arXiv subjects

Nienke van der Marel

Publications and source records attributed to Nienke van der Marel.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

ALMA Observations of the Inner Cavity in the Protoplanetary Disk around Sz 84

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of a protoplanetary disk around the T Tauri star Sz~84 and analyses of the structures of the inner cavity in the central region of the dust disk. Sz~84's spectral energy distribution (SED) has been known to exhibit negligible infrared excess at $λ\lesssim$10~$μ$m due to the disk's cavity structure. Analyses of the observed visibilities of dust continuum at 1.3~mm and the SED indicate that the size of the cavity in the disk of large (millimeter size) dust grains is 8~au in radius and that in the disk of small (sub-micron size) dust grains is 60~au in radius. Furthermore, from the SED analyses, we estimate that the upper limit mass of small dust grains at $r<$60~au is less than $\sim$10$^{-3}$~$M_{\rm earth}$, which is $\lesssim$0.01~\% of the total (small~$+$~large) dust mass at $r<$60~au. These results suggest that large dust grains are dominant at $r<$60~au, implying that dust grains efficiently grow with less efficient fragmentation in this region, potentially due to weak turbulence and/or stickier dust grains. The balance of grain growth and dust fragmentation is an important factor for determining the size of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks, and thus Sz~84 could serve as a good testbed for investigations of grain growth in such disks.

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arXiv2020

Are the spiral arms in the MWC 758 protoplanetary disc driven by a companion inside the cavity?

Spiral arms in protoplanetary discs are thought to be linked to the presence of companions. We test the hypothesis that the double spiral arm morphology observed in the transition disc MWC 758 can be generated by an $\approx 10$ M$_{\rm Jup}$ companion on an eccentric orbit internal to the spiral arms. Previous studies on MWC 758 have assumed an external companion. We compare simulated observations from three dimensional hydrodynamics simulations of disc-companion interaction to scattered light, infrared and CO molecular line observations, taking into account observational biases. The inner companion hypothesis is found to explain the double spiral arms, as well as several additional features seen in MWC 758 -- the arc in the northwest, substructures inside the spiral arms, the cavity in CO isotopologues, and the twist in the kinematics. Testable predictions include detection of fainter spiral structure, detection of a point source south-southeast of the primary, and proper motion of the spiral arms.

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arXiv2020

GW Ori: Interactions Between a Triple-star System and its Circumtriple Disk in Action

GW Ori is a hierarchical triple system which has a rare circumtriple disk. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of 1.3 mm dust continuum and 12CO J=2-1 molecular gas emission of the disk. For the first time, we identify three dust rings in the disk at ~46, 188, and 338 AU, with estimated dust mass of ~70-250 Earth masses, respectively. To our knowledge, the outer ring in GW Ori is the largest dust ring ever found in protoplanetary disks. We use visibility modelling of dust continuum to show that the disk has misaligned parts and the innermost dust ring is eccentric. The disk misalignment is also suggested by the CO kinematics modelling. We interpret these substructures as evidence of ongoing dynamical interactions between the triple stars and the circumtriple disk.

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arXiv2020

Protoplanetary disk masses in NGC 2024: Evidence for two populations

Protoplanetary disks in dense, massive star-forming regions are strongly affected by their environment. How this environmental impact changes over time is an important constraint on disk evolution and external photoevaporation models. We characterize the dust emission from 179 disks in the core of the young (0.5 Myr) NGC 2024 cluster. By studying how the disk mass varies within the cluster, and comparing these disks to those in other regions, we aim to determine how external photoevaporation influences disk properties over time. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a 2.9' x 2.9' mosaic centered on NGC 2024 FIR 3 was observed at 225 GHz with a resolution of 0.25'', or ~100 AU. The imaged region contains 179 disks identified at IR wavelengths, seven new disk candidates, and several protostars. The overall detection rate of disks is $32 \pm 4\%$. Few of the disks are resolved, with the exception of a giant (R = 300 AU) transition disk. Serendipitously, we observe a millimeter flare from an X-ray bright young stellar object (YSO), and resolve continuum emission from a Class 0 YSO in the FIR 3 core. Two distinct disk populations are present: a more massive one in the east, along the dense molecular ridge hosting the FIR 1-5 YSOs, with a detection rate of $45 \pm 7\%$. In the western population, towards IRS 1, only $15 \pm 4\%$ of disks are detected. NGC 2024 hosts two distinct disk populations. Disks along the dense molecular ridge are young (0.2 - 0.5 Myr) and partly shielded from the far ultraviolet radiation of IRS 2b; their masses are similar to isolated 1 - 3 Myr old SFRs. The western population is older and at lower extinctions, and may be affected by external photoevaporation from both IRS 1 and IRS 2b. However, it is possible these disks had lower masses to begin with.

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arXiv2020

Dust depleted inner disks in a large sample of transition disks through long-baseline ALMA observations

Transition disks with large inner dust cavities are thought to host massive companions. However, the disk structure inside the companion orbit and how material flows toward an actively accreting star remain unclear. We present a high resolution continuum study of inner disks in the cavities of 38 transition disks. Measurements of the dust mass from archival Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array observations are combined with stellar properties and spectral energy distributions to assemble a detailed picture of the inner disk. An inner dust disk is detected in 18 of 38 disks in our sample. Of the 14 resolved disks, 9 are significantly misaligned with the outer disk. The near-infrared excess is uncorrelated with the mm dust mass of the inner disk. The size-luminosity correlation known for protoplanetary disks is recovered for the inner disks as well, consistent with radial drift. The inner disks are depleted in dust relative to the outer disk and their dust mass is uncorrelated with the accretion rates. This is interpreted as the result of radial drift and trapping by planets in a low $α$ ($\sim 10^{-3}$) disk, or a failure of the $α$-disk model to describe angular momentum transport and accretion. The only disk in our sample with confirmed planets in the gap, PDS 70, has an inner disk with a significantly larger radius and lower inferred gas-to-dust ratio than other disks in the sample. We hypothesize that these inner disk properties and the detection of planets are due to the gap having only been opened recently by young, actively accreting planets.

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arXiv2019

The Formation of Stars -- From Filaments to Cores to Protostars and Protoplanetry Disks

Star formation involves the flow of gas and dust within molecular clouds into protostars and young stellar objects (YSOs) due to gravity. Along the way, these flows are shaped significantly by many other mechanisms, including pressure, turbulent motions, magnetic fields, stellar feedback, jets, and angular momentum. How all these mechanisms interact nonlinearly with each other on various length scales leads to the formation and evolution of substructures within clouds, including filaments, clumps, cores, disks, outflows, the protostars/YSOs themselves, and planets. In this white paper, prepared for the 2020 Long Range Plan panel which will recommend Canada's future directions for astronomy, we describe the observational and theoretical leadership in the star formation field that Canada's vibrant community has demonstrated over the past decade. Drawing from this extensive background, we identify five key questions that must be addressed for further progress to be made in understanding star formation in the next decade. Addressing these questions will improve our understanding of the dynamics of the dense gas and the role of the magnetic field in star formation, the optical properties of the dust used to trace mass and magnetic fields, the sources of variability in star-forming objects on short timescales, and the physical processes that specifically promote the clustering of stars. We further highlight key facilities in which Canada should become involved to continue making progress in this field. Single-dish facilities we recommend include LSST, trans-atmospheric far-infrared telescopes like BLAST-TNG and SPICA, and ground-based telescopes like JCMT, GBT, and CCAT-p. Interferometric facilities we recommend include ALMA, ngVLA, and SKA1.

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arXiv2019

Canada and the SKA from 2020-2030

This white paper submitted for the 2020 Canadian Long-Range Planning process (LRP2020) presents the prospects for Canada and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) from 2020-2030, focussing on the first phase of the project (SKA1) scheduled to begin construction early in the next decade. SKA1 will make transformational advances in our understanding of the Universe across a wide range of fields, and Canadians are poised to play leadership roles in several. Canadian key SKA technologies will ensure a good return on capital investment in addition to strong scientific returns, positioning Canadian astronomy for future opportunities well beyond 2030. We therefore advocate for Canada's continued scientific and technological engagement in the SKA from 2020-2030 through participation in the construction and operations phases of SKA1.

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arXiv2019

The Next Generation Very Large Array

The next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a transformational radio observatory being designed by the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). It will provide order of magnitude improvements in sensitivity, resolution, and uv coverage over the current Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at ~1.2-50 GHz and extend the frequency range up to 70-115 GHz. This document is a white paper written by members of the Canadian community for the 2020 Long Range Plan panel, which will be making recommendations on Canada's future directions in astronomy. Since Canadians have been historically major users of the VLA and have been valued partners with NRAO for ALMA, Canada's participation in ngVLA is welcome. Canadians have been actually involved in ngVLA discussions for the past five years, and have played leadership roles in the ngVLA Science and Technical Advisory Councils. Canadian technologies are also very attractive for the ngVLA, in particular our designs for radio antennas, receivers, correlates, and data archives, and our industrial capacities to realize them. Indeed, the Canadian designs for the ngVLA antennas and correlator/beamformer are presently the baseline models for the project. Given the size of Canada's radio community and earlier use of the VLA (and ALMA), we recommend Canadian participation in the ngVLA at the 7% level. Such participation would be significant enough to allow Canadian leadership in gVLA's construction and usage. Canada's participation in ngVLA should not preclude its participation in SKA; access to both facilities is necessary to meet Canada's radio astronomy needs. Indeed, ngVLA will fill the gap between those radio frequencies observable with the SKA and ALMA at high sensitivities and resolutions. Canada's partnership in ngVLA will give it access to cutting-edge facilities together covering approximately three orders of magnitude in frequency.

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arXiv2019

Development Plans for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)

(abridged) The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) was the top-ranked priority for a new ground-based facility in the 2000 Canadian Long Range Plan. Ten years later, at the time of LRP2010, ALMA construction was well underway, with first science observations anticipated for 2011. In the past 8 years, ALMA has proved itself to be a high-impact, high-demand observatory, with record numbers of proposals submitted to the annual calls and large numbers of highly cited scientific papers across fields from protoplanetary disks to high-redshift galaxies and quasars. The LRP2010 ALMA white paper laid out 8 specific metrics that could be used to judge the success of Canada's participation in ALMA. Among these metrics were publications (number; impact), collaborations (international; multi-wavelength), and student training. To call out one particular metric, Canadians are making excellent use of ALMA in training graduate students and postdocs: as of June 2018, 12 of 23 Canadian first-author papers were led by a graduate student, and a further 4 papers were led by postdocs. All 8 metrics argue for Canada's involvement in ALMA over the past decade to be judged a success. The successful achievement of these wide-ranging goals argues strongly for Canada's continuing participation in ALMA over the next decade and beyond. Looking forward, our community needs to: (1) maintain Canadian access to ALMA and our competitiveness in using ALMA; (2) preserve full Canadian funding for our share of ALMA operations; (3) identify components of ALMA development in which Canada can play a significant role, including stimulating expertise in submillimetre instrumentation to capitalize on future opportunities; and (4) keep Canadians fully trained and engaged in ALMA, as new capabilities become available, reaching the widest possible community of potential users.

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arXiv2019

Signatures of an eccentric disc cavity: Dust and gas in IRS 48

We test the hypothesis that the disc cavity in the `transition disc' Oph IRS 48 is carved by an unseen binary companion. We use 3D dust-gas smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations to demonstrate that marginally coupled dust grains concentrate in the gas over-density that forms in in the cavity around a low binary mass ratio binary. This produces high contrast ratio dust asymmetries at the cavity edge similar to those observed in the disc around IRS 48 and other transition discs. This structure was previously assumed to be a vortex. However, we show that the observed velocity map of IRS 48 displays a peculiar asymmetry that is not predicted by the vortex hypothesis. We show the unusual kinematics are naturally explained by the non-Keplerian flow of gas in an eccentric circumbinary cavity. We further show that perturbations observed in the isovelocity curves of IRS 48 may be explained as the product of the dynamical interaction between the companion and the disc. The presence of a $\sim$0.4 M$_{\odot}$ companion at a $\sim$10 au separation can qualitatively explain these observations. High spatial resolution line and continuum imaging should be able to confirm this hypothesis.

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arXiv2019

LRP2020: Signposts of planet formation in protoplanetary disks

Successful exoplanet surveys in the last decade have revealed that planets are ubiquitous throughout the Milky Way, and show a large diversity in mass, location and composition. At the same time, new facilities such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and optical/infrared facilities including Gemini/GPI have provided us with sharper images than ever before of protoplanetary disks around young stars, the birth cradles of planets. The high spatial resolution has revealed astonishing structures in disks, such as rings, gaps, asymmetries and spiral arms, and the enormous jump in sensitivity has provided the tools for both large, statistically relevant surveys and deep, sensitive molecular line studies. These observations have revolutionized our view of planet formation, disk formation and disk evolution, bringing model simulations and observations closer to the same level of detail, with many contributions from Canadian researchers on theoretical, observational and technological sides. The new results have inevitably led to a range of new questions, which require next generation instruments such as the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) and large scale optical infrared facilities. In this white paper we will discuss the current transformation in our understanding of planet formation and the next steps and challenges in connecting theory with exoplanet demographics and protoplanetary disk observations for Canadian research.

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arXiv2019

New Spatially Resolved Imaging of the SR 21 Transition Disk and Constraints on the Small-Grain Disk Geometry

We present new 0.6 - 4 $μ$m imaging of the SR 21 transition disk from Keck/NIRC2 and Magellan/MagAO. The protoplanetary disk around SR 21 has a large (~ 30 - 40 AU) clearing first inferred from its spectral energy distribution and later detected in sub-millimeter imaging. Both the gas and small dust grains are known to have a different morphology, with an inner truncation in CO at ~7 AU, and micron-sized dust detected within the millimeter clearing. Previous near-infrared imaging could not distinguish between an inner dust disk with a truncation at ~7 AU or one that extended to the sublimation radius. The imaging data presented here require an inner dust disk radius of a few AU, and complex structure such as a warp or spiral. We present a parametric warped disk model that can reproduce the observations. Reconciling the images with the spectral energy distribution gathered from the literature suggests grain growth to ~2 - 5 $μ$m within the sub-millimeter clearing. The complex disk structure and possible grain growth can be connected to dynamical shaping by a giant-planet mass companion, a scenario supported by previous observational and theoretical studies.

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arXiv2019

PDS 70: A transition disk sculpted by a single planet

The wide, deep cavities of transition disks are often believed to have been hollowed out by nascent planetary systems. PDS 70, a ${\sim}5$ Myr old transition disk system in which a multi-Jupiter-mass planet candidate at 22 au coexists with a ${\sim}30$ au gas and ${\sim}60$ au dust-continuum gap, provides a valuable case study for this hypothesis. Using the PEnGUIn hydrodynamics code, we simulate the orbital evolution and accretion of PDS 70b in its natal disk over the lifetime of the system. When the accreting planet reaches about 2.5 Jupiter masses, it spontaneously grows in eccentricity and consumes material from a wide swathe of the PDS 70 disk; radiative transfer post-processing with DALI shows that this accurately reproduces the observed gap profile. Our results demonstrate that super-Jupiter planets can single-handedly carve out transition disk cavities, and indicate that the high eccentricities measured for such giants may be a natural consequence of disk-planet interaction.

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arXiv2019

Planet formation: The case for large efforts on the computational side

Modern astronomy has finally been able to observe protoplanetary disks in reasonable resolution and detail, unveiling the processes happening during planet formation. These observed processes are understood under the framework of disk-planet interaction, a process studied analytically and modeled numerically for over 40 years. Long a theoreticians' game, the wealth of observational data has been allowing for increasingly stringent tests of the theoretical models. Modeling efforts are crucial to support the interpretation of direct imaging analyses, not just for potential detections but also to put meaningful upper limits on mass accretion rates and other physical quantities in current and future large-scale surveys. This white paper addresses the questions of what efforts on the computational side are required in the next decade to advance our theoretical understanding, explain the observational data, and guide new observations. We identified the nature of accretion, ab initio planet formation, early evolution, and circumplanetary disks as major fields of interest in computational planet formation. We recommend that modelers relax the approximations of alpha-viscosity and isothermal equations of state, on the grounds that these models use flawed assumptions, even if they give good visual qualitative agreement with observations. We similarly recommend that population synthesis move away from 1D hydrodynamics. The computational resources to reach these goals should be developed during the next decade, through improvements in algorithms and the hardware for hybrid CPU/GPU clusters. Coupled with high angular resolution and great line sensitivity in ground based interferometers, ELTs and JWST, these advances in computational efforts should allow for large strides in the field in the next decade.

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arXiv2019

Dust trapping in protoplanetary disks

Planet formation is thought to begin with the growth of dust particles in protoplanetary disks from micrometer to millimeter and centimeter sizes. Dust growth is hindered by a number of growth barriers, according to dust evolution theory, while observational evidence indicates that somehow these barriers must have been overcome. The observational evidence of dust traps, in particular the Oph IRS 48 disk, with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has changed our view of the dust growth process. In this article I review the history of dust trapping in models and observations.

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arXiv2019

Protoplanetary disk rings and gaps across ages and luminosities

Since the discovery of the multi-ring structure of the HL Tau disk, ALMA data suggest that the dust continuum emission of many, if not all, protoplanetary disks consists of rings and gaps, no matter their spectral type or age. The origin of these gaps so far remains unclear. We present a sample study of 16 disks with multiple ring-like structures in the continuum, using published ALMA archival data, to compare their morphologies and gap locations in a systematic way. The 16 targets range from early to late type stars, from <0.5 Myr to >10 Myr, from ~0.2 to 40 L_Sun and include both full and transitional disks with cleared inner dust cavities. Stellar ages are revised using new Gaia distances. Gap locations are derived using a simple radial fit to the intensity profiles. Using a radiative transfer model, the temperature profiles are computed. The gap radii generally do not correspond to the orbital radii of snow lines of the most common molecules. A snow line model can likely be discarded as a common origin of multi-ring systems. In addition, there are no systematic trends in the gap locations that could be related to resonances of planets. Finally, the outer radius of the disks decreases for the oldest disks in the sample, indicating that if multi-ring disks evolve in a similar way, outer dust rings either dissipate with the gas or grow into planetesimal belts.

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arXiv2018

Science with an ngVLA: Dust growth and dust trapping in protoplanetary disks

ALMA has revolutionized our view of protoplanetary disks, revealing structures such as gaps, rings and asymmetries that indicate dust trapping as an important mechanism in the planet formation process. However, the high resolution images have also shown that the optically thin assumption for millimeter continuum emission may not be valid and the low values of the spectral index may be related to optical depth rather than dust growth. Longer wavelength observations are essential to properly disentangle these effects. The high sensitivity and spatial resolution of the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) will open up the possibilities to spatially resolve disk continuum emission at centimeter wavelengths and beyond, which allows the study of dust growth in disks in the optically thin regime and further constrain models of planet formation.

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arXiv2018

Rings and gaps in protoplanetary disks: planets or snowlines?

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.

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