Charging and coagulation of dust in protoplanetary plasma environments

Combining a particle-particle, particle-cluster and cluster-cluster agglomeration model with an aggregate charging model, the coagulation and charging of dust particles in various plasma environments relevant for proto-planetary disks have been investigated. The results show that charged aggregates tend to grow by adding small particles and clusters to larger particles and clusters, leading to greater sizes and masses as compared to neutral aggregates, for the same number of monomers in the aggregate. In addition, aggregates coagulating in a Lorentzian plasma (containing a larger fraction of high-energy plasma particles) are more massive and larger than aggregates coagulating in a Maxwellian plasma, for the same plasma densities and characteristic temperature. Comparisons of the grain structure, utilizing the compactness factor, {\phi}{\sigma}, demonstrate that a Lorentzian plasma environment results in fluffier aggregates, with small {\phi}{\sigma}, which exhibit a narrow compactness factor distribution. Neutral aggregates are more compact, with larger {\phi}{\sigma}, and exhibit a larger variation in fluffiness. Measurement of the compactness factor of large populations of aggregates is shown to provide information on the disk parameters that were present during aggregation

Quasinormal ringing of acoustic black holes in Laval nozzles: Numerical simulations

Quasinormal ringing of acoustic black holes in Laval nozzles is discussed. The equation for sounds in a transonic flow is written into a Schr\"{o}dinger-type equation with a potential barrier, and the quasinormal frequencies are calculated semianalytically. From the results of numerical simulations, it is shown that the quasinormal modes are actually excited when the transonic flow is formed or slightly perturbed, as well as in the real black hole case. In an actual experiment, however, the purely-outgoing boundary condition will not be satisfied at late times due to the wave reflection at the end of the apparatus, and a late-time ringing will be expressed as a superposition of "boxed" quasinormal modes. It is shown that the late-time ringing damps more slowly than the ordinary quasinormal ringing, while its central frequency is not greatly different from that of the ordinary one. Using this fact, an efficient way for experimentally detecting the quasinormal ringing of an acoustic black hole is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

The Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks in the Arches Cluster

Most stars form in a cluster environment. These stars are initially surrounded by discs from which potentially planetary systems form. Of all cluster environments starburst clusters are probably the most hostile for planetary systems in our Galaxy. The intense stellar radiation and extreme density favour rapid destruction of circumstellar discs via photoevaporation and stellar encounters. Evolving a virialized model of the Arches cluster in the Galactic tidal field we investigate the effect of stellar encounters on circumstellar discs in a prototypical starburst cluster. Despite its proximity to the deep gravitational potential of the Galactic centre only a moderate fraction of members escapes to form an extended pair of tidal tails. Our simulations show that encounters destroy one third of the circumstellar discs in the cluster core within the first 2.5 Myr of evolution, preferentially affecting the least and most massive stars. A small fraction of these events causes rapid ejection and the formation of a weaker second pair of tidal tails that is overpopulated by disc-poor stars. Two predictions arise from our study: (i) If not destroyed by photoevaporation protoplanetary discs of massive late B- and early O-type stars represent the most likely hosts of planet formation in starburst clusters. (ii) Multi-epoch K- and L-band photometry of the Arches cluster would provide the kinematically selected membership sample required to detect the additional pair of disc-poor tidal tails.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted by Ap

A Gap with a Deficit of Large Grains in the Protoplanetary Disk around TW Hya

We report ∼3 au resolution imaging observations of the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya at 145 and 233 GHz with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Our observations revealed two deep gaps (∼25%-50%) at 22 and 37 au and shallower gaps (a few percent) at 6, 28, and 44 au, as recently reported by Andrews et al. The central hole with a radius of ∼3 au was also marginally resolved. The most remarkable finding is that the spectral index α(R) between bands 4 and 6 peaks at the 22 au gap. The derived power-law index of the dust opacity β(R) is ∼1.7 at the 22 au gap and decreases toward the disk center to ∼0. The most prominent gap at 22 au could be caused by the gravitational interaction between the disk and an unseen planet with a mass of ≲1.5 M Neptune, although other origins may be possible. The planet-induced gap is supported by the fact that β(R) is enhanced at the 22 au gap, indicating a deficit of ∼millimeter-sized grains within the gap due to dust filtration by a planet

ALMA Observations of a Gap and a Ring in the Protoplanetary Disk around TW Hya

We report the first detection of a gap and a ring in 336 GHz dust continuum emission from the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The gap and ring are located at around 25 and 41 au from the central star, respectively, and are associated with the CO snow line at ∼30 au. The gap has a radial width of less than 15 au and a mass deficit of more than 23%, taking into account that the observations are limited to an angular resolution of ∼15 au. In addition, the 13CO and C18O J=3-2 lines show a decrement in CO line emission throughout the disk, down to ∼10 au, indicating a freeze-out of gas-phase CO onto grain surfaces and possible subsequent surface reactions to form larger molecules. The observed gap could be caused by gravitational interaction between the disk gas and a planet with a mass less than super-Neptune (2{M}{{Neptune}}), or could be the result of the destruction of large dust aggregates due to the sintering of CO ice

Candidate Water Vapor Lines to Locate the H2O Snowline through High-dispersion Spectroscopic Observations. III. Submillimeter H2 16O and H2 18O Lines

In this paper, we extend the results presented in our former papers on using ortho-H216O line profiles to constrain the location of the H2O snowline in T Tauri and Herbig Ae disks, to include submillimeter para-H216O and ortho- and para-H218O lines. Since the number densities of the ortho- and para-H218O molecules are about 560 times smaller than their 16O analogs, they trace deeper into the disk than the ortho-H216O lines (down to z = 0, i.e., the midplane). Thus these H218O lines are potentially better probes of the position of the H2O snowline at the disk midplane, depending on the dust optical depth. The values of the Einstein A coefficients of submillimeter candidate water lines tend to be lower (typically <10‑4 s‑1) than infrared candidate water lines. Thus in the submillimeter candidate water line cases, the local intensity from the outer optically thin region in the disk is around 104 times smaller than that in the infrared candidate water line cases. Therefore, in the submillimeter lines, especially H218O and para-H216O lines with relatively lower upper state energies (∼a few 100 K) can also locate the position of the H2O snowline. We also investigate the possibility of future observations with ALMA to identify the position of the water snowline. There are several candidate water lines that trace the hot water gas inside the H2O snowline in ALMA Bands 5–10

Discovery of An au-scale Excess in Millimeter Emission from the Protoplanetary Disk around TW Hya

We report the detection of an excess in dust continuum emission at 233 GHz (1.3 mm in wavelength) in the protoplanetary disk (PPD) around TW Hya revealed through high-sensitivity observations at ~3 au resolution with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The sensitivity of the 233 GHz image has been improved by a factor of 3 with regard to that of our previous cycle 3 observations. The overall structure is mostly axisymmetric, and there are apparent gaps at 25 and 41 au as previously reported. The most remarkable new finding is a few astronomical-unit-scale excess emission in the southwest part of the PPD. The excess emission is located at 52 au from the disk center and is 1.5 times brighter than the surrounding PPD at a significance of 12σ. We performed a visibility fitting to the extracted emission after subtracting the axisymmetric PPD emission and found that the inferred size and the total flux density of the excess emission are 4.4 × 1.0 au and 250 μJy, respectively. The dust mass of the excess emission corresponds to 0.03 M ⊕ if a dust temperature of 18 K is assumed. Because the excess emission can also be marginally identified in the Band 7 image at almost the same position, the feature is unlikely to be a background source. The excess emission can be explained by a dust clump accumulated in a small elongated vortex or a massive circumplanetary disk around a Neptune-mass-forming planet