AB Aur, a Rosetta stone for studies of planet formation: I. Chemical study of a planet-forming disk
Journal article, 2020

Context. AB Aur is a Herbig Ae star that hosts a prototypical transition disk. The disk shows a plethora of features connected with planet formation mechanisms, such as spiral arms, dust cavities, and dust traps. Understanding the physical and chemical characteristics of these features is crucial to advancing our knowledge of the planet formation processes. Aims. We aim to characterize the gaseous disk around the Herbig Ae star AB Aur. A complete spectroscopic study was performed using NOEMA to determine the physical and chemical conditions with high spatial resolution. Methods. We present new NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) interferometric observations of the continuum and (CO)-C-12, (CO)-C-13, (CO)-O-18, H2CO, and SO lines obtained at high resolution. We used the integrated intensity maps and stacked spectra to derive reliable estimates of the disk temperature. By combining our (CO)-C-13 and (CO)-O-18 observations, we computed the gas-to-dust ratio along the disk. We also derived column density maps for the different species and used them to compute abundance maps. The results of our observations were compared with a set of Nautilus astrochemical models to obtain insight into the disk properties. Results. We detected continuum emission in a ring that extends from 0.6 '' to similar to 2.0 '', peaking at 0.97 '' and with a strong azimuthal asymmetry. The molecules observed show different spatial distributions, and the peaks of the distributions are not correlated with the binding energy. Using H2CO and SO lines, we derived a mean disk temperature of 39 K. We derived a gas-to-dust ratio that ranges from 10 to 40 along the disk. Abundance with respect to (CO)-C-13 for SO (similar to 2 x 10(-4)) is almost one order of magnitude greater than the value derived for H2CO (1.6 x 10(-5)). The comparison with Nautilus models favors a disk with a low gas-to-dust ratio (40) and prominent sulfur depletion. Conclusions. From a very complete spectroscopic study of the prototypical disk around AB Aur, we derived, for the first time, the gas temperature and the gas-to-dust ratio along the disk, providing information that is essential to constraining hydrodynamical simulations. Moreover, we explored the gas chemistry and, in particular, the sulfur depletion. The derived sulfur depletion is dependent on the assumed C/O ratio. Our data are better explained with C/O similar to 0.7 and S/H = 8 x 10(-8).

protoplanetary disks

astrochemistry

planet-disk interactions

stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be

radio continuum: stars

radio lines: planetary systems

Author

P. Riviere-Marichalar

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

A. Fuente

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

R. Le Gal

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

C. Baruteau

Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

R. Neri

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

D. Navarro-Almaida

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

Sandra Treviño Morales

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

E. Macias

Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA)

European Southern Observatory Santiago

R. Bachiller

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

M. Osorio

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)

Vol. 642 A32

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202038549

More information

Latest update

3/2/2022 1