The TW Hya Disk at 870 microns: Comparison of CO and Dust Radial Structures

Details The TW Hya Disk at 870 microns: Comparison of CO and Dust Radial Structures The TW Hya Disk at 870 microns: Comparison of CO and Dust Radial Structures

2011-11-21

arxiv.org/abs/1111.5037v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

ApJ, in press (fixed typo in Equation 4)

Scientific paper

We present high resolution (0.3" = 16 AU), high signal-to-noise ratio Submillimeter Array observations of the 870 microns (345 GHz) continuum and CO J=3--2 line emission from the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya. Using continuum and line radiative transfer calculations, those data and the multiwavelength spectral energy distribution are analyzed together in the context of simple two-dimensional parametric disk structure models. Under the assumptions of a radially invariant dust population and (vertically integrated) gas-to-dust mass ratio, we are unable to simultaneously reproduce the CO and dust observations with model structures that employ either a single, distinct outer boundary or a smooth (exponential) taper at large radii. Instead, we find that the distribution of millimeter-sized dust grains in the TW Hya disk has a relatively sharp edge near 60 AU, contrary to the CO emission (and optical/infrared scattered light) that extends to a much larger radius of at least 215 AU. We discuss some possible explanations for the observed radial distribution of millimeter-sized dust grains and the apparent CO-dust size discrepancy, and suggest that they may be hallmarks of substructure in the dust disk or natural signatures of the growth and radial drift of solids that might be expected for disks around older pre-main sequence stars like TW Hya.

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