Meru, F, Juhász, A, Ilee, JD orcid.org/0000-0003-1008-1142 et al. (3 more authors) (2017) On the Origin of the Spiral Morphology in the Elias 2–27 Circumstellar Disk. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 839 (2). L24. ISSN 2041-8205
Abstract
The young star Elias 2–27 has recently been observed to posses a massive circumstellar disk with two prominent large-scale spiral arms. In this Letter, we perform three-dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations, radiative transfer modeling, synthetic ALMA imaging, and an unsharped masking technique to explore three possibilities for the origin of the observed structures—an undetected companion either internal or external to the spirals, and a self-gravitating disk. We find that a gravitationally unstable disk and a disk with an external companion can produce morphology that is consistent with the observations. In addition, for the latter, we find that the companion could be a relatively massive planetary-mass companion (lesssim10–13 M Jup) and located at large radial distances (between ≈300–700 au). We therefore suggest that Elias 2–27 may be one of the first detections of a disk undergoing gravitational instabilities, or a disk that has recently undergone fragmentation to produce a massive companion.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | hydrodynamics – planet–disk interactions – protoplanetary disks – radiative transfer – stars: individual (Elias 2–27) – stars: pre-main sequence |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Nov 2018 15:56 |
Last Modified: | 22 Nov 2018 15:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/2041-8213/aa6837 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:138972 |