The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. II. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and Class i Protostellar Disks
Journal article, 2020

We have conducted a survey of 328 protostars in the Orion molecular clouds with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at 0.87 mm at a resolution of ∼0.″1 (40 au), including observations with the Very Large Array at 9 mm toward 148 protostars at a resolution of ∼0.″08 (32 au). This is the largest multiwavelength survey of protostars at this resolution by an order of magnitude. We use the dust continuum emission at 0.87 and 9 mm to measure the dust disk radii and masses toward the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars, characterizing the evolution of these disk properties in the protostellar phase. The mean dust disk radii for the Class 0, Class I, and flat-spectrum protostars are 44.9-3.4+5.8, 37.0-3.0+4.9, and 28.5-2.3+3.7 au, respectively, and the mean protostellar dust disk masses are 25.9-4.0+7.7, 14.9-2.2+3.8, 11.6-1.9+3.5 M⊙, respectively. The decrease in dust disk masses is expected from disk evolution and accretion, but the decrease in disk radii may point to the initial conditions of star formation not leading to the systematic growth of disk radii or that radial drift is keeping the dust disk sizes small. At least 146 protostellar disks (35% of 379 detected 0.87 mm continuum sources plus 42 nondetections) have disk radii greater than 50 au in our sample. These properties are not found to vary significantly between different regions within Orion. The protostellar dust disk mass distributions are systematically larger than those of Class II disks by a factor of >4, providing evidence that the cores of giant planets may need to at least begin their formation during the protostellar phase.

Author

John J. Tobin

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Patrick D. Sheehan

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

S. Thomas Megeath

University of Toledo

Ana Karla Diaz-Rodriguez

Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)

S. Offner

The University of Texas at Austin

N. M. Murillo

Leiden University

Merel L.R. Van 'T Hoff

Leiden University

Ewine F. Van Dishoeck

Leiden University

Mayra Osorio

Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)

G. Anglada

Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)

Elise Furlan

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Amelia M. Stutz

University of Concepcion

Nickalas Reynolds

University of Oklahoma

Nicole Karnath

University of Toledo

William J. Fischer

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Magnus V. Persson

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

L. W. Looney

University of Illinois

Z. Y. Li

University of Virginia

Ian Stephens

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

C. J. Chandler

National Radio Astronomy Observatory Socorro

Erin Cox

Northwestern University

Michael M. Dunham

SUNY Fredonia

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Łukasz Tychoniec

Leiden University

M. Kama

University of Cambridge

K. M. Kratter

University of Arizona

Marina Kounkel

Western Washington University

Brian Mazur

University of Toledo

Luke T. Maud

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Leiden University

Lisa Patel

University of Oklahoma

L. Perez

University of Chile (UCH)

S. I. Sadavoy

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

D. Segura-Cox

Max Planck Society

Rajeeb Sharma

University of Oklahoma

Brian Stephenson

University of Oklahoma

Dan M. Watson

University of Rochester

F. Wyrowski

Max Planck Society

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 890 2 130

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ab6f64

More information

Latest update

3/29/2022