A transitional disk around an intermediate mass star in the sparse population of the Orion OB1 Association

TL;DR

This study characterizes a transitional disk around the intermediate-mass star SO 411, revealing a truncated disk with ongoing accretion, high crystallinity silicates, and implications for disk evolution in a possibly older stellar population.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of SO 411's disk structure, composition, and kinematic association, challenging previous age assumptions and highlighting its peculiar evolutionary state.

Findings

SO 411 hosts a truncated transitional disk with ongoing accretion.

The disk shows high crystallinity in silicate features, especially forsterite.

SO 411 is likely part of an older, sparse stellar population, not the young σ Orionis cluster.

Abstract

We present a detailed study of the disk around the intermediate mass star SO 411, aiming to explain the spectral energy distribution of this star. We show that this is a transitional disk truncated at $\sim$11 au, with $\sim$0.03 lunar masses of optically thin dust inside the cavity. Gas also flows through the cavity, since we find that the disk is still accreting mass onto the star, at a rate of $\sim 5x10^{-9}$ Msun/yr. Until now, SO 411 has been thought to belong to the $\sim$3 Myr old {$\sigma$} Orionis cluster. However, we analyzed the second Gaia Data Release in combination with kinematic data previously reported, and found that SO 411 can be associated with an sparse stellar population located in front of the {$\sigma$} Orionis cluster. If this is the case, then SO 411 is older and even more peculiar, since primordial disks in this stellar mass range are scarce for ages $>$5 Myr. Analysis of the silicate 10$\mu$m feature of SO 411 indicates that the observed feature arises at the edge of the outer disk, and displays a very high crystallinity ratio of $\sim$0.5, with forsterite the most abundant silicate crystal. The high forsterite abundance points to crystal formation in non-equilibrium conditions. The PAH spectrum of SO 411 is consistent with this intermediate state between the hot and luminous Herbig Ae and the less massive and cooler T Tauri stars. Analysis of the 7.7$\mu$m PAH feature indicates that small PAHs still remain in the SO 411 disk.