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J. Patience (Caltech), R. L. Akeson (MSC), E. L. N. Jensen (Swarthmore), A. Sargent (Caltech)
Observations of disk material surrounding young stars determine the early environmental conditions that influence the development of planetary systems and provide constraints on theoretical models of star and planet formation. With the Owens Valley Millimeter Array (OVRO) we are targeting Class I and Class II young binaries in Taurus and Ophiuchus to determine the distribution and evolution of cool dust in the outer disks. At infrared wavelengths, we are exploiting the exceptional angular resolution of the Keck interferometer to resolve the hot inner disks of classical and weak-lined T Tauri stars at sub-AU scales.
The OVRO 3mm continuum maps possess the angular resolution to separate the contribution from each binary component and reveal that the dust emission is dominated by the primary, even at the Class I stage. The circumprimary disks have masses that are comparable to the Minimum Mass Solar Nebula and show evidence for grain growth. The nondetection of massive secondary disks suggests a dissipation timescale that may negatively impact planet formation. In addition to the continuum detections, some of the sources show CO line emission, including the unique combination of a CO gas disk around the SR 24 secondary/tertiary pair without a corresponding dust disk detection.
The K-band Keck interferometry measurements of several pre-Main Sequence stars show calibrated squared visibilities significantly less than unity, indicating spatially resolved sources. By modeling the visibility as arising from an unresolved star and a resolved disk the size of the inner disk can be estimated. The inferred sizes are more consistent with disk models incorporating a puffed-up inner edge at the dust destruction radius than standard flared disk models, however the interferometry results indicate inner disks somewhat larger than the dust destruction radius.
This work was supported by NSF grant AST-0307830 and a Michelson Fellowship.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: patience@astro.caltech.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.