Characterisation of disks around YSOs with GENIE

Abstract

Recent interferometric observations show that the interfered near-IR size of the circumstellar material around Young Stellar Object (YSO) are larger than those expected from accretion disk models. There are currently different models that account for the excess IR emission of Young Stellar Objects (YSO). At the same time, the answers to many questions on the evolutionary status and the origin of the activity and variability depend critically on the relative importance of circumstellar distribution of material in disks or envelopes at different spatial scales. Operating at mid-infrared wavelengths, the Ground-based European Nulling Interferometer Experiment (GENIE) will be particularly sensitive to warm circumstellar dust and will thus provide the opportunity to characterize dust disks around YSOs. Observations with GENIE will enable us to investigate the properties of the circumstellar dust, which are responsible for the excess near-infrared fluxes. The nulling of the central star will bring out the disk in much more detail and hence put stronger constraints on these models