Speedie, J, Booth, RA orcid.org/0000-0002-0364-937X and Dong, R (2022) Observing Planet-driven Dust Spirals with ALMA. The Astrophysical Journal, 930 (1). 40. ISSN 0004-637X
Abstract
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) continuum observations of thermal emission from the dust component of protoplanetary disks have revealed an abundance of substructures that may be interpreted as evidence for embedded planets, but planet-driven spiral arms—perhaps one of the most compelling lines of evidence—have proven comparatively elusive. In this work, we test the capabilities of ALMA to detect the planet-driven spiral signal in continuum emission. Carrying out hydrodynamic simulations and radiative transfer calculations, we present synthetic Band 7 continuum images for a wide range of disk and observing conditions. We show that thermal mass planets at tens of astronomical units typically drive spirals detectable within a few hours of integration time, and the detectable planet mass may be as low as ∼Neptune mass (0.3 Mth). The grains probed by ALMA form spirals morphologically identical to the underlying gas spiral. The temperature of the dust spiral is crucial in determining its contrast, and spirals are easier to detect in disks with an adiabatic equation of state and longer cooling times. Resolving the spiral is not necessary for its detection; with the help of residual maps, the optimal beam size is a few times the spiral width at a constant noise level. Finally, we show how the presence of gaps and rings can impair our ability to recognize colocated spirals. Our work demonstrates the planet-finding potential of the current design specification of ALMA, and suggests that observing capability is not the bottleneck in searching for spirals induced by thermal mass planets.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
Keywords: | Planet formation; Protoplanetary disks; Planetary-disk interactions |
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: | 20 Jul 2023 11:40 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jul 2023 11:40 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5cc0 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.3847/1538-4357/ac5cc0 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201005 |
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