Probing CO and N_2 Snow Surfaces in Protoplanetary Disks with N_2H^+ Emission

Abstract

Snowlines of major volatiles regulate the gas and solid C/N/O ratios in the planet-forming midplanes of protoplanetary disks. Snow surfaces are the 2D extensions of snowlines in the outer disk regions, where radiative heating results in an increasing temperature with disk height. CO and N_2 are two of the most abundant carriers of C, N, and O. N_2H^+ can be used to probe the snow surfaces of both molecules, because it is destroyed by CO and formed from N_2. Here we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of N_2H^+ at ~0."2–0."4 resolution in the disks around LkCa 15, GM Aur, DM Tau, V4046 Sgr, AS 209, and IM Lup. We find two distinctive emission morphologies: N_2H^+ is either present in a bright, narrow ring surrounded by extended tenuous emission, or in a broad ring. These emission patterns can be explained by two different kinds of vertical temperature structures. Bright, narrow N_2H^+ rings are expected in disks with a thick Vertically Isothermal Region above the Midplane (VIRaM) layer (LkCa 15, GM Aur, DM Tau) where the N_2H^+ emission peaks between the CO and N_2 snowlines. Broad N_2H^+ rings come from disks with a thin VIRaM layer (V4046 Sgr, AS 209, IM Lup). We use a simple model to extract the first sets of CO and N_2 snowline pairs and corresponding freeze-out temperatures toward the disks with a thick VIRaM layer. The results reveal a range of N_2 and CO snowline radii toward stars of similar spectral type, demonstrating the need for empirically determined snowlines in disks.

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