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Matías Montesinos

Publications and source records attributed to Matías Montesinos.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

Line-driven Radiative Winds in B-Supergiants: Bridging the Gap between Fast and Slow m-CAK Solutions

The modified Castor, Abbott, and Klein (m-CAK) theory predicts different wind regimes based on the line force parameter for changes in ionization ($δ$) and the rotation parameter ($Ω$). Stationary hydrodynamic studies have reported ''forbidden regions'' or gaps in this parameter space where no steady-state solution exists, suggesting physical instabilities. We investigate the stability of wind solutions within these gaps for B-supergiants to determine if they correspond to physical instabilities or numerical artifacts. We perform 1D time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations, systematically exploring the full $(Ω, δ)$ space for three B-supergiant models ($T_{\rm eff}=15-25$ kK), adopting a fixed density boundary condition. Our simulations reveal stable stationary solutions continuously across the entire parameter space, effectively filling the reported gaps. The transition from fast to slow regimes is smooth but structurally complex. Within the gap, the velocity profile develops a distinct ''kink'' or extended plateau in the supersonic flow, allowing the wind to reach a stable state. The mass-loss rate ($\dot{M}$) varies smoothly without artificial jumps. We find that the $\dot{M}$ gradient depends on the radiative driving strength ($k$): while $\dot{M}$ increases with $δ$ for standard driving ($k \approx 0.32$), it decreases for the weak-driving regime ($k = 0.1$), consistent with stationary predictions. Moreover, in this regime, the final solution depends on the initial flow acceleration, confirming multiple hydrodynamic solutions. We conclude the m-CAK solution space is continuous; reported forbidden regions are artifacts of stationary methods. Time-dependent simulations effectively bridge the regimes, suggesting these transitions correspond to metastable states.

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Observational Signatures of Planetary Tidal Disruption Events Around Solar-Mass Stars

The tidal disruption of planets by their host stars represents a growing area of interest in transient astronomy, offering insights into the final stages of planetary system evolution. We model the hydrodynamic evolution and predict the multi-wavelength observational signatures of planetary TDEs around a solar-mass host, focusing on Jupiter-like and Neptune-like progenitors and examining how different eccentricities of the planet's pre-disruption orbit shape the morphology and emission of the tidal debris. We perform 2D hydrodynamic simulations using the FARGO3D code to model the formation and viscous evolution of the resulting debris disk. We employ a viscous alpha-disk prescription and include a time-dependent energy equation to compute the disk's effective temperature and subsequently derive the bolometric and multi-band photometric light curves. Our simulations show that planetary TDEs produce a diverse range of luminous transients. A Jupiter-like planet disrupted from a circular orbit at the Roche limit generates a transient peaking at $L_{bol} \approx 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$ after a 12-day rise. In contrast, the same planet on an eccentric orbit (e=0.5) produces a transient of comparable peak luminosity but on a much shorter timescale, peaking in only 1 day and followed by a highly volatile light curve. We find that the effect of eccentricity is not universal, as it accelerates the event for Jupiter but delays it for Neptune. A robust "bluer-when-brighter" colour evolution is a common feature as the disk cools over its multi-year lifetime. The strong dependence of light curve morphology on the initial orbit and progenitor mass makes these events powerful diagnostics. This framework is crucial for identifying planetary TDEs in time-domain surveys.

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Volatile enrichment in low-mass planets: Signatures of past planetary disruption?

Tidal disruption and engulfment events around main-sequence stars -- such as the luminous red nova ZTF SLRN-2020, a candidate planetary-engulfment event -- reveal the destruction of close-in giant planets. While current observations focus on stellar accretion and inner dust emission, the fate of the volatile-rich material expelled during disruption remains poorly understood. We investigate whether the hydrogen- and helium-rich gas expelled from the disrupted planet's envelope and atmosphere can escape the inner system and be gravitationally captured by a low-mass outer planet, potentially forming a transient atmosphere and producing detectable volatile contamination. We model the outward diffusion of gas from a tidally stripped giant using 2D hydrodynamical simulations, complemented by analytical estimates of volatile observability and atmospheric escape. We assess the efficiency of gas capture by outer planets and the survival timescales of the resulting secondary atmospheres under high-energy stellar irradiation. Our results show that volatile-rich gas can form a "volatile-enriched planet" (VEP). The resulting envelopes can contain up to 10^-6 Earth masses -- comparable to Earth's atmosphere -- for Earth-like planets, yielding transit depths of tens to hundreds of parts per million. Such signatures may persist for 1 to 100 million years, depending on planetary mass, orbit, and stellar activity. This scenario offers a viable pathway for the formation of volatile-rich atmospheres in evolved low-mass planets and may help explain the properties of systems such as TOI-421b and WASP-107b.

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Ionized envelopes around protoplanets and the role of radiative feedback in gas accretion

Planetary growth within protoplanetary disks involves accreting material from their surroundings, yet the underlying mechanisms and physical conditions of the accreting gas remain debated. This study aims to investigate the dynamics and thermodynamic properties of accreting gas giants, and to characterize the envelope that forms near the planet during accretion. We employ three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of a Jupiter-mass planet embedded in a viscous gaseous disk. Our models incorporate a non-isothermal energy equation to compute gas and radiation energy diffusion and include radiative feedback from the planet. Results indicate that gas accretion occurs supersonically towards the planet, forming an ionized envelope that extends from the planetary surface up to 0.2 times the Hill radius in the no-feedback model, and up to 0.4 times the Hill radius in the feedback model. The envelope's radius, or ionization radius, acts as a boundary halting supersonic gas inflow and is pivotal for estimating accretion rates and H$α$ emission luminosities. Including radiative feedback increases accretion rates, especially within the ionization radius and from areas to the right of the planet when the star is positioned to the left. The accretion luminosities calculated at the ionization radius are substantially lower than those calculated at the Hill radius, highlighting potential misinterpretations in the non-detection of H$α$ emissions as indicators of ongoing planet formation.

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The missing rings around Solar System moons

Rings are complex structures surrounding giant planets and some minor bodies in the Solar System. While some formation mechanisms could also potentially foster their existence around (regular or irregular) satellites, none of these bodies currently bear these structures. We aim to understand the underlying mechanisms that govern the potential formation, stability, and/or decay of hypothetical circumsatellital rings (CSRs), orbiting the largest moons in the Solar System. This extends to the exploration of short-term morphological features within these rings, providing insights into the ring survival time-scales and the interactions that drive their evolution. To conduct this study, we use numerical N-body simulations under the perturbing influence of the host planet and other moon companions. We found that moons with a lower Roche-to-Hill radius can preserve their rings over extended periods. Moreover, the gravitational environment in which these rings are immersed influences the system's morphological evolution, inducing gaps through the excitation of eccentricity and inclination of constituent particles. Specifically, our results show that Iapetus' and Rhea's rings experience minimal variations in their orbital parameters, enhancing their long-term stability. This agrees with the hypothesis that some of the features of Iapetus and Rhea were produced by ancient ring systems, for example, the huge ridge in Iapetus equator as a result of a decaying ring. From a dynamical perspective, we found that there are no mechanisms that preclude the existence of CSRs and we attribute their current absence to non-gravitational phenomena. Effects such as stellar radiation, magnetic fields, and the influence of magnetospheric plasma can significantly impact the dynamics of constituent particles and trigger their decay, highlighing the importance of future studies on these effects.

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Resolving the Binary Components of the Outbursting Protostar HBC 494 with ALMA

Episodic accretion is a low-mass pre-main sequence phenomenon characterized by sudden outbursts of enhanced accretion. These objects are classified into two: protostars with elevated levels of accretion that lasts for decades or more, called FUors, and protostars with shorter and repetitive bursts, called EXors. HBC 494 is a FUor object embedded in the Orion Molecular Cloud. Earlier Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) continuum observations showed an asymmetry in the disk at 0.''2 resolution. Here, we present follow-up observations at ~0.''03, resolving the system into two components: HBC 494 N (primary) and HBC 494 S (secondary). No circumbinary disk was detected. Both disks are resolved with a projected separation of ~0.''18 (75 au). Their projected dimensions are 84+/-1.8 x 66.9+/-1.5 mas for HBC 494 N and 64.6+/-2.5 x 46.0+/-1.9 mas for HBC 494 S. The disks are almost aligned and with similar inclinations. The observations show that the primary is ~5 times brighter/more massive and ~2 times bigger than the secondary. We notice that the northern component has a similar mass to the FUors, while the southern has to EXors. The HBC 494 disks show individual sizes that are smaller than single eruptive YSOs. In this work, we also report 12CO, 13CO, and C18O molecular line observations. At large scale, the 12CO emission shows bipolar outflows, while the 13CO and C18O maps show a rotating and infalling envelope around the system. At a smaller scale, the 12CO and 13CO moment zero maps show cavities within the continuum disks' area, which may indicate continuum over-subtraction or slow-moving jets and chemical destruction along the line-of-sight.

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Morphology of the gas-rich debris disk around HD 121617 with SPHERE observations in polarized light

Debris disks are the signposts of collisionally eroding planetesimal circumstellar belts, whose study can put important constraints on the structure of extrasolar planetary systems. The best constraints on the morphology of disks are often obtained from spatially resolved observations in scattered light. Here, we investigate the young (~16 Myr) bright gas-rich debris disk around HD121617. We use new scattered-light observations with VLT/SPHERE to characterize the morphology and the dust properties of this disk. From these properties we can then derive constraints on the physical and dynamical environment of this system, for which significant amounts of gas have been detected. The disk morphology is constrained by linear-polarimetric observations in the J band. Based on our modeling results and archival photometry, we also model the SED to put constraints on the total dust mass and the dust size distribution. We explore different scenarios that could explain these new constraints. We present the first resolved image in scattered light of the debris disk HD121617. We fit the morphology of the disk, finding a semi-major axis of 78.3$\pm$0.2 au, an inclination of 43.1$\pm$0.2° and a position angle of the major axis with respect to north, of 239.8$\pm$0.3°, compatible with the previous continuum and CO detection with ALMA. Our analysis shows that the disk has a very sharp inner edge, possibly sculpted by a yet-undetected planet or gas drag. While less sharp, its outer edge is steeper than expected for unperturbed disks, which could also be due to a planet or gas drag, but future observations probing the system farther from the main belt would help explore this further. The SED analysis leads to a dust mass of 0.21$\pm$0.02 M$_{\oplus}$ and a minimum grain size of 0.87$\pm$0.12 $μ$m, smaller than the blowout size by radiation pressure, which is not unexpected for very bright col...

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The vertical structure of debris disks and the impact of gas

The vertical structure of debris disks provides clues about their dynamical evolution and the collision rate of the unseen planetesimals. Thanks to the ever-increasing angular resolution of contemporary instruments and facilities, we are beginning to constrain the scale height of a handful of debris disks, either at near-infrared or millimeter wavelengths. Nonetheless, this is often done for individual targets only. We present here the geometric modeling of eight disks close to edge-on, all observed with the same instrument (SPHERE) and using the same mode (dual-beam polarimetric imaging). Motivated by the presence of CO gas in two out of the eight disks, we then investigate the impact that gas can have on the scale height by performing N-body simulations including gas drag and collisions. We show that gas can quickly alter the dynamics of particles (both in the radial and vertical directions), otherwise governed by gravity and radiation pressure. We find that, in the presence of gas, particles smaller than a few tens of microns can efficiently settle toward the midplane at the same time as they migrate outward beyond the birth ring. For second generation gas ($M_\mathrm{gas} \leq 0.1$ $M_\oplus$), the vertical settling should be best observed in scattered light images compared to observations at millimeter wavelengths. But if the gas has a primordial origin ($M_\mathrm{gas} \geq 1$ $M_\oplus$), the disk will appear very flat both at near-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. Finally, far beyond the birth ring, our results suggest that the surface brightness profile can be as shallow as $\sim -2.25$.

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Cronomoons: origin, dynamics, and light-curve features of ringed exomoons

In recent years, technical and theoretical work to detect moons and rings around exoplanets has been attempted. The small mass/size ratios between moons and planets means this is very challenging, having only one exoplanetary system where spotting an exomoon might be feasible (i.e. Kepler-1625b i). In this work, we study the dynamical evolution of ringed exomoons, dubbed "cronomoons" after their similarity with Cronus (Greek for Saturn), and after Chronos (the epitome of time), following the Transit Timing Variations (TTV) and Transit Duration Variation (TDV) that they produce on their host planet. Cronomoons have extended systems of rings that make them appear bigger than they actually are when transiting in front of their host star. We explore different possible scenarios that could lead to the formation of such circumsatellital rings, and through the study of the dynamical/thermodynamic stability and lifespan of their dust and ice ring particles, we found that an isolated cronomoon can survive for time-scales long enough to be detected and followed up. If these objects exist, cronomoons' rings will exhibit gaps similar to Saturn's Cassini Division and analogous to the asteroid belt's Kirkwood gaps, but instead raised due to resonances induced by the host planet. Finally, we analyse the case of Kepler-1625b i under the scope of this work, finding that the controversial giant moon could instead be an Earth-mass cronomoon. From a theoretical perspective, this scenario can contribute to a better interpretation of the underlying phenomenology in current and future observations.

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Radiative scale-height and shadows in protoplanetary disks

Planets form in young circumstellar disks called protoplanetary disks. However, it is still difficult to catch planet formation in-situ. Nevertheless, from recent ALMA/SPHERE data, encouraging evidence of the direct and indirect presence of embedded planets has been identified in disks around young stars: co-moving point sources, gravitational perturbations, rings, cavities, and emission dips or shadows cast on disks. The interpretation of these observations needs a robust physical framework to deduce the complex disk geometry. In particular, protoplanetary disk models usually assume the gas pressure scale-height given by the ratio of the sound speed over the azimuthal velocity $H/r = c_{s\rm }/v_{\rm k}$. By doing so, \textit{radiative} pressure fields are often ignored, which could lead to a misinterpretation of the real vertical structure of such disks. We follow the evolution of a gaseous disk with an embedded Jupiter mass planet through hydrodynamical simulations, computing the disk scale-height including radiative pressure, which was derived from a generalization of the stellar atmosphere theory. We focus on the vertical impact of the radiative pressure in the vicinity of circumplanetary disks, where temperatures can reach $\gtrsim 1000$ K for an accreting planet, and radiative forces can overcome gravitational forces from the planet. The radiation-pressure effects create a vertical optically thick column of gas and dust at the proto-planet location, casting a shadow in scattered light. This mechanism could explain the peculiar illumination patterns observed in some disks around young stars such as HD 169142 where a moving shadow has been detected, or the extremely high aspect-ratio $H/r \sim 0.2$ observed in systems like AB Aur and CT Cha.

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Scattered light may reveal the existence of ringed exoplanets

Rings around giant exoplanets (hereafter 'exorings') are still a missing planetary phenomenon among the vast number of discovered planets. Despite the fact there exist a large number of methods for identifying and characterizing these exorings, none of them has been successful to date. Most of those efforts focus on the photometric signatures produced by rings around transiting exoplanets; thus, little interest has been intended for the detectable signatures that non-transiting ringed planets might cause owing to the excess of scattered starlight from both their atmosphere and the considerably large surface of their (hypothetical) rings-system. This extra scattering produced by exorings would occur at an orbital location defined here as the `the summer solstice' of a stellar light curve. In this letter, we develop a first-order model to estimate the photometric signatures of non-transiting exorings and predict their detectability by using present and future facilities. We also show how, besides the discovery itself, our model can be used to constrain orbital and physical parameters of planet-rings systems.

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NaCo polarimetric observations of Sz 91 transitional disk: a remarkable case of dust filtering

We present polarized light observations of the transitional disk around Sz 91 acquired with VLT/NaCo at $H$ (1.7$μ$m) and $K_s$ (2.2$μ$m) bands. We resolve the disk and detect polarized emission up to $\sim$0."5 ($\sim$80 au) along with a central cavity at both bands. We computed a radiative transfer model that accounts for the main characteristics of the polarized observations. We found that the emission is best explained by small, porous grains distributed in a disk with a $\sim$45 au cavity. Previous ALMA observations have revealed a large sub-mm cavity ($\sim$83 au) and extended gas emission from the innermost (<16 au) regions up to almost 400 au from the star. Dynamical clearing by multiple low-mass planets arises as the most probable mechanism for the origin of Sz 91's peculiar structure. Using new $L'$ band ADI observations we can rule out companions more massive than $M_p$ $\geq$ 8 $M_\mathrm{Jup}$ beyond 45 au assuming hot-start models. The disk is clearly asymmetric in polarized light along the minor axis, with the north side brighter than the south side. Differences in position angle between the disk observed at sub-mm wavelengths with ALMA and our NaCo observations were found. This suggests that the disk around Sz 91 could be highly structured. Higher signal-to-noise near-IR and sub-mm observations are needed to confirm the existence of such structures and to improve the current understanding in the origin of transitional disks.

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Flybys in protoplanetary discs: II. Observational signatures

Tidal encounters in star clusters perturb discs around young protostars. In Cuello et al. (2019a, Paper I) we detailed the dynamical signatures of a stellar flyby in both gas and dust. Flybys produce warped discs, spirals with evolving pitch angles, increasing accretion rates, and disc truncation. Here we present the corresponding observational signatures of these features in optical/near-infrared scattered light and (sub-) millimeter continuum and CO line emission. Using representative prograde and retrograde encounters for direct comparison, we post-process hydrodynamical simulations with radiative transfer methods to generate a catalogue of multi-wavelength observations. This provides a reference to identify flybys in recent near-infrared and sub-millimetre observations (e.g., RW Aur, AS 205, HV Tau & DO Tau, FU Ori, V2775 Ori, and Z CMa).

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An unusually large gaseous transit in a debris disc

We present the detection of an unusually large transient gas absorption in several ionized species in the debris disc star HD 37306 using high-resolution optical spectra. We have been analysing a large sample of debris discs searching for circumstellar gas absorptions aiming to determine the frequency of gas in debris discs. HD 37306 stood out showing remarkably broad absorptions superimposed onto several photospheric Ca ii, Fe ii and Ti ii lines. The observed absorptions, unlike typical exocometary transits, lasted for at least eight days. Here we analyse simultaneous spectroscopic and photometric data of the event and evaluate different scenarios that might explain the observed features. We conclude that the most likely scenario might be an exocometary break-up releasing a significant amount of gas close to the star, producing an occulting "ring"/"torus" shape.

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Flybys in protoplanetary discs: I. Gas and dust dynamics

We present 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of protoplanetary discs undergoing a flyby by a stellar perturber on a parabolic orbit lying in a plane inclined relative to the disc mid-plane. We model the disc as a mixture of gas and dust, with grains ranging from 1 μm to 10 cm in size. Exploring different orbital inclinations, periastron distances and mass ratios, we investigate the disc dynamical response during and after the flyby. We find that flybys induce evolving spiral structure in both gas and dust which can persist for thousands of years after periastron. Gas and dust structures induced by the flyby differ because of drag-induced effects on the dust grains. Variations in the accretion rate by up to an order of magnitude occur over a time-scale of order 10 years or less, inducing FU Orionis-like outbursts. The remnant discs are truncated and warped. The dust disc is left more compact than the gas disc, both because of disc truncation and accelerated radial drift of grains induced by the flyby.

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Dusty spirals triggered by shadows in transition discs

Context. Despite the recent discovery of spiral-shaped features in protoplanetary discs in the near-infrared and millimetric wavelengths, there is still an active discussion to understand how they formed. In fact, the spiral waves observed in discs around young stars can be due to different physical mechanisms: planet/companion torques, gravitational perturbations or illumination effects. Aims. We study the spirals formed in the gaseous phase due to two diametrically opposed shadows cast at fixed disc locations. The shadows are created by an inclined non-precessing disc inside the cavity, which is assumed to be optically thick. In particular, we analyse the effect of these spirals on the dynamics of the dust particles and discuss their detectability in transition discs. Methods. We perform gaseous hydrodynamical simulations with shadows, then we compute the dust evolution on top of the gaseous distribution, and finally we produce synthetic ALMA observations of the dust emission based on radiative transfer calculations. Results. Our main finding is that mm- to cm-sized dust particles are efficiently trapped inside the shadow-triggered spirals. We also observe that particles of various sizes starting at different stellocentric distances are well mixed inside these pressure maxima. This dynamical effect would favour grain growth and affect the resulting composition of planetesimals in the disc. In addition, our radiative transfer calculations show spiral patterns in the disc at 1.6 μm and 1.3 mm. Due to their faint thermal emission (compared to the bright inner regions of the disc) the spirals cannot be detected with ALMA. Our synthetic observations prove however that shadows are observable as dips in the thermal emission.

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F.S.I.: Flyby Scene Investigation

We present a methodology to interpret observations of protoplanetary discs where a flyby, also called a tidal encounter, is suspected. In case of a flyby, protoplanetary discs can be significantly disturbed. The resulting dynamical and kinematical signatures can last for several thousands of years after the flyby and hence deeply affect the evolution of the disc. These effects are stronger for closer encounters and more massive perturbers. For the very same flyby parameters, varying the inclination of the perturber's orbit produces a broad range of disc structures: spirals, bridges, warps and cavities. We study this kind of features both in the gas and in the dust for grains ranging from 1 μm to 10 cm in size. Interestingly, the dust exhibits a different dynamical behaviour compared to the gas because of gas-drag effects. Finally, flybys can also trigger high accretion events in the disc-hosting star, readily similar to FU Orionis-type outbursts. All this information can be used to infer the flyby parameters from an incomplete set of observations at different wavelengths. Therefore, the main scope of our flyby scene investigation (FSI) methodology is to help to interpret recent "puzzling" disc observations.

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Planetary-like spirals caused by moving shadows in transition discs

Shadows and spirals seem to be common features of transition discs. Among the spiral-triggering mechanisms proposed, only one establishes a causal link between shadows and spirals so far. In fact, provided the presence of shadows in the disc, the combined effect of temperature gradient and differential disc rotation, creates strong azimuthal pressure gradients. After several thousand years, grand-design spirals develop in the gas phase. Previous works have only considered static shadows caused by an inclined inner disc. However, in some cases, the inner regions of circumbinary discs can break and precess. Thus, it is more realistic to consider moving shadow patterns in the disc. In this configuration, the intersection between the inner and the outer discs defines the line of nodes at which the shadows are cast. Here, we consider moving shadows and study the resulting circumbinary disc structure. We find that only static and prograde shadows trigger spirals, in contrast to retrograde ones. Interestingly, if a region of the disc corotates with the shadow, a planet-like signature develops at the co-rotation position. The resulting spirals resemble those caused by a planet embedded in the disc, with similar pitch angles.

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