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GW Ori: Interactions between a Triple-star System and Its Circumtriple Disk in Action

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GW Ori is a hierarchical triple system with a rare circumtriple disk. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of 1.3 mm dust continuum and ¹² CO J = 2 − 1 molecular gas emission of the disk. For the first time, we identify three dust rings in the GW Ori disk at ∼46, 188, and 338 au, with estimated dust mass of 74, 168, and 245 Earth masses, respectively. To our knowledge, its outermost ring is the largest dust ring ever found in protoplanetary disks. We use visibility modeling of dust continuum to show that the disk has misaligned parts, and the innermost dust ring is eccentric. The disk misalignment is also suggested by the CO kinematics. We interpret these substructures as evidence of ongoing dynamical interactions between the triple stars and the circumtriple disk.
All panels are centered on the stellar position provided by GAIA DR2 (ICRS R.A.=5 h 29 m 08 390 and decl.=11°52′12 661). (a) The ALMA selfcalibrated dust continuum map performed with a 0 098 circular beam (bottom left corner; rms noise level σ ∼40 μJy beam −1 ). A larger view of this panel is provided in Appendix B. (b) The ALMA 12 CO J=2-1 first-moment map performed with a 0 122×0 159 beam with a position angle of −32° . 3 (bottom left corner). The inset shows a 1″ by 0 5 wide (40 by 20 au) zoom, and the dotted-dashed line highlights the shape of the twist. The averaged uncertainty in the inset region is ∼0.2 km s −1 . (c) Simulated ALMA continuum emission map of Model 3, produced in the same way as panel (a). (d) The synthetic first-moment map of the misaligned disk model, applying the model parameters listed in Table 2. The color scheme is the same as that in panel (b). (e) The residual map of Model 3. Dashed ellipses mark the fitted location of the three dust rings. The colorbar shows the residual magnitude in units of rms noise level (1σ=∼40 μJy beam −1 =∼0.6% of peak surface density). (f) The synthetic first-moment map of the coplanar disk model, with an inclination of 37° . 9 and a position angle of −5° throughout the disk. The color scheme is the same as that in panel (b). The data behind panels (a) and (b) are available in the .tar.gz package in two FITS files. (The data used to create this figure are available.)
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GW Ori: Interactions between a Triple-star System and Its Circumtriple Disk in Action
Jiaqing Bi
1
, Nienke van der Marel
1,2
, Ruobing Dong ()
1
, Takayuki Muto
3
, Rebecca G. Martin
4
,
Jeremy L. Smallwood
4
, Jun Hashimoto
5
, Hauyu Baobab Liu
6
, Hideko Nomura
7,8
, Yasuhiro Hasegawa
9
, Michihiro Takami
6
,
Mihoko Konishi
10
, Munetake Momose
11
, Kazuhiro D. Kanagawa
12
, Akimasa Kataoka
7
, Tomohiro Ono
13,14
,
Michael L. Sitko
15,16
, Sanemichi Z. Takahashi
7,17
, Kengo Tomida
14,18
, and Takashi Tsukagoshi
7
1
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada; jiaqing.bi@gmail.com,rbdong@uvic.ca
2
Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Programs, National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada
3
Division of Liberal Arts, Kogakuin University, 1-24-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8677, Japan
4
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
5
Astrobiology Center, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
6
Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
7
Division of Science, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
8
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
9
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
10
Faculty of Science & Technology, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita 870-1192, Japan
11
College of Science, Ibaraki University, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan
12
Research Center for the Early Universe, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
13
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
14
Department of Earth & Space Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
15
Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
16
Space Science Institute, 475 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
17
Department of Applied Physics, Kogakuin University, 1-24-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8677, Japan
18
Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
Received 2020 March 28; revised 2020 April 26; accepted 2020 April 29; published 2020 May 21
Abstract
GW Ori is a hierarchical triple system with a rare circumtriple disk. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/
submillimeter Array (ALMA)observations of 1.3 mm dust continuum and
12
CO J=21 molecular gas emission of
the disk. For the rst time, we identify three dust rings in the GW Ori disk at 46, 188, and 338 au, with estimated dust
mass of 74, 168, and 245 Earth masses, respectively. To our knowledge, its outermost ring is the largest dust ring ever
found in protoplanetary disks. We use visibility modeling of dust continuum to show that the disk has misaligned parts,
and the innermost dust ring is eccentric. The disk misalignment is also suggested by the CO kinematics. We interpret
these substructures as evidence of ongoing dynamical interactions between the triple stars and the circumtriple disk.
Unied Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Protoplanetary disks (1300);Planet formation (1241);Circumstellar
matter (241);Pre-main sequence stars (1290)
Supporting material: data behind gure
1. Introduction
GW Ori is a hierarchical triple system (Berger et al. 2011)at
a distance of 402±10 parsecs (Gaia Collaboration et al.
2018). Two of the stars (GW Ori AB)compose a spectroscopic
binary with a separation of 1au (Mathieu et al. 1991).A
tertiary component (GW Ori C)was detected by near-infrared
interferometry at a projected distance of 8au (Berger et al.
2011). The stellar masses have been constrained to be 2.7,
1.7, and 0.9 M
e
, respectively (Czekala et al. 2017). The system
harbors a rare circumtriple disk, with dust extending to
400 au, and gas extending to 1300 au (Fang et al. 2017).
Spectral energy distribution (SED)modeling indicates a gap in
the disk at 2555 au (Fang et al. 2014).
Here we present high resolution ALMA observations in the
disk around GW Ori at 1.3 mm dust continuum emission and
12
CO J=21 emission, where we nd new substructures of
the disk that indicate ongoing diskstar interactions. We
arrange the paper as follows: In Section 2, we describe the
setups of the ALMA observations and data reduction. In
Section 3, we present the imaged results of dust continuum and
12
CO J=21 observations. In Section 4, we present results
of dust continuum visibility modeling. In Section 5, we discuss
the possible origins of the observed substructures. In Section 6,
we summarize our ndings and raise some open questions.
2. Observation and Data Reduction
The observations were taken on 2017 December 10 (ID:
2017.1.00286.S). The disk was observed in Band 6 (1.3 mm)
by 46 antennas, with baseline lengths ranging from 15 to
3321 m. The total on source integration time was 1.6 hours.
There were two 1.875 GHz-wide basebands centered at 217
and 233 GHz for continuum emission, and three basebands
with 117 MHz bandwidths and 112 kHz resolution, centered at
230.518, 219.541, and 220.380 GHz to cover the
12
CO,
13
CO,
and C
18
OJ=21 lines.
The data were calibrated by the pipeline calibration script
provided by ALMA. We used the Common Astronomy
Software Applications package (CASA; version 5.1.15;
McMullin et al. 2007)to process the data. We adopted CASA
task CLEAN to image the continuum map (Figure 1(a)), with the
UNIFORM weighting scheme and a 0 098 circular restoring
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab8eb4
© 2020. The American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s)and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
1
Figure 1. All panels are centered on the stellar position provided by GAIA DR2 (ICRS R.A.=5
h
29
m
08 390 and decl.=11°5212 661).(a)The ALMA self-
calibrated dust continuum map performed with a 0 098 circular beam (bottom left corner; rms noise level σ40 μJy beam
1
). A larger view of this panel is provided
in Appendix B.(b)The ALMA
12
CO J=21rst-moment map performed with a 0 122×0 159 beam with a position angle of 32°.3 (bottom left corner). The
inset shows a 1by 0 5 wide (40 by 20 au)zoom, and the dotteddashed line highlights the shape of the twist. The averaged uncertainty in the inset region is
0.2 km s
1
.(c)Simulated ALMA continuum emission map of Model 3, produced in the same way as panel (a).(d)The synthetic rst-moment map of the misaligned
disk model, applying the model parameters listed in Table 2. The color scheme is the same as that in panel (b).(e)The residual map of Model 3. Dashed ellipses mark
the tted location of the three dust rings. The colorbar shows the residual magnitude in units of rms noise level (1σ=40 μJy beam
1
=0.6% of peak surface
density).(f)The synthetic rst-moment map of the coplanar disk model, with an inclination of 37°. 9 and a position angle of 5°throughout the disk. The color scheme
is the same as that in panel (b). The data behind panels (a)and (b)are available in the .tar.gz package in two FITS les.
(The data used to create this gure are available.)
2
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
beam. We performed phase self-calibration onto the image with
a solution interval of 20 s. This resulted in an rms noise level of
40 μJy beam
1
and an enhanced peak signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR)of 157, compared with 63 μJy beam
1
and 90
before self-calibration, respectively. The integrated ux density
of the disk (195±20 mJy)is consistent with the result from
previous ALMA observations (202±20 mJy; Czekala et al.
2017).
The
12
CO J=21 line data were obtained (after
subtracting the continuum on the self-calibrated data)in the
BRIGGS weighting scheme with robust=0.5, and velocity
resolution 0.5 km s
1
. The resulting line cube has a beam size
of 0 122×0 159 at the position angle 32°. 3. The noise
level is 1.4 mJy beam
1
per channel and the peak signal-to-
noise ratio is 83. Line emission was detected between 7.0 and
20.0 km s
1
with a central velocity of 13.5 km s
1
. The
integrated ux is 60.6 Jy km s
1
, assuming a 2radius. The
intensity-weighted velocity map (a.k.a., the rst-moment map)
was constructed by calculating the intensity-weighted velocity
with a threshold of three times the noise level. The averaged
uncertainty of the twisted pattern in the rst-moment map (i.e.,
the inset in Figure 1(b)) is 0.2 km s
1
, derived from error
propagation theory, assuming the uncertainty of velocity due to
the channel resolution is 0.25 km s
1
. The observations of the
CO isotopologues C
18
O and
13
CO J=21 emission will be
presented in future work.
3. Observational Results
3.1. Dust Continuum Emission
Figure 1(a)shows the continuum map with spatial resolution
of 0 098 (39 au). We identify three dust rings with different
apparent shapes in the disk at 46, 188, and 338 au (hereafter
the inner, middle, and outer ring). The location of the inner ring
coincides with the predicted cavity size from SED modeling
(Fang et al. 2017). The continuum ux densities of the inner,
middle, and outer ring are 42±4, 95±10, and 58±6 mJy,
respectively. To our knowledge, the outer ring is the largest
ever found in protoplanetary disks.
The three rings harbor an enormous amount of solid
material. We estimate the dust (solid)mass M
dust
of the rings
with the equation provided in Hildebrand (1983)
k
=n
nn
MFd
BT ,1
dust
2
dust
() ()
where F
ν
is the continuum surface brightness at a submillimeter
frequency ν,dis the distance from the observer to the source,
B
ν
(T
dust
)is the Planck function at the dust temperature T
dust
,
and κ
ν
is the dust opacity. The dust temperature is estimated
using a tting function provided by Dong et al. (2018b)
=-
TL
L
r
30 38 100 ,2
AU
dust
14 12
⎜⎟
()
where L
å
is the total stellar luminosity, and ris the location of
the ring. The stellar luminosity modied by the distance
provided by GAIA DR2 is 49.3±7.4 L
e
(Calvet et al. 2004;
Gaia Collaboration et al. 2018). We assume a dust grain
opacity of 10 cm
2
g
1
at 1000 GHz with a power-law index of
1(Beckwith et al. 1990). We estimate the dust masses of the
rings to be 74±8, 168±19, and 245±28 M
, respectively,
with the uncertainties incorporating the uncertainties in the
surface brightness of the rings, source distance, stellar
luminosity, and radial location of the rings.
3.2.
12
CO J=21 Emission
Figure 1(b)shows the rst-moment map of
12
CO J=21
emission (with the zeroth-moment map provided in
Appendix A). For regular Keplerian rotating disks, we expect
a well-dened buttery-like pattern in the rst-moment map.
However, we nd a twisted pattern inside 02, which may
result from a misalignment between the inner and outer parts of
the disk (i.e., having different inclinations and orientations;
Rosenfeld et al. 2014), as has been found in the disks around,
e.g., HD 142527 (Casassus et al. 2015; Marino et al. 2015)and
HD 143006 (Benisty et al. 2018; Pérez et al. 2018).
4. Modeling of Dust and Gas Emission
The different apparent shapes of the rings could result from a
few scenarios, such as coplanar rings with different eccentri-
cities, circular rings with different inclinations, or rings with
both different eccentricities and inclinations. Here we present
evidence for disk misalignment and disk eccentricity found in
modeling the dust and gas emission.
4.1. Visibility Modeling of the Dust Continuum Emission
We t the dust continuum map assuming that there are three
dust rings in the disk with Gaussian radial proles of surface
brightness
=s
--
Fr F e ,3
ii0,
rr
i
i
2
22
() ()
()
where F
i
is the surface brightness as a function of the distance to
the center r,withi=1, 2, 3 denoting parameters for the inner,
middle, and outer ring, respectively. F
0,i
is the peak surface
brightness, r
i
is the radius of the ring (i.e., where the ring has the
highest surface brightness),andσ
i
is the standard deviation.
Initially, we assume all three rings are intrinsically circular
when viewed face-on, and their different apparent shapes entirely
originate from different inclinations. For each ring, we assume an
independent set of peak surface brightness, center location, radius,
width, inclination, and position angle as the model parameters.
We call this combination of assumptions Model 1.
After projecting the rings according to their position angles
and inclinations, we calculate the synthetic visibility of the
models using GALARIO (Tazzari et al. 2018), and launch
MCMC parameter surveys to derive posterior distribution of
model parameters using EMCEE (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013).
In the MCMC parameter surveys, the likelihood function Lis
dened as
=- å´-
+-
=
LmReVReV
ImV ImV
ln 1
2
,4
j
Njjj
jj
1obs, mod, 2
obs, mod, 2
[( )
()] ()
where V
obs
is the visibility data from ALMA observations,
V
mod
is the synthetic model visibility, Nis the total number of
visibility data points in V
obs
, and m
j
is the weight of each
visibility data point in V
obs
. The prior function is set to
guarantee the surface brightness, ring radius, and ring width do
not go below zero, the position angle does not go beyond
(90, 90)degrees, and the inclination does not go beyond
(0, 90)degrees. For each model, there are 144 chains spread in
3
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
the hyperspace of parameters. Each chain has 15,000 iterations
including 10,000 burn-in iterations. The results of the
parameter surveys are listed in Table 1.
The tting result of Model 1, listed in Table 1(a), suggests
that the three rings have statistically different centers.
Particularly, the center of the inner ring differs from the
centers of the outer two by 20% of the inner ringʼs radius.
This nonconcentricity indicates nonzero intrinsic eccentricities
in the rings, particularly the inner ring (see Section 5.1).
We explore the nonzero intrinsic eccentricity in the inner
ring with two models. In both models, the outer two rings are
intrinsically circular and concentric. Their center coincides with
one of the two foci of the inner ring. In Model 2, that center is
set free, while in Model 3 it is assumed to coincide with the
stellar position provided by GAIA DR2 (Gaia Collaboration
et al. 2018). In those two models, we introduce two more
parameters for the intrinsic eccentricity and apoapsis angle of
the inner ring. The position angle only indicates the direction to
the ascending node on the axis along which the ring is inclined.
The tting results are listed in Tables 1(b)and (c), and the
following calculations are based on the result of Model 3.
Figures 1(c)and (e)show the model image and the residual
map of Model 3, respectively. The residual map is produced by
subtracting model from data in the visibility plane, and then
imaging the results in the same way used for the observations.
We interpret the residuals as additional substructures on top of
the ideal model (e.g., a warp within the ring; Huang et al.
2020).
All three models yield roughly consistent inclinations and
position angles of each ring. However, we cannot determine the
mutual inclinations between them (i.e., the angles between their
angular momentum vectors)from dust emission modeling
alone, due to the unknown direction of orbital motion.
Table 1
The Complete MCMC Result of Dust Continuum Visibility Modeling
(a)Model 1
Inner Ring Middle Ring Outer Ring
R.A Offset [arcsecond]´-
-
-
1
.89 10 2
9.49 10
9.47 10 5
5
-
-
-
2.44 10 3
2.08 10
1.82 10 4
4
-
-
-
4.24 10 3
3.91 10
4.64 10 4
4
decl. Offset [arcsecond]
-
-
-
1.32 10 2
1.01 10
1.09 10 4
4
-
-
-
2.26 10 2
2.06 10
2.22 10 4
4
-
-
-
1.21 10 2
4.67 10
6.57 10 4
4
Ring Radius [arcsecond]´-
-
-
1
.15 10 1
1.48 10
1.46 10 4
4
´-
-
-
4
.68 10 1
2.92 10
3.07 10 4
4
´-
-
-
8.40 10 1
1.15 10
1.03 10 3
3
Ring Width [arcsecond]´-
-
-
.97 10 2
6.24 10
3.16 10 4
´-
-
-
1
.74 10 1
7.56 10
6.69 10 4
4
´-
-
-
3
.32 10 1
2.78 10
1.84 10 3
3
Surface Brightness [Jy/pixel]´-
-
-
2
.49 10 4
1.56 10
1.80 10 6
6´-
-
-
3
.96 10 5
1.69 10
8.67 10 7
8´-
-
-
1
.13 10 5
5.52 10
2.77 10 7
8
Inclination [degree]-
+
2
2.24 0.31
0.23 -
+
3
2.62 0.11
0.07 -
+
3
7.93 0.08
0.09
Position Angle [degree]--
+
60.75 0.56
1.0
6
--
+
7.43 0.12
0.19 --
+
3.57 0.12
0.15
(b)Model 2
Inner Ring Middle Ring Outer Ring
R.A Offset [arcsecond]´-
-
-
1
.77 10 2
1.61 10
1.69 10 4
4
decl. Offset [arcsecond]
-
-
-
2.22 10 2
1.99 10
1.95 10 4
4
Ring Radius [arcsecond]´-
-
-
1
.17 10 1
1.35 10
1.36 10 4
4
´-
-
-
4
.68 10 1
2.71 10
2.88 10 4
4
´-
-
-
8.40 10 1
9.53 10
9.48 10 4
4
Ring Width [arcsecond]´-
-
-
.97 10 2
3.91 10
3.16 10 4
´-
-
-
1
.74 10 1
6.03 10
6.66 10 4
4
´-
-
-
3
.30 10 1
1.96 10
1.68 10 3
3
Surface Brightness [Jy/pixel]´-
-
-
2
.51 10 4
1.55 10
1.53 10 6
6´-
-
-
3
.96 10 5
1.01 10
8.20 10 7
8´-
-
-
1
.13 10 5
3.37 10
2.65 10 8
8
Inclination [degree]-
+
2
3.15 0.23
0.22 -
+
3
2.64 0.07
0.07 -
+
3
7.91 0.07
0.0
8
Position Angle [degree]--
+
55.67 0.50
0.61 --
+
7.44 0.12
0.1
4
--
+
3.60 0.11
0.13
Apoapsis Angle [degree]-
+
65.04 0.49
0.50 LL
Eccentricity
-
-
0.21 1.43 10
1.75 10 3
3LL
(c)Model 3
Inner Ring Middle Ring Outer Ring
Ring Radius [arcsecond]´-
-
-
1
.16 10 1
1.49 10
1.20 10 4
4
´-
-
-
4
.68 10 1
2.98 10
2.72 10 4
4
´-
-
-
8.37 10 1
1.06 10
8.95 10 3
4
Ring Width [arcsecond]´-
-
-
.99 10 2
3.86 10
3.06 10 4
´-
-
-
1
.73 10 1
5.98 10
6.33 10 4
4
´-
-
-
3
.39 10 1
1.85 10
1.90 10 3
3
Surface Brightness [Jy/pixel]´-
-
-
2
.47 10 4
1.42 10
1.64 10 6
6´-
-
-
3
.94 10 5
1.12 10
8.55 10 7
8´-
-
-
1
.13 10 5
3.33 10
2.63 10 8
8
Inclination [degree]-
+
2
0.63 0.29
0.23 -
+
3
2.86 0.07
0.0
6
-
+
3
7.96 0.08
0.09
Position Angle [degree]--
+
60.37 0.65
0.81 --
+
7.26 0.13
0.13 --
+
3.49 0.12
0.13
Apoapsis Angle [degree]-
+
1
21.39 0.25
0.26 LL
Eccentricity
-
-
0.19 6.46 10
8.55 10 4
4
LL
Note.The radius of each ring is the location of the peak in our model in Section 4, and the width is the full width at half maximum (FWHM)of the prole. The center
offsets for Model 1 and Model 2 are relative to the center in Model 3, which is the location of GW Ori provided by GAIA DR2 (ICRS R.A.=5
h
29
m
08 390 and
decl.=11°5212 661). The position angles and apoapsis angles are measured east of north. The inclination is dened in the range from 0°to 90°, with 0°denoting
face-on. The pixel size in the unit of surface brightness is determined internally by GALARIO.
4
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
4.2. Kinematics Modeling of the
12
CO J=21 Emission
Following the prescription and parameter values used to t
low resolution CO isotopologue data of GW Ori (Fang et al.
2017), we set up a gas surface density model using a power-law
prole with an exponential tail
S=S
g--- g-
rr
re,5
c
c
rr
c2
() ()
[( ) ]
and the aspect ratio h/rparameterized as
=
y
h
r
h
r
r
r,6
cc
⎜⎟
()
where Σ
c
and (h/r)
c
are corresponding values at the
characteristic scaling radius r
c
. The disk mass is taken as
0.12 M
e
, corresponding to Σ
c
=3gcm
2
for r
c
=320 au,
with γ=1.0, (h/r)
c
=0.18, and ψ=0.1. The dust surface
density prole is set by assuming a gas-to-dust ratio of 100, and
decreasing the dust surface density by a factor of 1000 inside
the derived gap radii: inside 37 au, from 56 to 153 au, and from
221 to 269 au. The
12
CO channel maps are then computed and
ray-traced by the physical-chemical modeling code DALI
(Bruderer 2013), which simultaneously solves the heating-
cooling balance of the gas and chemistry to determine the gas
temperature, molecular abundances, and molecular excitation
for a given density structure.
Similar to Walsh et al. (2017), we model the misaligned disk
with an inner cavity and three annuli each with its own
inclination and position angle,
19
as listed in Table 2. The
channel map is run through the ALMA simulator using the
settings of the ALMA observations. The resulting rst-moment
map is shown in Figure 1(d). In Figure 1(f)we show the
simulated rst-moment map for another model as a compar-
ison, in which the disk is coplanar with an inclination of 37°.9
and a position angle of 5°.
The models show that the
12
CO J=21rst-moment
map in the ALMA observation cannot be reproduced by a
coplanar disk. Instead, the misaligned disk model described in
Table 2matches the observed rst-moment map better,
indicating the presence of misalignment in the GW Ori disk.
5. Discussions
Several disks have been observed to have nonzero
eccentricity and/or misalignment (e.g., MWC 758, Dong
et al. 2018a; HD 142527, Casassus et al. 2015; Marino et al.
2015; and HD 143006, Benisty et al. 2018; Pérez et al. 2018).
Unlike most of them, in which the origin is uncertain, the GW
Ori system provides a strong and direct link between
substructures and stardisk gravitational interactions. There-
fore, it offers a unique laboratory to probe three-dimensional
stardisk interactions. In this section, we discuss the possible
origins of the observed substructures due to stardisk
interactions.
5.1. Disk Eccentricity
The AB binary and the C component can be dynamically
viewed as an ABC binary. The eccentricity of the circumbin-
ary disk may increase through resonant interactions with the
binary (Papaloizou et al. 2001). In the case of no binary-disk
misalignment, the binaryʼs perturbing gravitational potential on
the midplane of the disk is given by Lubow (1991). The
coupling of this perturbing potential with the imposed
eccentricity of the disk excites density waves at the 1:3 outer
eccentric Lindblad resonance, which lead to angular momen-
tum removal in the inner parts of the disk. As no energy is
removed along with the angular momentum in this process, the
disk orbit cannot remain circular (Papaloizou et al. 2001).In
the case of GW Ori, the inner dust ring is the most susceptible
to this effect, which could explain why its center in Model 1 is
more deviated from those of the other two rings.
5.2. Binary-disk Misalignment
Our dust and gas observations alone cannot break the
degeneracy in the mutual inclination between different parts in
the disk due to the unknown on-sky projected orbital direction
of the disk. Previous studies indicate that the on-sky projected
gas motion is likely to be clockwise (Czekala et al. 2017), same
as the orbital motion of GW Ori C given by astrometric
observations (Berger et al. 2011). Given the inclination and
longitude of ascending node of the AB-C binary orbit being
150±7 and 282±9 degrees (Czekala et al. 2017), we assume
that the entire disk has the same clockwise on-sky projected
orbital direction. Following Fekel (1981),wend out that the
binary-disk misalignments at 46 au (the inner ring),100 au
(a gap), 188 au (the middle ring), and 338 au (outer ring)are
11±6, 28,
20
35±5, and 40±5 degrees, respectively. A
schematic diagram of our disk model is displayed in Figure 2.
Therefore, the inner ring and the AB-C binary plane are close
to being coplanar, and there is a monotonic trend of binary-disk
misalignment from 10°at 50 au to 40°at 340 au,
consistent with the expected outcome of the disk misalignment
(see Section 5.3).
Several mechanisms could produce an initial binary-disk
misalignment, such as turbulence in the star-forming gas clouds
(Bate 2012), binary formation in the gas cloud whose physical
Table 2
The Parameters Used in the Gas Kinematics Modeling
Inner Ring Outer Ring Longitude of the Inclination
Ascending Node
(au)(au)(degree)(degree)
0 32 No Emission
32 48 60 22.3
48 153 10 17.3
153 1000 5 37.9
Note.The annuli are concentric with the center located at the stellar position
provided by GAIA DR2 (ICRS R.A.=5
h
29
m
08 390 and decl.=11°52
12 661). The longitude of the ascending node is measured east of north, and
the inclination is dened in the range from 0°to 90°with 0°meaning face-on.
The disk model is composed of an empty inner cavity and three annuli, inside
out. The inner annulus (from 32 to 48 au)is for the inner dust ring. The outer
annulus (from 153 to 1000 au)is for the middle and outer dust rings. The
middle annulus (from 48 to 153 au)is for the gap in between.
19
DALI is unable to vary inclination as a function of radius. The nal channel
map is constructed by concatenating three channel maps, each for one
component, ray-traced at its inclination and position angle and cut out at the
specied radius range listed in Table 2.
20
The manual tting of the gas model cannot provide any uncertainties for the
gap between the inner and middle rings.
5
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
axes are misaligned to the rotation axis (Bonnell &
Bastien 1992), and accretion of cloud materials with mis-
aligned angular momentum with respect to the binary after the
binary formation (Bate 2018).
5.3. Misalignment within the Disk
A test particle orbiting a binary on a misaligned orbit
undergoes nodal precession due to gravitational perturbations
from the binary (Nixon et al. 2011; Facchini et al. 2018). For a
protoplanetary disk in the bending-wave regime (i.e., where the
aspect ratio is higher than the α-prescription of viscosity;
Shakura & Sunyaev 1973), disk parts at different radii shall
undergo global precession like a rigid body with possibly a
small warp (Smallwood et al. 2019). Therefore, the timescale of
radial communication of disk materials (i.e., for pressure-
induced bending waves propagating at half of the sound speed)
and the timescale of global precession determine whether the
disk can develop a misalignment inside.
Assuming an inner radius at 32 au (34 times the AB-C
binary semimajor axis; Czekala et al. 2017; Kraus et al. 2020)
and an outer radius at 1300 au (size of the gas disk; Fang et al.
2017), the global precession timescale of the entire disk is
0.83 Myr, and the radial communication timescale is
0.06 Myr (see Appendix D.1 and D.2 for detailed calcula-
tions). The radial communication is able to prevent the disk
from breaking or developing a signicant warp, and we would
not expect the observed large deviations in the inclination and
position angle between the inner and middle ring. Therefore,
we propose that the gap between the inner and middle ring is
deep enough to break the disk into two parts (hereafter the
inner and outer disk), undergoing nodal precession indepen-
dently, due to another mechanism.
Due to the viscous dissipation, the precessing disk is torqued
toward either polar alignment (i.e., the binary-disk misalign-
ment becomes 90°; Martin & Lubow 2017; Zanazzi &
Lai 2018), or coplanar alignment/counteralignment. The
minimum critical initial binary-disk misalignment for which a
disk moves toward polar alignment is 63°in the limit of zero
disk mass. Since a higher disk mass will lead to a larger critical
angle (Martin & Lubow 2019), the GW Ori disk is most likely
moving toward coplanar alignment. As we propose that the
disk breaks into two parts undergoing global precession
independently, they are also aligning to the binary indepen-
dently on different timescales.
Assuming the radial communication is blocked at 60 au, we
estimate the alignment timescales to be 1 Myr for the inner
disk and above 100 Myr for the outer disk (see Appendix D.3).
This is consistent with the observed signicantly smaller
inclination of the inner ring with respect to the binary than
those of the outer rings. The latter are likely inherited from
birth and have not evolved much given the system age.
If the radial communication is also blocked at the gap
between the middle and outer rings (e.g., 250 au), the nodal
precession timescales for the middle and outer rings would be
0.6 Myr and 120 Myr, respectively, and the two rings are
likely to develop signicantly different position angles. Thus
we propose that the gap between the middle and outer rings
does not cut off the radial communication, and the two rings
Figure 2. Schematic diagram showing the proposed geometry of the system. Orbital planes of the AB-C binary (red), the inner dust ring (orange), the gap between the
inner and middle dust rings (white dots), the middle dust ring (green), and the outer dust ring (blue)are marked inside out. The left panel is a sky-projected view, and
in the right panel the binary is edge-on. The size of the disk components are not to-scale. The orientation axes are shown at the bottom left corner of each panel, with
the x-axis being antiparallel to the R.A. direction, the y-axis being parallel to the decl. direction, and the z-axis pointing at the observer.
6
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
precess roughly as a rigid body with only a small warp
between them.
5.4. Hydrodynamic Simulations
The analytical results suggest that the radial communication
is able to prevent the binary from breaking the disk (e.g., Nixon
et al. 2013). As a result, we propose a break at 60 au that is
due to other mechanisms in order to explain the observed
structures. We carry out a demonstrative smoothed particle
hydrodynamic (SPH)simulation with the PHANTOM code
(Lodato & Price 2010; Price & Federrath 2010; Price et al.
2018)to test the nonbreaking hypothesis in the nonlinear
regime. The results are shown in Figure 3.
We model the triple-star system as the outer binary in order
to speed up the simulation. The simulation consists of 10
6
equal
mass Lagrangian SPH particles initially distributed from
r
in
=40 au to r
out
=400 au. The initial truncation radius of
the disk does not affect the simulation signicantly, since the
material moves inwards quickly due to the short local viscous
timescale. A smaller initial outer truncation radius r
out
than
what is observed is chosen in order to better resolve the disk.
The binary begins at apastron with e
b
=0.22 and a
b
=9.2 au
(Czekala et al. 2017). The accretion radius of each binary
component is 4 au. Particles within this radius are accreted, and
their mass and angular momentum are added to the star. We
ignore the effect of self-gravity since it has no effect on the
nodal precession rate of at circumbinary disks.
The initial surface density prole is taken by
S=S -
rrr,7
00
32
() ( ) ()
where Σ
0
is the density normalization at r
0
=40 au, corresp-
onding to a total disk mass of 0.1 M
e
. We take a locally
isothermal disk with a constant aspect ratio h/r=0.05, where
his the scale height. The Shakura & Sunyaev (1973)α
parameter varies in the range 0.0080.013 over the disk. The
SPH articial viscosity α
AV
=0.31 mimics a disk with
aa
»áñH
h10 8
AV ()
(Lodato & Price 2010), where
á
ñHis the mean smoothing
length on particles in a cylindrical ring at a given radius and we
take β
AV
=2. The disk is resolved with average smoothing
length per scale height of 0.32.
The evolution of surface density, binary-disk misalignment,
and longitude of the ascending node at different radii suggest
that the disk does not show any sign of breaking in 3000
binaryʼs orbital periods (0.04 Myr), which is sufciently long
to tell if the disk would break or not since the radial
communication timescale in the simulation is 0.01 Myr.
Instead, the disk presents a global warp. The warp is not taken
into account in the analytic estimates. The small outer
truncation radius in the simulation leads to a faster precession
timescale than that predicted by the analytic model, comparable
to the radial communication timescale. The simulations
suggests that unless the disk is very cool (i.e., low aspect
ratio)and in the viscous regime, some other mechanism, e.g., a
companion, is needed to break the disk at the gap between the
inner and middle rings. This mechanism may also be
responsible for producing the observed misalignment in
the disk.
A disk with a lower aspect ratio or a higher αvalue, such
that it falls into the viscous regime (h/r<α), may break due to
the binaryʼs torque (Nixon et al. 2013). However, observations
have suggested lower αvalues than our adaption here (e.g.,
α10
3
, Flaherty et al. 2017). A lower viscosity leads to a
larger binary truncation radius (Artymowicz & Lubow 1994),
and a longer global precession timescale (Equation (D4)).
Therefore we expect even less warping (and no break)in the
GW Ori disk than in our simulation.
Figure 3. Result of the SPH simulation. Upper panel:radial prole of the
surface density of the disk. Mand aare the total mass and separation of the
AB-C binary in code units, respectively. Middle panel:radial prole of the
binary-disk misalignment. Lower panel:radial prole of the longitude of the
ascending node of the disk, measured from the binaryʼs orbital plane.
7
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
6. Conclusions
We present the ALMA 1.3 mm dust continuum observation
and
12
CO J=21 emission of the circumtriple disk around
GW Ori. Our main conclusions are the following:
1. For the rst time, we identify three dust rings in the GW
Ori disk at 46, 188, and 338 au, with their estimated
dust mass being 74, 168, and 245 M
, respectively. The
three dust rings have enough solids to make many cores
of giant planets (10 M
; Pollack et al. 1996).
2. We built three models under various assumptions to t
the dust continuum observations using MCMC tting.
Our results (Table 1)suggest that the inner ring has an
eccentricity of 0.2, and the three rings have statistically
different on-sky projected inclinations. The inner, middle,
and outer rings are likely misaligned by 11, 35, and
40 degrees to the orbital plane of the GW Ori AB-C
binary system, respectively.
3. A twisted pattern is identied in the rst-moment map,
suggesting the presence of a warp in the disk, consistent
with what we have found in the dust continuum emission.
4. Using analytical analysis and hydrodynamic simulations,
we nd that the torque from the GW Ori triple stars alone
cannot explain the observed large misalignment between
the inner and middle dust rings. The disk would not break
due to the torque, and a continuous disk is unlikely to
show the observed large misalignment. Therefore, this
hints at some other mechanism that breaks the disk and
prevents radial communication of bending waves
between the inner and middle rings.
There are still open questions associated with the system. For
example, are there any companions in the disk? Dust rings and
gaps have been shown to be common in protoplanetary disks
(Andrews et al. 2018; Huang et al. 2018; Long et al. 2018; van
der Marel et al. 2019), and one of the most exciting hypotheses
is that they are produced by embedded companions ranging
from stellar-mass all the way to super-Earths (Artymowicz &
Lubow 1994; Dong et al. 2015; Zhang et al. 2018).
Specically, a companion may be opening the gap between
the inner and middle rings and breaking the disk there.
Companions at hundreds of astronomical units from their host
stars have been found before (e.g., HD 106906 b; Bailey et al.
2014). But how they form, i.e., forming in situ or at closer
distances, or followed by scattering or migration to the outer
regions, is unclear. If GW Oriʼs dust rings are in the process of
forming companions, there will be circumtriple companions,
which have not been found before (excluding quadruple
systems; Busetti et al. 2018). The system will offer direct
clues on the formation of distant companions.
We thank Sean Andrews, Myriam Benisty, John Carpenter,
Ian Czekala, Sheng-Yuan Liu, Feng Long, Diego Muñoz,
Rebecca Nealon, Henry Ngo, Laura Pérez, John Zanazzi, and
Zhaohuan Zhu for discussions. We also thank the anonymous
referee for constructive suggestions that largely improved the
quality of the paper. J.B. thanks Belaid Moa for help on the
numerical implementation. This paper makes use of the
following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00286.S.
ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member
states), NSF (USA)and NINS (Japan), together with NRC
(Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic
of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint
ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, auI/NRAO, and
NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a
facility of the National Science Foundation operated under
cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Num-
erical calculations are performed on the clusters provided by
ComputeCanada. This work is in part supported by JSPS
KAKENHI grant Nos. 19K03932, 18H05441, and 17H01103
and NAOJ ALMA Scientic Research grant No. 2016-02A.
Financial support is provided by the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Discovery
Grant awarded to R.D. N.v.d.M. acknowledges support from
the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program, administered
by the Government of Canada. R.G.M. acknowledges support
from NASA through grant NNX17AB96G. H.B.L. is sup-
ported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST)of
Taiwan (grant Nos. 108-2112-M-001-002-MY3). Y.H. is
supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. K.T is supported by JSPS
KAKENHI 16H05998 and 18H05440, and NAOJ ALMA
Scientic Research Grant 2017-05A.
Appendix A
ALMA
12
CO J=21 Zeroth-moment Map
Figure A1 shows the ALMA zeroth-moment map of
12
CO
J=21 emission. The spiral-like structure at 075 to the
northwest is likely due to cloud contamination, as reported by
previous studies (Czekala et al. 2017; Fang et al. 2017).
Figure A1. ALMA zeroth-moment map of
12
CO J=21 emission.
8
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
Appendix B
A Larger View of Figure 1(a)
Figure B1 shows a larger view of Figure 1(a).
Figure B1. Larger view of Figure 1(a).
9
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
Appendix C
The UV-plot and Posterior Distribution of Dust Modeling
Figure C1 shows the uv-plot and posterior distribution of
Model 3.
Appendix D
Equations for the Timescale Analysis
D.1. Radial Communication Timescale
For a disk around a binary system of separation a
b
, its radial
communication timescale t
c
can be estimated by Lubow &
Martin (2018)
»W
thr
r
a
8
5,D1
c
bout
out
b
32
() ()
where r
out
is the outer radius within which the disk is in good
radial communication, and (h/r)
out
is the aspect ratio at r
out
,
calculated based on the estimated temperature in the disk
(Equation (2)). The radial communication timescale of the
entire disk (i.e., r
out
=1300 au)is estimated to be 0.06 Myr.
D.2. Nodal Precession Timescale
If there is no radial communication in the disk, each part of the
disk shall undergo differential precession with its local precession
angular frequency ω
n,local
given by Smallwood et al. (2019)
w=Wka
r,D2
n,local b72
b
⎜⎟
()
where
=+- +
kee
MM
MM
3
413 4 D3
b
2
b
412
12
2
() ()
is a constant depending on the eccentricity of binaryʼsorbite
b
,
and the primary and secondary mass of the binary M
1
and M
2
.
However, for a protoplanetary disk in the bending-wave regime,
where radial communication is active and prompt, the disk parts
Figure C1. Quality of MCMC parameter search for Model 3. The uv-visibility panel shows the uv-plot of both the ALMA observation and its best-t model, with the
upper panel for the real part of visibility and the lower panel for the imaginary part. The surrounding panels show the histograms of chains in the MCMC tting. The
best-t value is taken from the ftieth percentile of the distribution (vertical red line), and the negative and positive uncertainties are taken from sixteenth and eighty-
fourth percentile, respectively. The seven columns are for the peak surface brightness, apoapsis angle (inner ring only), eccentricity (inner ring only), inclination,
position angle, radius, and width, from left to right. The three rows (top-down)are for the inner, middle, and outer rings. The units of parameters in the histograms are
the same as those in Table 1(c).
10
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 895:L18 (11pp), 2020 May 20 Bi et al.
at different radii shall undergo global precession with the angular
frequency ω
n,global
given by Smallwood et al. (2019)
w=Wka
r,D4
n,global b72
b
⎜⎟
()
and
ò
ò
=SW
SW
a
r
rar r
rr
d
d
D5
r
r
r
r
b72 3b72
3
in
out
in
out
⎜⎟
()
()
is the angular momentum weighted averaging term, in which Ω
(r)is the angular frequency at a given radius r,Σ(r)is the disk
surface density with a radial dependence of r
3/2
, and r
in
and
r
out
are inner and outer radii of the disk. Assuming r
in
=32 au
and r
out
=1300 au, we take t
n,global
=2π/ω
n,global
and esti-
mate the global precession timescale of the entire GW Ori disk
to be 0.83 Myr.
D.3. Alignment Timescale
The alignment timescale t
a
is given by Lubow & Martin
(2018)and Bate et al. (2000)
aw
=W
thr ,D6
a
2b
n
2
() ()
where α=0.01, h/ris dened in Equation (6), and the angular
frequency of global precession (Equation (D4)) is used for ω
n
.
ORCID iDs
Jiaqing Bi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0605-4961
Nienke van der Marel https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
2458-9756
Ruobing Dong ()https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
9290-7846
Rebecca G. Martin https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2401-7168
Jun Hashimoto https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3053-3575
Hideko Nomura https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7058-7682
Michihiro Takami https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9248-7546
Mihoko Konishi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0114-0542
Munetake Momose https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3001-0897
Kazuhiro D. Kanagawa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
7235-2417
Akimasa Kataoka https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4562-4119
Tomohiro Ono https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8524-6939
Michael L. Sitko https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1799-1755
Sanemichi Z. Takahashi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
3038-364X
Kengo Tomida https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8105-8113
Takashi Tsukagoshi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6034-2892
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... Advances in observational techniques in the last decade have now enabled us to characterise protoplanetary discs properties, such as disc sizes and stellar accretion rates, systematically and statistically. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveals substructures in the dust and gas discs (e.g., van der Marel et al. 2013; ALMA Partnership et al. 2015;Dipierro et al. 2018a;Andrews et al. 2018;Bi et al. 2020;Öberg et al. 2021b), and provides radial intensity profiles of dust (e.g., Zhang et al. 2016;Huang et al. 2018) and molecular emission (e.g., Huang et al. 2016;Law et al. 2021;Öberg et al. 2021a) from discs in the nearby star-forming regions. ...
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Whether the angular momentum of protoplanetary discs is redistributed by viscosity or extracted by magnetised winds is a long-standing question. Demographic indicators, such as gas disc sizes and stellar accretion rates, have been proposed as ways of distinguishing between these two mechanisms. In this paper, we implement one-dimensional gas simulations to study the evolution of "hybrid" protoplanetary discs simultaneously driven by viscosity and magnetised winds, with dead zones present. We explore how the variations of disc properties, including initial disc sizes, dead zone sizes and angular momentum transport efficiency, affect stellar accretion rates, disc surface density profiles, disc sizes, disc lifetimes, and cumulative mass loss by different processes. Our models show that the expansion of the gas disc size can be sustained when the majority of angular momentum is removed by the magnetised wind for individual protoplanetary discs. However, when we can only observe discs via demographic screenshots, the variation of disc sizes with time is possibly diminished by the disc "personalities", by which we mean the variations of initial disc properties among different discs. Our "hybrid" models re-assess association of the two demographic indicators with mechanisms responsible for angular momentum transport and suggest additional diagnostics are required to assist the differentiation.
... • The model can be extended to cover multiple rings/gaps with different central positions, inclinations, or position angles as observed in GW Ori (Bi et al. 2020). This can be realized by considering multiple sets of geometric parameters, each of which is applied to one of the separate ranges. ...
Preprint
This study proposes an analytical framework for deriving the surface brightness profile and geometry of a geometrically-thin axisymmetric disc from interferometric observation of continuum emission. Such precise modelling facilitates the exploration of faint non-axisymmetric structures, such as spirals and circumplanetary discs. As a demonstration, we simulate interferometric observations of geometrically-thin axisymmetric discs. The proposed method can reasonably recover the injected axisymmetric structures, whereas Gaussian fitting of the same data yielded larger errors in disc orientation estimation. To further test the applicability of the method, it was applied to the mock data for m=1,2 spirals and a point source, which are embedded in a bright axisymmetric structure. The injected non-axisymmetric structures were reasonably recovered except for the innermost parts, and the disc geometric parameter estimations were better than Gasussian fitting. The method was then applied to the real data of Elias 20 and AS 209, and it adequately subtracted the axisymmetric component, notably in Elias 20, where substantial residuals remained without our method. We also applied our method to continuum data of PDS 70 to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. We successfully recovered emission from PDS 70 c consistently with previous studies, and also tentatively discovered new substructures. The current formulation can be applied to any data for disc continuum emission, and aids in the search of spirals and circumplanetary discs, whose detection is still limited.
Article
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has detected substructures in numerous protoplanetary disks at radii from a few to over 100 au. These substructures are commonly thought to be associated with planet formation, either by serving as sites fostering planetesimal formation or by arising as a consequence of planet–disk interactions. Our current understanding of substructures, though, is primarily based on observations of nearby star-forming regions with mild UV environments, whereas stars are typically born in much harsher UV environments, which may inhibit planet formation in the outer disk through external photoevaporation. We present high-resolution (∼8 au) ALMA 1.3 mm continuum images of eight disks in σ Orionis, a cluster irradiated by an O9.5 star. Gaps and rings are resolved in the images of five disks. The most striking of these is SO 1274, which features five gaps that appear to be arranged nearly in a resonant chain. In addition, we infer the presence of gap or shoulder-like structures in the other three disks through visibility modeling. These observations indicate that substructures robustly form and survive at semimajor axes of several tens of au or less in disks exposed to intermediate levels of external UV radiation as well as in compact disks. However, our observations also suggest that disks in σ Orionis are mostly small, and thus millimeter continuum gaps beyond a disk radius of 50 au are rare in this region, possibly due to either external photoevaporation or age effects.
Preprint
The precursors of Herbig stars are called Intermediate Mass T Tauri (IMTT) stars, which have spectral types later than F, but stellar masses between 1.5 and 5 M_\odot, and will eventually become Herbig stars with spectral types of A and B. ALMA Band 6 and 7 archival data are obtained for 34 IMTT disks with continuum observations, 32 of which have at least 12CO, 13CO, or C18O observations although most of them at quite shallow integrations. The disk integrated flux together with a stellar luminosity scaled disk temperature are used to obtain a total disk dust mass by assuming optically thin emission. Using thermochemical Dust And LInes (DALI) models from previous work, we additionally obtain gas masses of 10/35 of the IMTT disks based on the CO isotopologues. The IMTT disks in this study have the same dust mass and radius distributions as Herbig disks. The dust mass of the IMTT disks is higher compared to that of the T Tauri disks, as is also found for the Herbig disks. No differences in dust mass are found for group I versus group II disks, in contrast to Herbig disks. The disks for which a gas mass could be determined show similar high mass disks as for the Herbig disks. Comparing the disk dust and gas mass distributions to the mass distribution of exoplanets shows that there also is not enough dust mass in disks around intermediate mass stars to form the massive exoplanets. On the other hand there is more than enough gas to form the atmospheres of exoplanets. We conclude that the sampled IMTT disk population is almost indistinguishable compared to Herbig disks, as their disk masses are the same, even though these are younger objects. Based on this, we conclude that planet formation is already well on its way in these objects, and thus planet formation should start early on in the lifetime of Herbig disks.
Article
Many accretion discs have been found to be distorted: either warped due a misalignment in the system, or non-circular as a result of orbital eccentricity or tidal deformation by a binary companion. Warped, eccentric, and tidally distorted discs are not in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium, and thus exhibit vertical oscillations in the direction perpendicular to the disc, a phenomenon that is absent in circular and flat discs. In extreme cases, this vertical motion is manifested as a vertical ‘bouncing’ of the gas, potentially leading to shocks and heating, as observed in recent global numerical simulations. In this paper we isolate the mechanics of vertical disc oscillations by means of quasi-2D and fully 3D hydrodynamic local (shearing-box) models. To determine the numerical and physical dissipation mechanisms at work during an oscillation we start by investigating unforced oscillations, examining the effect of initial oscillation amplitude, as well as resolution, boundary conditions, and vertical box size on the dissipation and energetics of the oscillations. We then drive the oscillations by introducing a time-dependent gravitational potential. A key result is that even a purely vertically oscillating disc is (parametrically) unstable to developing inertial waves, as we confirm through a linear stability analysis. The most important of these has the character of a bending wave, whose radial wavelength depends on the frequency of the vertical oscillation. The nonlinear phase of the instability exhibits shocks, which dampen the oscillations, although energy can also flow from the bending wave back to the vertical oscillation.
Article
Full-text available
Context . Increasing evidence shows that warped disks are common, challenging the methods used to model their velocity fields. Molecular line emission of these disks is characterized by a twisted pattern, similar to the signal from radial flows, complicating the study of warped disk kinematics. Previous attempts to model these features have encountered difficulties in distinguishing between the underlying kinematics of different disks. Aims . This study aims to advance gas kinematics modeling capabilities by extending the Extracting Disk Dynamics ( eddy ) package to include warped geometries and radial flows. We assess the performance of eddy in recovering input parameters for scenarios involving warps, radial flows, and combinations of the two. Additionally, we provide a basis to break the visual degeneracy between warped disks and radial flow, establishing a criterion to distinguish them. Methods . We extended the eddy package to handle warped geometries by including a parametric prescription of a warped disk and a ray-casting algorithm to account for the surface self-obscuration arising from the 3D to 2D projection. The effectiveness of the tool was tested using the radiative transfer code RADMC3D , generating synthetic models for disks with radial flows, warped disks, and warped disks with radial flows. Results . We demonstrate the efficacy of our tool in accurately recovering the geometrical parameters of systems, particularly in data with sufficient angular resolution. Importantly, we observe minimal impact from thermal noise levels typical in Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. Furthermore, our findings reveal that fitting an incorrect model type produces characteristic residual signatures, which serve as kinematic criteria for disk classification. Conclusions . Characterizing gas kinematics requires careful consideration of twisted motions. While our model provides insights into disk geometries, caution is needed when interpreting parameters in regions with complex kinematics or low-resolution data. Future ALMA baseline observations should help clarify warped disk kinematics.
Article
Whether the angular momentum of protoplanetary discs is redistributed by viscosity or extracted by magnetized winds is a long-standing question. Demographic indicators, such as gas disc sizes and stellar accretion rates, have been proposed as ways of distinguishing between these two mechanisms. In this paper, we implement one-dimensional gas simulations to study the evolution of ‘hybrid’ protoplanetary discs simultaneously driven by viscosity and magnetized winds, with dead zones present. We explore how the variations of disc properties, including initial disc sizes, dead zone sizes, and angular momentum transport efficiency, affect stellar accretion rates, disc surface density profiles, disc sizes, disc lifetimes, and cumulative mass-loss by different processes. Our models show that the expansion of the gas disc size can be sustained when the majority of angular momentum is removed by the magnetized wind for individual protoplanetary discs. However, when we can only observe discs via demographic screenshots, the variation of disc sizes with time is possibly diminished by the disc ‘personalities’, by which we mean the variations of initial disc properties among different discs. Our ‘hybrid’ models re-assess association of the two demographic indicators with mechanisms responsible for angular momentum transport and suggest that additional diagnostics are required to assist the differentiation.
Article
Disc warping, and possibly disc breaking, has been observed in protoplanetary discs around both single and multiple stars. Large warps can break the disc, producing multiple observational signatures. In this work, we use comparisons of disc timescales to derive updated formulae for disc breaking, with better predictions as to when and where a disc is expected to break and how many breaks could occur. Disc breaking is more likely for discs with small inner cavities, cooler temperatures, and steeper power-law profiles, such that thin, polar-aligning discs are more likely to break. We test our analytic formulae using 3D grid-based simulations of protoplanetary discs warped by the gravitational torque of an inner binary. We reproduce the expected warp behaviors in different viscosity regimes and observe disc breaking at locations in agreement with our derived equations. As our simulations only show disc breaking when disc viscosity is low, we also consider a viscous criterion for disc breaking, where rapid alignment to the precession vector can prevent a break by reducing the maximum misalignment between neighboring rings. We apply these results to the GW Orionis circumtriple disc, and find that the precession induced from the central stars can break the disc if it is relatively thin. We expect repeated or multiple disc breaking to occur for discs with sufficiently steep power law profiles. We simulate a polar-aligning disc around an eccentric binary with steep power-law profiles, and observe two separate breaking events at locations in rough agreement with our analytical predictions.
Article
This study proposes an analytical framework for deriving the surface brightness profile and geometry of a geometrically thin axisymmetric disc from interferometric observation of continuum emission. Such precise modelling facilitates the exploration of faint non-axisymmetric structures, such as spirals and circumplanetary discs. As a demonstration, we simulate interferometric observations of geometrically thin axisymmetric discs. The proposed method can reasonably recover the injected axisymmetric structures, whereas Gaussian fitting of the same data yielded larger errors in disc orientation estimation. To further test the applicability of the method, it was applied to the mock data for m=1,2 spirals and a point source, which are embedded in a bright axisymmetric structure. The injected non-axisymmetric structures were reasonably recovered except for the innermost parts, and the disc geometric parameter estimations were better than Gasussian fitting. The method was then applied to the real data of Elias 20 and AS 209, and it adequately subtracted the axisymmetric component, notably in Elias 20, where substantial residuals remained without our method. We also applied our method to continuum data of PDS 70 to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. We successfully recovered emission from PDS 70 c consistently with previous studies, and also tentatively discovered new substructures. The current formulation can be applied to any data for disc continuum emission, and aids in the search of spirals and circumplanetary discs, whose detection is still limited.
Article
We investigate the formation of dust traffic jams in polar-aligning circumbinary discs. We use 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamical simulations of both gas and dust to model an initially highly misaligned circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary. As the circumbinary disc evolves to a polar configuration (perpendicular to the binary orbital plane), the difference in the precession between the gas and dust produces dust traffic jams, which become dense dust rings. We find the formation of dust rings exists for different Stokes number, binary eccentricity, and initial disc tilt. Dust rings are only produced while the circumbinary disc is misaligned to the binary orbital plane. When the disc becomes polar aligned, the dust rings are still present and long-lived. Once these dust rings are formed, they drift inward. The drift time-scale depends on the Stokes number. The lower the Stokes number, the faster the dust ring drifts near the inner edge of the disc. The dust rings will have an increased mid-plane dust-to-go ratio, which may be a favourable environment for the steaming instability to operate.
Article
Full-text available
Context. Numerous theoretical studies of the stellar dynamics of triple systems have been carried out, but fewer purely empirical studies that have addressed planetary orbits within these systems. Most of these empirical studies have been for coplanar orbits and with a limited number of orbital parameters. Aims. Our objective is to provide a more generalized empirical mapping of the regions of planetary stability in triples by considering both prograde and retrograde motion of planets and the outer star; investigating highly inclined orbits of the outer star; extending the parameters used to all relevant orbital elements of the triple’s stars and expanding these elements and mass ratios to wider ranges that will accommodate recent and possibly future observational discoveries. Methods. Using N -body simulations, we integrated numerically the various four-body configurations over the parameter space, using a symplectic integrator designed specifically for the integration of hierarchical multiple stellar systems. The triples were then reduced to binaries and the integrations repeated to highlight the differences between these two types of system. Results. This established the regions of secular stability and resulted in 24 semi-empirical models describing the stability bounds for planets in each type of triple orbital configuration. The results were then compared with the observational extremes discovered to date to identify regions that may contain undiscovered planets.
Article
We analyse the evolution of a mildly inclined circumbinary disc that orbits an eccentric orbit binary by means of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations and linear theory. We show that the alignment process of an initially misaligned circumbinary disc around an eccentric orbit binary is significantly different than around a circular orbit binary and involves tilt oscillations. The more eccentric the binary, the larger the tilt oscillations and the longer it takes to damp these oscillations. A circumbinary disc that is only mildly inclined may increase its inclination by a factor of a few before it moves towards alignment. The results of the SPH simulations agree well with those of linear theory. We investigate the properties of the circumbinary disc/ring around KH 15D. We determine disc properties based on the observational constraints imposed by the changing binary brightness. We find that the inclination is currently at a local minimum and will increase substantially before settling to coplanarity. In addition, the nodal precession is currently near its most rapid rate. The recent observations that show a reappearance of star B impose constraints on the thickness of the layer of obscuring material. Our results suggest that disc solids have undergone substantial inward drift and settling towards to disc mid-plane. For disc masses ∼0.001 M⊙, our model indicates that the level of disc turbulence is low (α ≪ 0.001). Another possibility is that the disc/ring contains little gas.
Article
An initially sufficiently misaligned low-mass protoplanetary disc around an eccentric binary undergoes damped nodal oscillations of tilt angle and longitude of ascending node. Dissipation causes evolution towards a stationary state of polar alignment in which the disc lies perpendicular to the binary orbital plane with angular momentum aligned to the eccentricity vector of the binary. We use hydrodynamic simulations and analytical methods to investigate how the mass of the disc affects this process. The simulations suggest that a disc with non-zero mass settles into a stationary state in the frame of the binary, the generalized polar state, at somewhat lower levels of misalignment with respect to the binary orbital plane, in agreement with the analytical model. Provided that discs settle into this generalized polar state, the observational determination of the misalignment angle and binary properties can be used to determine the mass of a circumbinary disc. We apply this constraint to the circumbinary disc in HD 98800. We obtain analytical criteria for polar alignment of a circumbinary ring with mass that approximately agree with the simulation results. Very broad misaligned discs undergo breaking, but the inner regions at least may still evolve to a polar state. The long-term evolution of the disc depends on the evolution of the binary eccentricity that we find tends to decrease. Although the range of parameters required for polar alignment decreases somewhat with increasing disc mass, such alignment appears possible for a broad set of initial conditions expected in protostellar circumbinary discs.
Article
The protoplanetary disk around the T Tauri star GM Aur was one of the first hypothesized to be in the midst of being cleared out by a forming planet. As a result, GM Aur has had an outsized influence on our understanding of disk structure and evolution. We present 1.1 and 2.1 mm ALMA continuum observations of the GM Aur disk at a resolution of ∼50 mas (∼8 au), as well as HCO ⁺ J = 3 − 2 observations at a resolution of ∼100 mas. The dust continuum shows at least three rings atop faint, extended emission. Unresolved emission is detected at the center of the disk cavity at both wavelengths, likely due to a combination of dust and free–free emission. Compared to the 1.1 mm image, the 2.1 mm image shows a more pronounced “shoulder” near R ∼ 40 au, highlighting the utility of longer-wavelength observations for characterizing disk substructures. The spectral index α features strong radial variations, with minima near the emission peaks and maxima near the gaps. While low spectral indices have often been ascribed to grain growth and dust trapping, the optical depth of GM Aur’s inner two emission rings renders their dust properties ambiguous. The gaps and outer disk ( R > 100 au) are optically thin at both wavelengths. Meanwhile, the HCO ⁺ emission indicates that the gas cavity is more compact than the dust cavity traced by the millimeter continuum, similar to other disks traditionally classified as “transitional.”
Article
Since the discovery of the multiring structure of the HL Tau disk, ALMA data suggest that the dust continuum emission of many, if not all, protoplanetary disks consists of rings and gaps, no matter their spectral type or age. The origin of these gaps so far remains unclear. We present a sample study of 16 disks with multiple ring-like structures in the continuum, using published ALMA archival data, to compare their morphologies and gap locations in a systematic way. The 16 targets range from early- to late-type stars, from <0.5 Myr to >10 Myr and from ∼0.2 to 40 L o , and include both full and transitional disks with cleared inner dust cavities. Stellar ages are revised using new Gaia distances. Gap locations are derived using a simple radial fit to the intensity profiles. Using a radiative transfer model, the temperature profiles are computed. The gap radii generally do not correspond to the orbital radii of snow lines of the most common molecules. A snow line model can likely be discarded as a common origin of multiring systems. In addition, there are no systematic trends in the gap locations that could be related to resonances of planets. Finally, the outer radius of the disks decreases for the oldest disks in the sample, indicating that if multiring disks evolve in a similar way, outer dust rings either dissipate with the gas or grow into planetesimal belts. © 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Article
The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) provides a large sample of protoplanetary disks with substructures that could be induced by young forming planets. To explore the properties of planets that may be responsible for these substructures, we systematically carry out a grid of 2D hydrodynamical simulations, including both gas and dust components. We present the resulting gas structures, including the relationship between the planet mass, as well as (1) the gaseous gap depth/width and (2) the sub/super-Keplerian motion across the gap. We then compute dust continuum intensity maps at the frequency of the DSHARP observations. We provide the relationship between the planet mass, as well as (1) the depth/width of the gaps at millimeter intensity maps, (2) the gap edge ellipticity and asymmetry, and (3) the position of secondary gaps induced by the planet. With these relationships, we lay out the procedure to constrain the planet mass using gap properties, and study the potential planets in the DSHARP disks. We highlight the excellent agreement between observations and simulations for AS 209 and the detectability of the young solar system analog. Finally, under the assumption that the detected gaps are induced by young planets, we characterize the young planet population in the planet mass-semimajor axis diagram. We find that the occurrence rate for >5 M J planets beyond 5-10 au is consistent with direct imaging constraints. Disk substructures allow us to probe a wide-orbit planet population (Neptune to Jupiter mass planets beyond 10 au) that is not accessible to other planet searching techniques. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Article
The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) used ALMA to map the 1.25 mm continuum of protoplanetary disks at a spatial resolution of ∼5 au. We present a systematic analysis of annular substructures in the 18 single-disk systems targeted in this survey. No dominant architecture emerges from this sample; instead, remarkably diverse morphologies are observed. Annular substructures can occur at virtually any radius where millimeter continuum emission is detected and range in widths from a few astronomical units to tens of astronomical units. Intensity ratios between gaps and adjacent rings range from near-unity to just a few percent. In a minority of cases, annular substructures coexist with other types of substructures, including spiral arms (3/18) and crescent-like azimuthal asymmetries (2/18). No clear trend is observed between the positions of the substructures and stellar host properties. In particular, the absence of an obvious association with stellar host luminosity (and hence the disk thermal structure) suggests that substructures do not occur preferentially near major molecular snowlines. Annular substructures like those observed in DSHARP have long been hypothesized to be due to planet-disk interactions. A few disks exhibit characteristics particularly suggestive of this scenario, including substructures in possible mean-motion resonance and "double gap" features reminiscent of hydrodynamical simulations of multiple gaps opened by a planet in a low-viscosity disk. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Article
We introduce the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP), one of the initial Large Programs conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The primary goal of DSHARP is to find and characterize substructures in the spatial distributions of solid particles for a sample of 20 nearby protoplanetary disks, using very high resolution (∼0.″035, or 5 au, FWHM) observations of their 240 GHz (1.25 mm) continuum emission. These data provide a first homogeneous look at the small-scale features in disks that are directly relevant to the planet formation process, quantifying their prevalence, morphologies, spatial scales, spacings, symmetry, and amplitudes, for targets with a variety of disk and stellar host properties. We find that these substructures are ubiquitous in this sample of large, bright disks. They are most frequently manifested as concentric, narrow emission rings and depleted gaps, although large-scale spiral patterns and small arc-shaped azimuthal asymmetries are also present in some cases. These substructures are found at a wide range of disk radii (from a few astronomical units to more than 100 au), are usually compact (≲10 au), and show a wide range of amplitudes (brightness contrasts). Here we discuss the motivation for the project, describe the survey design and the sample properties, detail the observations and data calibration, highlight some basic results, and provide a general overview of the key conclusions that are presented in more detail in a series of accompanying articles. The DSHARP data - including visibilities, images, calibration scripts, and more - are released for community use at https://almascience.org/alma-data/lp/DSHARP. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Article
We present a detailed analysis of new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the disk around the T-Tauri star HD 143006, which at 46 mas (7.6 au) resolution reveals new substructures in the 1.25 mm continuum emission. The disk resolves into a series of concentric rings and gaps, together with a bright arc exterior to the rings that resembles hydrodynamical simulations of a vortex and a bridge-like feature connecting the two innermost rings. Although our ¹²CO observations at similar spatial resolution do not show obvious substructure, they reveal an inner disk depleted of CO emission. From the continuum emission and the CO velocity field we find that the innermost ring has a higher inclination than the outermost rings and the arc. This is evidence for either a small (∼8) or moderate (∼41) misalignment between the inner and outer disk, depending on the specific orientation of the near/far sides of the inner/outer disk. We compare the observed substructures in the ALMA observations with recent scattered-light data of this object from the Very Large Telescope/Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE). In particular, the location of narrow shadow lanes in the SPHERE image, combined with pressure-scale height estimates, favor a large misalignment of about 41. We discuss our findings in the context of a dust-trapping vortex, planet-carved gaps, and a misaligned inner disk due to the presence of an inclined companion to HD 143006. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
Article
Rings are the most frequently revealed substructure in Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) dust observations of protoplanetary disks, but their origin is still hotly debated. In this paper, we identify dust substructures in 12 disks and measure their properties to investigate how they form. This subsample of disks is selected from a high-resolution (∼0.″12) ALMA 1.33 mm survey of 32 disks in the Taurus star-forming region, which was designed to cover a wide range of brightness and to be unbiased to previously known substructures. While axisymmetric rings and gaps are common within our sample, spiral patterns and high-contrast azimuthal asymmetries are not detected. Fits of disk models to the visibilities lead to estimates of the location and shape of gaps and rings, the flux in each disk component, and the size of the disk. The dust substructures occur across a wide range of stellar mass and disk brightness. Disks with multiple rings tend to be more massive and more extended. The correlation between gap locations and widths, the intensity contrast between rings and gaps, and the separations of rings and gaps could all be explained if most gaps are opened by low-mass planets (super-Earths and Neptunes) in the condition of low disk turbulence (α = 10⁻⁴). The gap locations are not well correlated with the expected locations of CO and N2 ice lines, so condensation fronts are unlikely to be a universal mechanism to create gaps and rings, though they may play a role in some cases. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.