dust density distribution in the inner region of the disk. We found that a homogeneous grain size distribution is not sufficient to explain the observed images at different wavelengths simultaneously, while models with a shallower grain size distribution in the inner disk work well. We found clear evidence that larger grains are trapped in the first bright ring. Our results imply that dust evolution has already taken place in the disk at a relatively young (i.e., ~1Myr) age. We compared the midplane temperature distribution, optical depth, and properties of various dust rings with those reported previously. Using the Toomre parameter, we briefly discussed the gravitational instability as a potential mechanism for the origin of the dust clump detected in the first bright ring via the VLA observations.

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arXiv2017

Magnetically Induced Disk Winds and Transport in the HL Tau Disk

The mechanism of angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks is fundamental to understand the distributions of gas and dust in the disks. The unprecedented, high spatial resolution ALMA observations taken toward HL Tau and subsequent radiative transfer modeling reveal that a high degree of dust settling is currently achieved at the outer part of the HL Tau disk. Previous observations however suggest a high disk accretion rate onto the central star. This configuration is not necessarily intuitive in the framework of the conventional viscous disk model, since efficient accretion generally requires a high level of turbulence, which can suppress dust settling considerably. We develop a simplified, semi-analytical disk model to examine under what condition these two properties can be realized in a single model. Recent, non-ideal MHD simulations are utilized to realistically model the angular momentum transport both radially via MHD turbulence and vertically via magnetically induced disk winds. We find that the HL Tau disk configuration can be reproduced well when disk winds are properly taken into account. While the resulting disk properties are likely consistent with other observational results, such an ideal situation can be established only if the plasma $β$ at the disk midplane is $β_0 \simeq 2 \times 10^4$ under the assumption of steady accretion. Equivalently, the vertical magnetic flux at 100 au is about 0.2 mG. More detailed modeling is needed to fully identify the origin of the disk accretion and quantitatively examine plausible mechanisms behind the observed gap structures in the HL Tau disk.

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arXiv2017

Analytic Expressions for the Inner-Rim Structure of Passively Heated Protoplanetary Disks

We analytically derive the expressions for the structure of the inner region of protoplanetary disks based on the results from the recent hydrodynamical simulations. The inner part of a disk can be divided into four regions: dust-free region with gas temperature in the optically thin limit, optically thin dust halo, optically thick condensation front and the classical optically thick region in order from the inside. We derive the dust-to-gas mass ratio profile in the dust halo using the fact that partial dust condensation regulates the temperature to the dust evaporation temperature. Beyond the dust halo, there is an optically thick condensation front where all the available silicate gas condenses out. The curvature of the condensation surface is determined by the condition that the surface temperature must be nearly equal to the characteristic temperature $\sim 1200{\,\rm K}$. We derive the mid-plane temperature in the outer two regions using the two-layer approximation with the additional heating by the condensation front for the outermost region. As a result, the overall temperature profile is step-like with steep gradients at the borders between the outer three regions. The borders might act as planet traps where the inward migration of planets due to gravitational interaction with the gas disk stops. The temperature at the border between the two outermost regions coincides with the temperature needed to activate magnetorotational instability, suggesting that the inner edge of the dead zone must lie at this border. The radius of the dead-zone inner edge predicted from our solution is $\sim$ 2-3 times larger than that expected from the classical optically thick temperature.

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arXiv2016

Can dead zones create structures like a transition disk?

[Abridged] Regions of low ionisation where the activity of the magneto-rotational instability is suppressed, the so-called dead zones, have been suggested to explain gaps and asymmetries of transition disks. We investigate the gas and dust evolution simultaneously assuming simplified prescriptions for a dead zone and a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wind acting on the disk. We explore whether the resulting gas and dust distribution can create signatures similar to those observed in transition disks. For the dust evolution, we included the transport, growth, and fragmentation of dust particles. To compare with observations, we produced synthetic images in scattered optical light and in thermal emission at mm wavelengths. In all models with a dead zone, a bump in the gas surface density is produced that is able to efficiently trap large particles ($\gtrsim 1$ mm) at the outer edge of the dead zone. The gas bump reaches an amplitude of a factor of $\sim5$, which can be enhanced by the presence of an MHD wind that removes mass from the inner disk. While our 1D simulations suggest that such a structure can be present only for $\sim$1 Myr, the structure may be maintained for a longer time when more realistic 2D/3D simulations are performed. In the synthetic images, gap-like low-emission regions are seen at scattered light and in thermal emission at mm wavelengths, as previously predicted in the case of planet-disk interaction. As a conclusion, main signatures of transition disks can be reproduced by assuming a dead zone in the disk, such as gap-like structure in scattered light and millimetre continuum emission, and a lower gas surface density within the dead zone. Previous studies showed that the Rossby wave instability can also develop at the edge of such dead zones, forming vortices and also creating asymmetries.

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arXiv2016

Magnetic fields in protoplanetary disks: from MHD simulations to ALMA observations

Magnetic fields significantly influence the evolution of protoplanetary disks and the formation of planets, following the predictions of numerous magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. However, these predictions are yet observationally unconstrained. To validate the predictions on the influence of magnetic fields on protoplanetary disks, we apply 3D radiative transfer simulations of the polarized emission of aligned aspherical dust grains that directly link 3D global non-ideal MHD simulations to ALMA observations. Our simulations show that it is feasible to observe the predicted toroidal large-scale magnetic field structures, not only in the ideal observations but also with high-angular resolution ALMA observations. Our results show further that high angular resolution observations by ALMA are able to identify vortices embedded in outer magnetized disk regions.

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arXiv2016

The VLA view of the HL Tau Disk - Disk Mass, Grain Evolution, and Early Planet Formation

The first long-baseline ALMA campaign resolved the disk around the young star HL Tau into a number of axisymmetric bright and dark rings. Despite the very young age of HL Tau these structures have been interpreted as signatures for the presence of (proto)planets. The ALMA images triggered numerous theoretical studies based on disk-planet interactions, magnetically driven disk structures, and grain evolution. Of special interest are the inner parts of disks, where terrestrial planets are expected to form. However, the emission from these regions in HL Tau turned out to be optically thick at all ALMA wavelengths, preventing the derivation of surface density profiles and grain size distributions. Here, we present the most sensitive images of HL Tau obtained to date with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at 7.0 mm wavelength with a spatial resolution comparable to the ALMA images. At this long wavelength the dust emission from HL Tau is optically thin, allowing a comprehensive study of the inner disk. We obtain a total disk dust mass of 0.001 - 0.003 Msun, depending on the assumed opacity and disk temperature. Our optically thin data also indicate fast grain growth, fragmentation, and formation of dense clumps in the inner densest parts of the disk. Our results suggest that the HL Tau disk may be actually in a very early stage of planetary formation, with planets not already formed in the gaps but in the process of future formation in the bright rings.

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arXiv2015

On shocks driven by high-mass planets in radiatively inefficient disks. II. Three-dimensional global disk simulations

Recent high-resolution, near-infrared images of protoplanetary disks have shown that these disks often present spiral features. Spiral arms are among the structures predicted decades ago by numerical simulations of disk-planet interaction and thus it is tempting to suspect that planetary perturbers are responsible for the observed signatures. However, such interpretation is not free of problems. The spirals are found to have large pitch angles, and in at least one case (HD 100546) the spiral feature appears effectively unpolarized, which implies thermal emission of the order of 1000K (465$\pm$40K at closer inspection). We have recently shown in two-dimensional models that shock dissipation in the supersonic wake of high-mass planets can lead to significant heating if the disk is sufficiently adiabatic. In this paper we extend this analysis to three dimensions in thermodynamically evolving disks. We use the Pencil Code in spherical coordinates for our models, with a prescription for thermal cooling based on the optical depth of the local vertical gas column. We use a 5$M_J$ planet, and show that shocks in the region around the planet where the Lindblad resonances occur heat the gas to substantially higher temperatures than the ambient disk gas at that radius. The gas is accelerated vertically away from the midplane by the shocks to form shock bores, and the gas falling back toward the midplane breaks up into a turbulent surf near the Lindblad resonances. This turbulence, although localized, has high $α$ values, reaching 0.05 in the inner Lindblad resonance, and 0.1 in the outer one. We also find evidence that the disk regions heated up by the planetary shocks eventually becomes superadiabatic, generating convection far from the planet's orbit.

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