Related papers: The determination of protoplanetary disk masses
The Rosseland mean opacity of dust in protoplanetary disks is often calculated assuming the interstellar medium (ISM) size distribution and a constant dust-to-gas ratio. However, the dust size distribution and the dust-to-gas ratio in…
This tutorial is an introduction to observational studies of dust transport and evolution in protoplanetary disks. Spatially resolved observations of disks at multiple wavelengths can allow to infer the distribution of various dust grains…
CO is one of the most abundant molecules in protoplanetary disks, and optically thin emission from its isotopologues has been detected in many of them. However, several past works have argued that reproducing the relatively low emission of…
Multi-wavelength dust continuum observations of protoplanetary disks are essential for accurately measuring two key ingredients of planets formation theories: the dust mass and grain size. Unfortunately, they are also extremely…
Context. Current models of the size- and radial evolution of dust in protoplanetary disks generally oversimplify either the radial evolution of the disk (by focussing at one single radius or by using steady state disk models) or they assume…
We couple non-magnetic, hydrodynamical simulations of collapsing protostellar cores with radiative transfer evolutionary models to generate synthetic observations. We then use these synthetic observations to investigate the extent to which…
We present the first high-resolution sub-mm survey of both dust and gas for a large population of protoplanetary disks. Characterizing fundamental properties of protoplanetary disks on a statistical level is critical to understanding how…
The building of planetary systems is controlled by the gas and dust dynamics of protoplanetary disks. While the gas is simultaneously accreted onto the central star and dissipated away by winds, dust grains aggregate and collapse to form…
The increased sensitivity of millimeter-wave facilities now makes possible the detection of low amounts of gas in debris disks. Some of the gas-rich debris disks harbor peculiar properties, with possible pristine gas and secondary generated…
Over the past fifteen years, surveys mainly at millimeter wavelengths have led to the discovery of $\sim$20 gas-bearing debris disks, most of them surrounding young intermediate-mass stars. Exploring the properties and origin of this gas…
Investigating the molecular gas in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks provides insight into how the molecular disk environment changes during the transition from primordial to debris disk systems. We conduct a small survey of…
ALMA observations of protoplanetary disks confirm earlier indications that there is a clear difference between the dust and gas radial extents. The origin of this difference is still debated, with both radial drift of the dust and optical…
The total amount of dust grains in protoplanetary disks is one of the key properties that characterize the potential for planet formation. With (sub-)millimeter flux measurements, literature studies usually derive the dust mass using an…
Recent observations show that the CO gas abundance, relative to H$_2$, in many 1-10 Myr old protoplanetary disks may be heavily depleted, by a factor of 10-100 compared to the canonical interstellar medium value of 10$^{-4}$. When and how…
Recent observations of protoplanetary discs reveal disc substructures potentially caused by embedded planets. We investigate how the gas surface density in discs changes the observed morphology in scattered light and dust continuum…
The molecular composition inside the dust sublimation zones of protoplanetary disks is mostly unknown but important to understanding terrestrial planet formation. A few molecules have been observed from this region, specifically CO, H2O, OH…
Context: While sub-micron- and micron-sized dust grains are generally well mixed with the gas phase in protoplanetary disks, larger grains will be partially decoupled and as a consequence have a different distribution from that of the gas.…
We present velocity-resolved spectro-astrometric imaging of the 4.7 $\mu$m rovibrational lines of CO gas in protoplanetary disks using the CRIRES high resolution infrared spectrometer on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The method as applied…
The gas-phase CO abundance (relative to hydrogen) in protoplanetary disks decreases by up to 2 orders of magnitude from its ISM value ${\sim}10^{-4}$, even after accounting for freeze-out and photo-dissociation. Previous studies have shown…
H$_2$CO ice on dust grains is an important precursor of complex organic molecules (COMs). H$_2$CO gas can be readily observed in protoplanetary disks and may be used to trace COM chemistry. However, its utility as a COM probe is currently…