The inner environment of protoplanetary disks with near infrared spectro-interferometry

TL;DR

This paper reviews how optical spectro-interferometry advances our understanding of the inner environments of protoplanetary disks around young stars, revealing details about hot gas and dust regions crucial for planet formation.

Contribution

It highlights recent methodological developments in optical interferometry that enable detailed spatial resolution of both dust and hot gas in protoplanetary disks.

Findings

Optical interferometry provides detailed spatial insights into the inner disk regions.

New methods allow probing hot gas emission alongside dust.

These techniques enhance understanding of planet formation environments.

Abstract

In this paper, I review how optical spectro-interferometry has become a particularly well suited technique to study the close environment of young stars, by spatially resolving both their IR continuum and line emission regions. I summarize in which ways optical interferometers have brought major insights about our understanding of the inner part of circumstellar disks, a region in which the first stages of planet formation are thought to occur. In particular, I emphasize how new methods are now enabling to probe the hot gas emission, in addition to the circumstellar dust.