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Published June 20, 2013 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

VLT-CRIRES Survey of Rovibrational CO Emission from Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

We present a large, comprehensive survey of rovibrational CO line emission at 4.7 μm from 69 protoplanetary disks, obtained with CRIRES on the ESO Very Large Telescope at the highest available spectral resolving power (R = 95,000, Δv = 3.2 km s–1). The CO fundamental band (Δv = 1) is a well-known tracer of warm gas in the inner, planet-forming regions of gas-rich disks around young stars, with the lines formed in the super-heated surfaces of the disks at radii of 0.1-10 AU. Consistent with earlier studies, the presence of 100-1000 K CO is found to be ubiquitous around young stars which still retain disks. Our high spectral resolution data provide new insight into the kinematics of the inner disk gas. The observed line profiles are complex and reveal several different components. Pure double-peaked Keplerian profiles are surprisingly uncommon in our sample, beyond the frequency expected based on disk inclination. The majority of the profiles are consistent with emission from a disk plus a slow (few km s^(–1)) molecular disk wind. This is evidenced by analysis of different classes as well as an overall tendency for line profiles to have excess emission on their blue side. The data support the notion that thermal molecular winds are common for young disks. Thanks to the high spectral resolution, narrow absorption lines and weak emission lines from isotopologues and from vibrationally excited levels are readily detected. In general, ^(13)CO lines trace cooler gas than the bulk ^(12)CO emission and may arise from further out in the disk, as indicated by narrower line profiles. A high fraction of the sources show vibrationally excited emission (~50%) which is correlated with accretion luminosity, consistent with ultraviolet fluorescent excitation. Disks around early-type Herbig AeBe stars have narrower line profiles, on average, than their lower-mass late-type counterparts, due to their increased luminosity. Evolutionary changes in CO are also seen. Removal of the protostellar envelope between class I and II results in the disappearance of the strong absorption lines and CO ice feature characteristic of class I spectra. However, CO emission from class I and II objects are similar in detection frequency, excitation, and line shape, indicating that inner disk characteristics are established early.

Additional Information

© 2013 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 October 4; accepted 2013 April 15; published 2013 May 29. The authors thank Colette Salyk, Jeanette Bast, Wing-Fai Thi, Bill Dent, and Kevin France for discussions and contributions to the program. We also thank the anonymous referee for comments which improved this paper. This work is based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope under program ID 179.C-0151. J.M.B. acknowledges the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for support from a SMA fellowship. Support for K.M.P. was provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant no. 01201.01 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS 5-26555. Astrochemistry at Leiden is supported by a Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), by NWO grant 614.000.605, and by the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).

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Published - 0004-637X_770_2_94.pdf

Submitted - 1304.4961v1.pdf

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Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
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October 24, 2023