Physical properties of dusty protoplanetary disks in Lupus: evidence for viscous evolution?

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations to analyze the physical properties of 36 protoplanetary disks in Lupus, revealing correlations between disk mass and size, and suggesting viscous evolution as a possible explanation for observed differences.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed analysis of physical properties of Lupus disks using uv-plane modeling, and compares their evolution to other regions, highlighting potential viscous spreading effects.

Findings

Lupus disks are generally fainter and larger than similar disks in Taurus-Auriga/Ophiuchus.

A correlation exists between disk mass and size in Lupus disks.

Viscous spreading may explain the observed disk property differences between regions.

Abstract

The formation of planets strongly depends on the total amount as well as on the spatial distribution of solids in protoplanetary disks. Thanks to the improvements in resolution and sensitivity provided by ALMA, measurements of the surface density of mm-sized grains are now possible on large samples of disks. Such measurements provide statistical constraints that can be used to inform our understanding of the initial conditions of planet formation. We analyze spatially resolved observations of 36 protoplanetary disks in the Lupus star forming complex from our ALMA survey at 890 micron, aiming to determine physical properties such as the dust surface density, the disk mass and size and to provide a constraint on the temperature profile. We fit the observations directly in the uv-plane using a two-layer disk model that computes the 890 micron emission by solving the energy balance at each disk radius. For 22 out of 36 protoplanetary disks we derive robust estimates of their physical properties. The sample covers stellar masses between ~0.1 and ~2 Solar masses, and we find no trend between the average disk temperatures and the stellar parameters. We find, instead, a correlation between the integrated sub-mm flux (a proxy for the disk mass) and the exponential cut-off radii (a proxy of the disk size) of the Lupus disks. Comparing these results with observations at similar angular resolution of Taurus-Auriga/Ophiuchus disks found in literature and scaling them to the same distance, we observe that the Lupus disks are generally fainter and larger at a high level of statistical significance. Considering the 1-2 Myr age difference between these regions, it is possible to tentatively explain the offset in the disk mass/disk size relation with viscous spreading, however with the current measurements other mechanisms cannot be ruled out.