Inner disk regions revealed by infrared interferometry

TL;DR

Infrared interferometry has revealed larger-than-expected inner disk regions around young stars, providing insights into disk structure, composition, and potential companions, crucial for understanding planet formation.

Contribution

This review summarizes recent interferometric observations of inner disks around young stars, highlighting new findings on disk sizes, structures, and compositions, and discussing ongoing debates.

Findings

Inner disk regions are larger than previously thought.

Mineralogy gradients are revealed by mid-infrared observations.

High-resolution data suggest possible close companions.

Abstract

I review the results obtained by long-baseline interferometry at infrared wavelengths on the innermost regions around young stars. These observations directly probe the location of the dust and gas in the disks. The characteristic sizes of these regions found are larger than previously thought. These results have motivated in part a new class of models of the inner disk structure. However the precise understanding of the origin of these low visibilities is still in debate. Mid-infrared observations have probed disk emission over a larger range of scales revealing mineralogy gradients in the disk. Recent spectrally resolved observations allow the dust and gas to be studied separately. The few results shows that the Brackett gamma emission can find its origin either in a wind or in a magnetosphere but there are no definitive answers yet. In a certain number of cases, the very high spatial resolution seems to reveal very close companions. In any case, these results provide crucial information on the structure and physical properties of disks surrounding young stars especially as initial conditions for planet formation.