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Pietro Curone

Publications and source records attributed to Pietro Curone.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Mapping the WISPIT2 Planet-Hosting Cavity at Sub-Hill-Radius scales

We present new deep, very high angular resolution observations of the sub-mm continuum (19x13 mas) and 12CO (67x52 mas) emission from the disk surrounding the planet host WISPIT2. Our analysis reveals a clear gas gap carved by WISPIT 2b and an empty cavity within the orbit of WISPIT 2c. We also find a gaseous and optically thin dusty ring located between the orbits of the two planets. Channel maps show a pronounced change in the emission surface height of the disk, which transitions from flat within the cavity to strongly flared beyond the orbit of planet b, producing clear breaks in the velocity channels. A pronounced thunderbolt-shaped feature, identified as a kinematic planetary signature (KPS), is detected at the location of WISPIT 2b, in agreement with predictions from planet-disk interaction simulations. This constitutes the first system with a confirmed kinematic signature associated with a directly imaged planet. By mirroring opposite velocity-channel maps about the systemic velocity, we further investigate the KPS and identify spatially resolved excess emission in the vicinity of WISPIT 2b. We find that this emission is resolved across the full Hill sphere of the planet, significantly exceeding the expected extent of a circumplanetary disk. We therefore suggest that the observed emission arises from a combination of processes, including prominent planet-driven spiral wakes, localized heating induced by the planet and a circumplanetary disk. Although higher spectral resolution is required to disentangle these contributions, our observations demonstrate the potential to directly characterize the birth environment of forming massive planets at scales down to sub-Hill radius.

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An archival summary: 15 years of ALMA observations on disks and planet formation

The Atacama Large (sub-)millimeter Array (ALMA) has been in scientific operations for almost 15 years. We celebrate this achievement by providing a summary of the ``Disks and planet formation'' scientific category, with an emphasis on the disks located in the nearby star-forming regions. As of the beginning of February 2026, ALMA had observed 3933 independent coordinates, which we analyzed by their location in the sky, frequency coverage, exposure time, spectral line coverage, and angular resolution. We encourage the community to explore new scientific questions that are made possible through the archival datasets.

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Dust characterization of halos: The extended emission in protoplanetary disks

Extended low surface brightness emission has been identified in a number of protoplanetary disks, in tension with predictions of radial drift theory. We aim to investigate the nature and origin of faint, extended dust emission in the outer regions of protoplanetary disks, which we define as the "Halo", using multiwavelength (sub)millimeter continuum observations of three systems: Elias 2-24, IM Lup, and DM Tau. We utilized Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of our targets to perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with four dust compositions and derived radial profiles of their dust properties. The halos identified in our sources account for 20 - 30% of the total flux density at (sub)millimeter wavelengths. In Elias 2-24, IM Lup, and DM Tau, we infer maximum grain sizes of 2 cm, $<$ 4 mm, and $<$ 9 mm, with the data best reproduced by porous amorphous carbon, compact amorphous carbon, and compact organic carbon compositions, respectively. Their total dust masses are $125^{+34}_{-23}$, $301^{+139}_{-101}$, and $829^{+761}_{-378}$ M$_{\oplus}$, with corresponding halo masses of $33^{+12}_{-6}$, $103^{+25}_{-17}$, and $316^{+202}_{-117}$ M$_{\oplus}$. The halos of IM Lup and DM Tau are dust rich with gas-to-dust mass ratios of 64 and 18, respectively. In all three disks, the dust drift and growth timescales are shorter than the disk ages, implying that the smooth outer disks should not exist. The halos in our sources hold relevant fractions of the total dust reservoir, demonstrating that they play an important role in alleviating the mass-budget problem. While the persistence of halos in IM Lup and DM Tau could be explained by late infall, the presence of centimeter-sized grains in Elias 2-24's halo suggests that unresolved dust traps also play a role.

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exoALMA XXII: A Two-dimensional Atlas of Deviations from Keplerian Disks

Protoplanetary disks are the birthplaces of planetary systems, and deviations from Keplerian rotation imprinted in disk gas kinematics serve as key tracers of physical processes and the presence of protoplanets within disks. Using the the CO (J=3-2) data from the exoALMA Large Program encompassing 15 disks, we constructed two-dimensional (2D) maps of centroid velocity, line width, and peak intensity, and extracted non-Keplerian deviations by subtracting smooth Keplerian models. This paper provides the first systematic and uniform overview of 2D gas substructures across the entire exoALMA sample. We find that all targets exhibit large-scale deviations from smooth Keplerian disks, displaying a variety of morphologies including spiral-like structures, arc- or ring-like features, and patterns indicative of variations in the emitting surface height. Non-axisymmetric spiral-arm features are detected or suggested in five disks (CQ Tau, MWC 758, HD 135344B, HD 34282, and SY Cha), and are preferentially found in Herbig Ae/Fe systems. In contrast, some other sources (J1852, PDS 66, and V4046 Sgr), despite exhibiting noticeable deviations, appear to be dynamically quieter. This 2D atlas suggests that kinematic substructures are ubiquitous in large ($\gtrsim$ 100 au) protoplanetary disks with ages of a few million years, based on the observations obtained with sufficient sensitivity at moderate-to-high spatial resolution of $\sim$20 au and high velocity resolution of $\sim$0.1 km s$^{-1}$.

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exoALMA. XXIV. Formaldehyde Emission in Protoplanetary Disks of exoALMA Compared with Their Properties and Dynamical State

The presence of asymmetries and substructures in protoplanetary disks, revealed by both dust and gas emission, highlights the potential interplay and the broader connection between chemistry and dynamics in disk evolution. We explore multiple relationships using the nonparametric Kendall-$\tau$ correlation to examine formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) emission with relation to stellar and disk properties for a subset of disks from the exoALMA sample. We also retrieve the H$_2$CO column density and excitation temperature using four transitions, measured in radial bins of 100 au, and quantify the level of asymmetry in the resolved peak intensity of the H$_2$CO emission. From our correlation analysis, we find no correlations with sufficient statistical significance. However, we identify tentative relationships that can be tested with larger samples. In particular, we report a proposed correlation ($2.1\sigma$) between stellar effective temperature and the formaldehyde excitation conditions, suggesting that, to first order, the central star dominates the nature of the H$_2$CO emission over possible dynamical asymmetries traced by dust. Although a correlation with the stellar luminosity was also expected, a larger sample is required to confirm or refute this trend. A possible correlation with spectral type, together with the broad range of H$_2$CO excitation temperatures within the inner 100 au of the studied disks, hint at possible multiple chemical formation pathways for H$_2$CO, including both gas-phase reactions and ice-surface chemistry on dust grains.

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exoALMA XXI: The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows

Vertical gas flows, such as winds and meridional circulations, are natural outcomes of protoplanetary disk processes and play a critical role in the earliest stages of planet formation. We analyze vertical gas motions in 14 disks as part of the exoALMA Large Program, focusing on the 12CO J=3-2 and 13CO J=3-2 emission lines. Using discminer to model the Keplerian velocity field, we extract line-of-sight velocity residuals and measure the radial and vertical components of the gas motion. Vertical motions are detected in most disks. Two types of patterns emerge: (1) oscillatory up/down flows, likely linked to instabilities, and (2) transitions from downward to upward motions that we interpret as the base of a disk wind. In most cases, the velocity amplitudes are of a few tens of m/s. Two disks, however, MWC758 and CQ Tau, show two spiral velocity features in their residual maps, red- and blue-shifted, which we interpret as vertical velocities reaching up to 350 m/s (0.7 Cs), consistent with gas motion in eccentric disks. Fast upward motions (up to 500 m/s; 1.8 Cs) is also detected in the outer disk of MWC758. Synthetic observations from (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations validate the reliability of our method. Although strong molecular winds appear to be relatively rare in 12CO and 13CO, our study shows that, when traced by deep high spectral resolution line data, protoplanetary disks exhibit ubiquitous vertical flows. However, their overall velocity structure is highly complex, preventing to identify a coherent, dominant physical mechanism driving the vertical motions across all disks, thus requiring further theoretical investigation.

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exoALMA XXIII. Estimating Disk and Planet Properties from Dust Morphologies with DBNets2.0

The exoALMA large program provided an unprecedented view of the morphology and kinematics of 15 circumstellar disks, offering a biased but homogenous and well-characterized sample for population-level analysis. Continuum observations revealed numerous dust substructures, known to be potential signatures of embedded planets. We analyze the observed dust morphologies with the simulation-based inference tool DBNets2.0, assuming these are due to embedded planets at fixed locations, to infer the system properties. We estimate the putative planet mass, the disk $\alpha$-viscosity, scale-height, and dust Stokes number that would reproduce 19 substructures in 13 of the 15 exoALMA disks. We compare our results with literature estimates derived with different methods, and find good agreement in most cases. We further explore the implications of the inferred disk properties for accretion, showing that for the Herbig stars in our sample, the implied viscous accretion timescales are too long to account for their observed stellar accretion rates. Regarding planet migration, our results favor inward migration, with only three putative planets expected to migrate outward. Finally, we check for correlations of the inferred disk and planet properties with the disks' gas-to-dust mass ratio, non-axisymmetry index, and masses of the gas, dust, and host stars, finding no remarkable trend.

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exoALMA XX: Tomographic Detection of Embedded Planets in Protoplanetary Disks

The exoALMA Large Program has revealed a wealth of substructures in the dust and molecular line emission of several protoplanetary discs, suggesting that planet formation may unfold within highly dynamic environments. Using synthetic observations of planet-disc interactions and disc instabilities, we demonstrate how the origin of these substructures can be investigated through a tomographic study of molecular lines, extending the scope of the analysis beyond line-centroid kinematics alone. Our results indicate that with only a few hours of ALMA integration at moderate angular resolution ($0.15''-0.30''$), it is possible to identify the key signatures driven by planets more massive than 0.1% of the stellar mass. These signatures manifest not only as deviations from Keplerian motion but also as localized line broadening, enabling accurate constraints on the orbital radius and azimuthal location of the planets. We further show that a diagnostic based on line skewness in spectrally resolved observations can help distinguish between planetary and instability-driven signatures, owing to the distinct degrees of velocity coherence associated with each mechanism. Finally, we apply this tomographic analysis to exoALMA CO line data for the discs of HD 135344B and MWC 758. In HD 135344B, we identify strongly localized velocity and line-width perturbations, suggesting the possibility of three massive planets embedded in the disc: one at $R=95$ au, exterior to the continuum substructures, and two within dust gaps at $R=41$ au and $R=73$ au. For MWC 758, the dominance of vertical-velocity spirals over localized signatures is consistent with predictions from models of moderate disc eccentricities or warps, potentially induced by a substellar companion in the inner regions of the system.

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exoALMA XIX: Confirmation of Non-thermal Line Broadening in the DM Tau Protoplanetary Disk

Turbulence is expected to transport angular momentum and drive mass accretion in protoplanetary disks. One way to directly measure turbulent motion in disks is through molecular line broadening. DM Tau is one of only a few disks with claimed detection of nonthermal line broadening of 0.25cs-0.33cs, where cs is the sound speed. Using the radiative transfer code mcfost within a Bayesian inference framework that evaluates over five million disk models to efficiently sample the parameter space, we fit high-resolution (0.15", 28 m s-1) 12CO J = 3-2 observations of DM Tau from the exoALMA Large Program. This approach enables us to simultaneously constrain the disk structure and kinematics, revealing a significant nonthermal contribution to the line width of ~0.4cs, inconsistent with purely thermal motions. Using the CO-based disk structure as a starting point, we reproduce the CS J = 7-6 emission well, demonstrating that the CS (which is more sensitive to nonthermal motions than CO) agrees with the turbulence inferred from the CO fit. Establishing a well-constrained background disk model further allows us to identify residual structures in the moment maps that deviate from the expected emission, revealing localized perturbations that may trace forming planets. This framework provides a powerful general approach for extracting disk structure and nonthermal broadening directly from molecular line data and can be applied to other disks with high-quality observations.

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A 2 au resolution view by ALMA of the planet-hosting WISPIT 2 disk

We present deep, high spatial resolution interferometric observations of 0.88 mm continuum emission from the TYC 5709-354-1 system, hereafter WISPIT 2, obtained with the goal of detecting circumplanetary emission in the vicinity of the newly discovered WISPIT 2b planet. Observations with the most extended baseline configuration offered by ALMA, achieving an angular resolution of $25 \times 17$ mas ($3.3 \times 2.2$ au), revealed a single, narrow ring with a deprojected radius of 144.4 au and width of 7.2 au, and no evidence of circumplanetary emission within the cavity. Injection and recovery tests demonstrate that these observations can rule out point-like emission at the location of WISPIT 2b brighter than $\approx 45$ $\mu$Jy at the $3\sigma$ level. While these data can rule out PDS 70c like circumplanetary emission, the upper limit is consistent with empirical mass-flux relationships extrapolated from the stellar regime. Visibility modeling of the continuum ring confirms that WISPIT 2b lies significantly interior to the mm dust ring, raising doubts about the ability of WISPIT 2b to be the only driver of the dust structure. Possible solutions include either another lower mass companion, residing between WISPIT 2b and the cavity edge, likely in the gap seen by SPHERE at $\sim130$ au, or that WISPIT 2b is either substantially more massive than IR-photometry based estimates ($\sim15$ $M_{\rm Jup}$) or on a moderately eccentric orbit. The combination of observations sensitive to the gas and dust distributions on larger spatial scales and dedicated hydrodynamical modeling will help differentiate between scenarios.

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Water vapor emission at the warm cavity wall of the HD 100546 disk as revealed by ALMA

We present spatially resolved ALMA observations of the water line at 183 GHz in the disk around the Herbig star HD 100546. The water vapor emission peaks at the inner edge of the warm dust cavity, located ~15 au from the central star. We attribute this to thermal desorption at the water snowline, shifted outward at the dust cavity wall directly heated by the intense radiation. This represents the first spatially resolved image of the water snowline using ALMA observations of the main water isotopologue in a protoplanetary disk. The water emission morphology peaking inside the first dust ring is consistent with previous ALMA detections of oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules in the disk, including thermally desorbed methanol. These findings signal that warm cavities of transition disks provide ideal targets to directly reconstruct the spatial distribution of water vapor and the snowline location with ALMA, and directly connect water vapor emission to ice desorption of complex organic species.

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Pristine ices in a planet-forming disk revealed by heavy water

Water is essential to our understanding of the planet-formation process and habitability on Earth. Although trace amounts of water are seen across all phases of star and planet formation, the bulk of the water reservoir often goes undetected, hiding crucial parts of its journey from giant molecular clouds to planets. This raises the question of whether water molecules in comets and (exo-)planets is largely inherited from the interstellar medium or if the water molecules are destroyed and then reformed in the disk. Water isotopologue ratios involving doubly deuterated water (D$_2$O) are a sensitive tracer to answer this question. We present strong evidence of inheritance through an enhancement of D$_2$O in the outbursting V883 Ori disk. The high D$_2$O/H$_2$O ratio of $(3.2 \pm 1.2) \times 10^{-5}$ is consistent with values seen in protostellar envelopes and a comet and is two orders of magnitude higher than expected if water is reprocessed. The high deuteration of the heaviest isotopologues D$_2$O/HDO = $(2.3 \pm 1.0) \times $HDO/H$_2$O further establishes the inheritance of water. We conclude that water ice in disks originates from the earliest phases of star formation, providing the missing link between cold dark clouds and (exo-)comets.

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exoALMA. XVIII. Interpreting large scale kinematic structures as moderate warping

The exoALMA program gave an unprecedented view of the complex kinematics of protoplanetary disks, revealing diverse structures that remain poorly understood. We show that moderate disk warps ($\sim 0.5-2^\circ$) can naturally explain many of the observed large-scale velocity features with azimuthal wavenumber $m = 1$. Using a simple model, we interpret line-of-sight velocity variations as changes in the projected Keplerian rotation caused by warping of the disk. While not a unique explanation, this interpretation aligns with growing observational evidence that warps are common. We demonstrate that such warps can also produce spiral structures in scattered light and CO brightness temperature, with $\sim 10$ K variations in MWC 758. Within the exoALMA sample, warp properties correlate with stellar accretion rates, suggesting a link between the inner disc and outer disc kinematics. If warps cause large-scale kinematic structure, this has far reaching implications for turbulence, angular momentum transport, and planet formation.

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Leaky dust trap in the PDS 70 disk revealed by ALMA Band 9 observations

We present new observations of the PDS 70 disc obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) in Band 9 (671 GHz) at 0.242$^{\prime\prime}$ resolution, which provide valuable insights into the spatial distribution of sub-millimetre grains in the disc. The data reveal a ring-like morphology, with a radial peak located between those previously observed at infrared wavelengths and longer millimetre observations. Additionally, we detect a tentative outer shoulder in Band 9 that is not observed at longer wavelengths. These findings suggest that small grains ($\sim 100 \mu$m) traced by Band 9 may be escaping from the pressure bump both radially inwards and outwards, or may be tracing different disc layers than those probed at longer wavelengths. A multi-wavelength analysis of the disc at millimetre wavelengths and the best fit to the spectral energy distribution shows the presence of centimetre grains around the ring location, where the dust surface density also peaks, compatible with dust trap models. The grain size in the disc cavity is not well constrained but is consistent with grains as small as 10 $\mu$m, supporting the hypothesis that small dust grain filters through the cavity. We use dust evolution models to demonstrate that a turbulent viscosity of $\alpha \gtrsim 10^{-3}$ allows small grains to filter through the disc gap, while $\alpha \lesssim 5 \times 10^{-3}$ is required to retain large grains in the pressure bump. The Band 9 observations of PDS 70 validate theoretical models and confirm the presence of pebble flux through the disc gap.

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Multi-frequency analysis of the ALMA and VLA high resolution continuum observations of the substructured disc around CI Tau. Preference for sub-mm-sized low-porosity amorphous carbon grains

(Abridged) We present high angular resolution and sensitivity ALMA 3.1 mm and VLA 9.1 mm observations of the disc around CI Tau. These new data were combined with similar-resolution archival ALMA 0.9 and 1.3 mm observations and new and archival VLA 7.1 mm, 2.0, 3.0, and 6.0 cm photometry to study the properties of dust in this system. At wavelengths <3.1 mm, CI Tau's continuum emission is very extended and highly substructured (with three gaps, four rings, and two additional gap-ring pairs identified by non-parametric visibility modelling). Instead, the VLA 9.1 mm data are dominated by a bright central component, only partially (< 50%) due to dust emission, surrounded by a marginally detected, faint, and smooth halo. We fitted the ALMA and VLA 9.1 mm data together, adopting a physical model that accounts for the effects of dust absorption and scattering. For our fiducial dust composition ("Ricci" opacities), we retrieved a flat maximum grain size distribution across the disc radius of $(7.1\pm0.8)\times10^{-2}$ cm, that we tentatively attributed to fragmentation of fragile dust or bouncing. We tested, for the first time, the dependence of our results on the adopted dust composition model to assess which mixture can best reproduce the observations. We found that the "Ricci" opacities work better than the traditionally adopted "DSHARP" ones, while graphite-rich mixtures perform significantly worse. We also show that, for our fiducial composition, the data prefer low-porosity (< 70%) grains, in contrast with claims of highly porous aggregates in younger sources, which we tentatively justified by time-dependent compaction. Our results are in line with constraints from disc population synthesis models and naturally arise from CI Tau's peculiar spectral behaviour, making this disc an ideal target for deeper cm-wavelength and dust polarisation follow-ups.

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SO emission in the dynamically perturbed protoplanetary disks around CQ Tau and MWC 758

We report the serendipitous detection of the SO $J_N=6_5-5_4$ (219.949 GHz) rotational transition in archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the spiral hosting protoplanetary disks around CQ Tau (with $\approx4.9\sigma$ significance) and MWC 758 (with $\approx3.4\sigma$ significance). In the former, the SO emission comes in the shape of a ring, arises from the edge of the continuum cavity, and is qualitatively consistent, at the currently available spectral resolution, with being in Keplerian rotation. In the latter, instead, while arising primarily from inside the continuum cavity, the SO emission also extends to the continuum ring(s), and its morphology and kinematics are less clear. We put these sources in the context of the other protoplanetary disks where SO detections have been previously reported in the literature and discuss the possible origins of SO in terms of (thermal) desorption or formation in the gas phase. We argue that these processes might be fostered by dynamical perturbations caused by unseen embedded massive companions, shadows, or late-time infall, thus suggesting a possible link between perturbed dynamics and SO emission in (these) protoplanetary disks. If confirmed, our interpretation would imply that chemical evolution timescales could be significantly shorter in these systems than is commonly assumed, indicating that dynamical perturbations might influence the composition of newborn (proto-)planets by altering the volatile makeup of their formation environment.

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Inner disc and circumplanetary material in the PDS 70 system

The two giant protoplanets directly imaged in the dust-depleted cavity of PDS 70 offer a unique opportunity to study ongoing planet formation. Both planets have been detected in infrared thermal emission and in H$\alpha$, indicating active accretion. We calibrate and analyse archival ALMA Band 6 and 7 observations of PDS 70 from 2019, 2021, and 2023 to search for circumplanetary material and assess its motion. Using 2D visibility modelling of the high-resolution (~0.11"x0.08" in Band 6; ~0.05"x0.05" in Band 7) dust continuum from the outer disc, we subtract the model and image the cavity at multiple epochs. We re-detect compact dust emission around PDS 70 c in all datasets with >$3.8\sigma$ significance, and tentatively detect emission near PDS 70 b at ~$3\sigma$ in Band 6, with peak fluxes of $59\pm17\mu$Jy/beam and $46\pm14\mu$Jy/beam. The relative astrometry of the compact emission around PDS 70 c is consistent with the expected position of the planet between 2019-2023. We find a peak flux difference up to $64\pm34\mu$Jy/beam at 1$\sigma$, but Bayesian analysis indicates no significant variability. We detect no flux variability in the inner disc. The inferred dust mass near PDS 70 c and in the inner disc ranges from $0.008$-$0.063 M_\oplus$ and $0.04$-$0.31 M_\oplus$, respectively, consistent with prior estimates. Finally, we measure Band 6-7 spectral indices of $2.5\pm1.2$ (PDS 70 c) and $3.2\pm0.5$ (inner disc), suggesting that the inner disc emission is dominated by optically thin dust.

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The ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks (AGE-PRO): X. Dust Substructures, Disk Geometries, and Dust-disk Radii

We perform visibility fitting to the dust continuum Band 6 1.3 mm data of the 30 protoplanetary disks in the AGE-PRO ALMA Large Program. We obtain disk geometries, dust-disk radii, and azimuthally symmetric radial profiles of the intensity of the dust continuum emission. We examine the presence of continuum substructures in the AGE-PRO sample by using these radial profiles and their residuals. We detect substructures in 15 out of 30 disks. We report five disks with large ($>$15 au) inner dust cavities. The Ophiuchus Class I disks show dust-disk substructures in $\sim80\%$ of the resolved sources. This evidences the early formation of substructures in protoplanetary disks. A spiral is identified in IRS 63, hinting to gravitational instability in this massive disk. We compare our dust-disk brightness radial profiles with gas-disk brightness radial profiles and discuss colocal substructures in both tracers. In addition, we discuss the evolution of dust-disk radii and substructures across Ophiuchus, Lupus, and Upper Scorpius. We find that disks in Lupus and Upper Scorpius with large inner dust cavities have typical gas-disk masses, suggesting an abundance of dust cavities in these regions. The prevalence of pressure dust traps at later ages is supported by a potential trend with time with more disks with large inner dust cavities (or "transition disks") in Upper Scorpius and the absence of evolution of dust-disk sizes with time in the AGE-PRO sample. We propose this is caused by an evolutionary sequence with a high fraction of protoplanetary disks with inner protoplanets carving dust cavities.

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