Resolved Millimeter Map of the HK Tau Binary System and its Edge-on Circumstellar Disk

Physics – Optics

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Scientific paper

HST/WFPC2 and near-infrared CFHT Adaptive Optics images of the binary T Tauri system HK Tau have revealed that the lower mass component in this system is heavily extincted by its own circumstellar disk which is seen almost edge-on (Stapelfeldt et al. 1998). In this poster, we present the first resolved 1.3mm continuum map of the system obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer with a resolution of 1.5'' (the binary separation is 2.4''). These observations clearly show that the millimeter flux arising from the star already known to host a circumstellar disk amounts to only one third of the total flux of the system. This partly explains the large discrepancy (two orders of magnitude) between the disk masses previously estimated from unresolved dust continuum emission and from scattered light maps. The revised estimated mass of this disk is now in the range 10-4-10-3 solar masses, i.e. among the weakest T Tauri millimeter continuum sources. The dust emission from the secondary appears elongated along the same orientation as the disk, suggesting that it is optically thick at 1.3mm. Finally, the strong continuum flux from the primary star indicates that it has its own circumstellar disk, as is also suggested by its near-infrared excess. Its non-detection at any optical or near-infrared wavelength shows that the two circumstellar disks in this system are not parallel, as was already suspected from statistical arguments.

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