SEEDS Adaptive Optics Imaging of the Asymmetric Transition Disk Oph IRS 48 in Scattered Light

Stars and planetary system

Mapping H-band Scattered Light Emission in the Mysterious SR21 Transitional Disk

We present the first near infrared (NIR) spatially resolved images of the circumstellar transitional disk around SR21. These images were obtained with the Subaru HiCIAO camera, adaptive optics, and the polarized differential imaging technique. We resolve the disk in scattered light at H-band for stellocentric 0.''1 ≤ r ≤ 0.''6 (12 lsim r lsim 75 AU). We compare our results with previously published spatially resolved 880 μm continuum Submillimeter Array images that show an inner r lsim 36 AU cavity in SR21. Radiative transfer models reveal that the large disk depletion factor invoked to explain SR21's sub-mm cavity cannot be "universal" for all grain sizes. Even significantly more moderate depletions (δ = 0.1, 0.01 relative to an undepleted disk) than those that reproduce the sub-mm cavity (δ ~ 10-6) are inconsistent with our H-band images when they are assumed to carry over to small grains, suggesting that surface grains scattering in the NIR either survive or are generated by whatever mechanism is clearing the disk midplane. In fact, the radial polarized intensity profile of our H-band observations is smooth and steeply inwardly-increasing (r -3), with no evidence of a break at the 36 AU sub-mm cavity wall. We hypothesize that this profile is dominated by an optically thin disk envelope or atmosphere component. We also discuss the compatibility of our data with the previously postulated existence of a sub-stellar companion to SR21 at r ~ 10-20 AU, and find that we can neither exclude nor verify this scenario. This study demonstrates the power of multiwavelength imaging of transitional disks to inform modeling efforts, including the debate over precisely what physical mechanism is responsible for clearing these disks of their large midplane grains

High-contrast Near-infrared Imaging Polarimetry of the Protoplanetary Disk around RY TAU

We present near-infrared coronagraphic imaging polarimetry of RY Tau. The scattered light in the circumstellar environment was imaged at the H band at a high resolution (~0.''05) for the first time, using Subaru/HiCIAO. The observed polarized intensity (PI) distribution shows a butterfly-like distribution of bright emission with an angular scale similar to the disk observed at millimeter wavelengths. This distribution is offset toward the blueshifted jet, indicating the presence of a geometrically thick disk or a remnant envelope, and therefore the earliest stage of the Class II evolutionary phase. We perform comparisons between the observed PI distribution and disk models with (1) full radiative transfer code, using the spectral energy distribution (SED) to constrain the disk parameters; and (2) monochromatic simulations of scattered light which explore a wide range of parameters space to constrain the disk and dust parameters. We show that these models cannot consistently explain the observed PI distribution, SED, and the viewing angle inferred by millimeter interferometry. We suggest that the scattered light in the near-infrared is associated with an optically thin and geometrically thick layer above the disk surface, with the surface responsible for the infrared SED. Half of the scattered light and thermal radiation in this layer illuminates the disk surface, and this process may significantly affect the thermal structure of the disk