Debris Disks in Nearby Young Moving Groups in the ALMA Era

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent ALMA observations of debris disks in young moving groups, highlighting their role in understanding planetesimal evolution, disk structure, and the transition from protoplanetary to debris disks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of ALMA's contributions to studying debris disks and discusses future research directions in the field.

Findings

ALMA spatially resolves debris disk structures.

Insights into planetesimal belt locations and extents.

Limited information on gas evolution in debris disks.

Abstract

Many members of nearby young moving groups exhibit infrared excess attributed to circumstellar debris dust, formed via erosion of planetesimals. With their proximity and well-dated ages, these groups are excellent laboratories for studying the early evolution of debris dust and of planetesimal belts. ALMA can spatially resolve the disk emission, revealing the location and extent of these belts, putting constraints on planetesimal evolution models, and allowing us to study planet-disk interactions. While the main trends of dust evolution in debris disks are well-known, there is almost no information on the evolution of gas. During the transition from protoplanetary to debris state, even the origin of gas is dubious. Here we review the exciting new results ALMA provided by observing young debris disks, and discuss possible future research directions.