Millimetre Continuum Observations of T Tauri Systems: Masses of Circumstellar Disks

Details Millimetre Continuum Observations of T Tauri Systems: Masses of Circumstellar Disks Millimetre Continuum Observations of T Tauri Systems: Masses of Circumstellar Disks

Dec 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.1405m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #14.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1142

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Investigation of the properties of dusty disks around low-mass pre-main-sequence stars is vital if we are to understand conditions which lead to the formation of planetary systems such as ours. We have made mm/submm continuum observations of 21 Class II T Tauri systems in Taurus-Auriga using UKT14 at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Five target sources (T Tau, HL Tau, GG Tau, DL Tau and GM Aur) were detected in all eight available filter bandpasses (centred nominally at 350, 450, 600, 800, 850, 1100, 1300 and 2000 microns); ten of the remaining T Tauri systems were detected in some of the bands. We have combined our data with IRAS flux densities and mid-infrared, near-infrared and optical measurements from the literature to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Synthetic SEDs have been computed assuming that the excess continuum IR emission from these sources arises in geometrically thin dusty disks encircling the optically visible host stars. The model adopts power law decreases in temperature and dust column density with increasing radius out through the disk (c.f. Adams, Emerson and Fuller 1990). The mm/submm data for several of our sources can be fitted only by SEDs computed for disks which are partially optically thin at these wavelengths; we have employed χ(2) minimisation to estimate disk masses and mm-wavelength dust opacities, together with their uncertainties. Our mm/submm coverage in all of the filters for the brighter mm sources is particularly demanding of the model fits and yields firmer estimates of disk masses than we have hitherto achieved. We find that the majority of the disks observed appear to have masses which are in excess of the minimum-mass solar nebula suggested by current theories of planetary system formation (M_D ~ 0.01 Msun), a result which offers the exciting possibility that we may in fact be observing protoplanetary disks. Reference: Adams, F.C., Emerson, J.P., and Fuller, G.A. 1990 ApJ 357, 606.

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