Browsing by Author "Law, Charles J."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mapping Protoplanetary Disk Vertical Structure with CO Isotopologue Line Emission
    (IOP Publishing, 2023) Law, Charles J.; Teague, Richard; Öberg, Karin I.; Rich, Evan A.; Andrews, Sean M.; Bae, Jaehan; Benisty, Myriam; Facchini, Stefano; Flaherty, Kevin; Isella, Andrea; Jin, Sheng; Hashimoto, Jun; Huang, Jane; Loomis, Ryan A.; Long, Feng; Muñoz-Romero, Carlos E.; Paneque-Carreño, Teresa; Pérez, Laura M.; Qi, Chunhua; Schwarz, Kamber R.; Stadler, Jochen; Tsukagoshi, Takashi; Wilner, David J.; Plas, Gerrit van der
    High-spatial-resolution observations of CO isotopologue line emission in protoplanetary disks at mid-inclinations (≈30°–75°) allow us to characterize the gas structure in detail, including radial and vertical substructures, emission surface heights and their dependencies on source characteristics, and disk temperature profiles. By combining observations of a suite of CO isotopologues, we can map the two-dimensional (r, z) disk structure from the disk upper atmosphere, as traced by CO, to near the midplane, as probed by less abundant isotopologues. Here, we present high-angular-resolution (≲0.″1 to ≈0.″2; ≈15–30 au) observations of CO, 13CO, and C18O in either or both J = 2–1 and J = 3–2 lines in the transition disks around DM Tau, Sz 91, LkCa 15, and HD 34282. We derived line emission surfaces in CO for all disks and in 13CO for the DM Tau and LkCa 15 disks. With these observations, we do not resolve the vertical structure of C18O in any disk, which is instead consistent with C18O emission originating from the midplane. Both the J = 2–1 and J = 3–2 lines show similar heights. Using the derived emission surfaces, we computed radial and vertical gas temperature distributions for each disk, including empirical temperature models for the DM Tau and LkCa 15 disks. After combining our sample with literature sources, we find that 13CO line emitting heights are also tentatively linked with source characteristics, e.g., stellar host mass, gas temperature, disk size, and show steeper trends than seen in CO emission surfaces.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mapping the Vertical Gas Structure of the Planet-hosting PDS 70 Disk
    (IOP Publishing, 2024) Law, Charles J.; Benisty, Myriam; Facchini, Stefano; Teague, Richard; Bae, Jaehan; Isella, Andrea; Kamp, Inga; Öberg, Karin I.; Portilla-Revelo, Bayron; Rampinelli, Luna
    PDS 70 hosts two massive, still-accreting planets and the inclined orientation of its protoplanetary disk presents a unique opportunity to directly probe the vertical gas structure of a planet-hosting disk. Here, we use high-spatial-resolution (≈0.″1; 10 au) observations in a set of CO isotopologue lines and HCO+ J = 4−3 to map the full 2D (r, z) disk structure from the disk atmosphere, as traced by 12CO, to closer to the midplane, as probed by less abundant isotopologues and HCO+. In the PDS 70 disk, 12CO traces a height of z/r ≈ 0.3, 13CO is found at z/r ≈ 0.1, and C18O originates at, or near, the midplane. The HCO+ surface arises from z/r ≈ 0.2 and is one of the few non-CO emission surfaces constrained with high-fidelity in disks to date. In the 12CO J = 3−2 line, we resolve a vertical dip and steep rise in height at the cavity wall, making PDS 70 the first transition disk where this effect is directly seen in line-emitting heights. In the outer disk, the CO emission heights of PDS 70 appear typical for its stellar mass and disk size and are not substantially altered by the two inner embedded planets. By combining CO isotopologue and HCO+ lines, we derive the 2D gas temperature structure and estimate a midplane CO snowline of ≈ 56–85 au. This implies that both PDS 70b and 70c are located interior to the CO snowline and are likely accreting gas with a high C/O ratio of ≈ 1.0, which provides context for future planetary atmospheric measurements from, e.g., JWST, and for properly modeling their formation histories.