Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Gaps Opened by Single and Multiple Young Planets in Disks

By R. Dong, Zhaohuan Zhu, B. Whitney. 2014

171 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It has been suggested that the gaps and cavities recently discovered in transitional disks are opened by planets. To explore this scenario, we combine two-dimensional two fluid (gas + particle) hydrodynamical calculations with three-dimensional Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer simulations, and study the observational signatures of gaps opened by one or several planets, making qualitative comparisons with observations. We find that a single planet as small as 0.2 MJ can produce a deep gap at millimeter (mm) wavelengths and almost no features at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths, while multiple planets can open up a few *10 AU wide common gap at both wavelengths. Both the contrast ratio of the gaps and the wavelength dependence of the gap sizes are broadly consistent with data. We also confirm previous results that NIR gap sizes may be smaller than mm gap sizes due to dust-gas coupling and radiative transfer effects. When viewed at a moderate inclination angle, a physically circular on-centered gap could appear to be off-centered from the star due to shadowing. Planet-induced spiral arms are more apparent at NIR than at mm wavelengths. Overall, our results suggest that the planet-opening-gap scenario is a promising way to explain the origin of the transitional disks. Finally, inspired by the recent ALMA release of the image of the HL Tau disk, we show that multiple narrow gaps, well separated by bright rings, can be opened by 0.2 MJ planets soon after their formation in a relatively massive disk.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spectroscopy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4e02c8884f5c629cdf9b4d755f34dbd0a0806270

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Th. Henning
2. E. Chiang
3. R. Teague
4. R. Dong
5. R. van Boekel
6. M. Benisty
7. L. Testi
8. L. P'erez

In Spectroscopy

1. France.
2. The Netherlands.
3. Th. Henning
4. Japan.
5. L. P'erez
6. L. Observatory
7. Leiden University
8. Usa

Citations in the corpus

• Multiple Disk Gaps and Rings Generated by a Single Super-Earth (2017, methodology): “Radiative Transfer Simulations and Synthetic Observations We follow the procedures described in Dong et al. (2015) to translate the hydro disk models to synthetic observations.”
• FIRST RESULTS FROM HIGH ANGULAR RESOLUTION ALMA OBSERVATIO NS TOWARD THE HL TAU REGION (2015, background): “Modeling of the disk temperature and density structure in both gas and dust, coupled with planet formation processes will be crucial to the goal of reproducing HL Tau’s morphology from theory (e.g., Dong et al. 2014).”
• Three Radial Gaps in the Disk of TW Hydrae Imaged with SPHERE (2016, result): “Rapson et al. (2015) compare their measured profiles to predictions of hydrodynamical calculations of planet-disk interaction (Dong et al. 2015) and conclude the observed profile is consistent with that expected from a ≈ 0.2 MJup planet embedded in the disk.”