Related papers: The determination of protoplanetary disk masses
Despite intensive studies of protoplanetary disks, there is still no reliable way to determine their total mass and their surface density distribution, quantities that are crucial for describing both the structure and the evolution of disks…
Protoplanetary disk mass is a key parameter controlling the process of planetary system formation. CO molecular emission is often used as a tracer of gas mass in the disk. In this study we consider the ability of CO to trace the gas mass…
One of the methods for deriving disk masses relies on direct observations of the gas, whose bulk mass is in the outer cold ($T\lesssim30$K) regions. This zone can be well traced by rotational lines of less abundant CO isotopologues, that…
The gas mass of protoplanetary disks, and the gas-to-dust ratio, are two key elements driving the evolution of these disks and the formation of planetary system. We explore here to what extent CO (or its isotopologues) can be used as a…
Measuring the gas mass of protoplanetary disks, the reservoir available for giant planet formation, has proven to be difficult. We currently lack a far-infrared observatory capable of observing HD, and the most common gas mass tracer, CO,…
Measuring the amount of gas and dust in protoplanetary disks is a key challenge in planet formation studies. Here we provide a new set of dust depletion factors and relative mass surface densities of gas and dust for the innermost regions…
CO is the most widely used gas tracer of protoplanetary disks. Its abundance is usually assumed to be an interstellar ratio throughout the warm molecular layer of the disk. But recent observations of low CO gas abundance in many…
The disks that surround young stars are mostly composed of molecular gas, which is harder to detect and interpret than the accompanying dust. Disk mass measurements have therefore relied on large and uncertain extrapolations from the dust…
Gas in protostellar disks provides the raw material for giant planet formation and controls the dynamics of the planetesimal-building dust grains. Accurate gas mass measurements help map the observed properties of planet-forming disks onto…
CO has long been thought to be the best tracer to measure gas masses as it is readily detected at (sub)mm wavelengths in many disks. Inferred gas masses from CO in recent ALMA observations of large samples of disks seem inconsistent with…
Protoplanetary disc mass is one of the most fundamental properties of a planet-forming system, as it sets the total mass budget available for planet formation. However, obtaining disc mass measurements remain challenging, since it is not…
We present a novel method for determining the surface density of protoplanetary disks through consideration of disk 'dust lines' which indicate the observed disk radial scale at different observational wavelengths. This method relies on the…
Gas mass is a fundamental quantity of protoplanetary disks that directly relates to their ability to form planets. Because we are unable to observe the bulk H$_2$ content of disks directly, we rely on indirect tracers to provide…
Protoplanetary disks are composed primarily of gas (99% of the mass). Nevertheless, relatively few observational constraints exist for the gas in disks. In this review, I discuss several observational diagnostics in the UV, optical,…
The total gas mass of a protoplanetary disk is a fundamental, but poorly determined, quantity. A new technique \citep{bergin+13} has been demonstrated to assess directly the bulk molecular gas reservoir of molecular hydrogen using the HD…
CO is commonly used as a tracer of the total gas mass in both the interstellar medium and in protoplanetary disks. Recently there has been much debate about the utility of CO as a mass tracer in disks. Observations of CO in protoplanetary…
Since the 1990's, protoplanetary disks and planetary disks have been intensively observed from the optical to the millimetre wavelength and many models have been developed to investigate their gas and dust properties and dynamics. These…
The mass of protoplanetary disks is arguably one of their most important quantities shaping their evolution toward planetary systems, but it remains a challenge to determine this quantity. Using the high spatial resolution now available on…
The gaseous mass of protoplanetary disks is a fundamental quantity in planet formation. The presence of gas is necessary to assemble planetesimals, it determines timescales of giant planet birth, and it is an unknown factor for a wide range…
Knowing the masses and sizes of protoplanetary disks is of fundamental importance for the contemporary theories of planet formation. However, their measurements are associated with large uncertainties. In this proof of concept study, we…