An Explanation of the Very Low Radio Flux of Young Planet-mass Companions

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations to set upper limits on dust in disks around young planetary-mass companions, suggesting disks may be very compact and optically thick, which affects their detectability and evolution.

Contribution

It proposes that disks around wide planetary-mass companions are likely very compact and optically thick, explaining low millimeter flux and implications for formation and satellite development.

Findings

Disks around planetary-mass companions have dust masses less than 0.1 Earth masses.

Compact, optically thick disks could be smaller than 1000 Jupiter radii.

High-temperature disks may hinder satellite formation but are harder to detect in millimeter wavelengths.

Abstract

We report Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3 mm continuum upper limits for 5 planetary-mass companions DH Tau B, CT Cha B, GSC 6214-210 B, 1RXS 1609 B, and GQ Lup B. Our survey, together with other ALMA studies, have yielded null results for disks around young planet-mass companions and placed stringent dust mass upper limits, typically less than 0.1 M_earth, when assuming dust continuum is optically thin. Such low-mass gas/dust content can lead to a disk lifetime estimate (from accretion rates) much shorter than the age of the system. To alleviate this timescale discrepancy, we suggest that disks around wide companions might be very compact and optically thick, in order to sustain a few Myr of accretion yet have very weak (sub)millimeter flux so as to still be elusive to ALMA. Our order-of-magnitude estimate shows that compact optically-thick disks might be smaller than 1000 R_jup and only emit ~micro-Jy of flux in the (sub)millimeter, but their average temperature can be higher than that of circumstellar disks. The high disk temperature could impede satellite formation, but it also suggests that mid- to far-infrared might be more favorable than radio wavelengths to characterize disk properties. Finally, the compact disk size might imply that dynamical encounters between the companion and the star, or any other scatterers in the system, play a role in the formation of planetary-mass companions.