Probing inner and outer disk misalignments in transition disks
Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 658, pp. A183
Abstract
Context. Transition disks are protoplanetary disks with dust-depleted cavities, possibly indicating substantial clearing of their dust content by a massive companion. For several known transition disks, dark regions interpreted as shadows have been observed in scattered light imaging and are hypothesized to originate from misalignments between distinct regions of the disk. Aims. We aim to investigate the presence of misalignments in transition disks. We study the inner disk (<1 au) geometries of a sample of 20 well-known transition disks with Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) GRAVITY observations and use complementary 12 CO and 13 CO molecular line archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to derive the orientation of the outer disk regions (>10 au). Methods. We fit simple parametric models to the visibilities and closure phases of the GRAVITY data to derive the inclination and position angle of the inner disks. The outer disk geometries were derived from Keplerian fits to the ALMA velocity maps and compared to the inner disk constraints. We also predicted the locations of expected shadows for significantly misaligned systems. Results. Our analysis reveals six disks to exhibit significant misalignments between their inner and outer disk structures. The predicted shadow positions agree well with the scattered light images of HD 100453 and HD 142527, and we find supporting evidence for a shadow in the south of the disk around CQ Tau. In the other three targets for which we infer significantly misaligned disks, V1247 Ori, V1366 Ori, and RY Lup, we do not see any evident sign of shadows in the scattered light images. The scattered light shadows observed in DoAr 44, HD 135344 B, and HD 139614 are consistent with our observations, yet the underlying morphology is likely too complex to be described properly by our models and the accuracy achieved by our observations. Conclusions. The combination of near infrared and submillimeter interferometric observations allows us to assess the geometries of the innermost disk regions and those of the outer disk. Whereas we can derive precise constraints on the potential shadow positions for well-resolved inner disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars, the large statistical uncertainties for the marginally resolved inner disks around the T Tauri stars of our sample make it difficult to extract conclusive constraints for the presence of shadows in these systems.
Authors 18
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Leiden University · Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble · Leiden Observatory · Université Grenoble Alpes
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble · University of Chile · Université Grenoble Alpes
Affiliation as printed
Unidad Mixta Internacional Franco-Chilena de Astronomía (CNRS, UMI 3386), Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Camino El Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble · Université Grenoble Alpes
Affiliation as printed
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Leiden University · University of Victoria · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Physics & Astronomy Department, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada
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Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics · Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Affiliation as printed
Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Universitäts-Sternwarte München, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
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Leiden University · Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
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European Southern Observatory · University of Milan
Affiliation as printed
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
Università degli Studi di Milano, via Giovanni Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
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Affiliation as printed
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
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Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
Affiliation as printed
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Physics & Astronomy Department, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble · Université Grenoble Alpes
Affiliation as printed
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
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Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Affiliation as printed
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
University of Exeter, School of Physics & Astronomy, Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble · Université Grenoble Alpes
Affiliation as printed
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Affiliation as printed
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Camino El Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
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