Testing Disk Identification Methods Through Numerical Simulations of Protostellar Evolution

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations and synthetic observations to evaluate methods for accurately determining the radii of circumstellar disks during protostellar evolution.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the PV diagram method reliably estimates disk radius and stellar mass for protostars above 0.2 Msun, validating observational techniques.

Findings

PV diagram accurately traces Keplerian disk radius for M_* > 0.2 Msun

PV diagram provides precise stellar mass estimates throughout evolution

Disks can be gravitationally unstable, showing circular or spiral structures

Abstract

We test whether the radii of circumstellar disks can be reliably determined in observations applying the results of a numerical simulation. Firstly, we execute a core collapse simulation which starts from a rotating magnetized spherical core, and continue the calculation until the protostellar mass reaches 0.5 Msun. Then, for each set of simulation data, we calculate the radiative transfer to generate the data cube for the synthetic observation. The spatial and velocity resolutions of the synthetic observation are 0.15 arcsec (20 au) and 0.1 km/s, respectively. We define seven different disk radii. Four radii are estimated from the synthetic observation, using the continuum image, continuum visibility, C18O channel map, and C18O position velocity (PV) diagram. The other three radii are taken from the simulation and use the disk rotation, infall motion, and density contrast around the protostar to identify the disk. Finally, we compare the disk radii estimated from the systemic observation with those from the simulation. We find that the disk radius defined using the PV diagram can reliably trace the Keplerian disk when the protostellar mass is larger than M_*>~ 0.2 Msun independent of the inclination angle to the line of sight. In addition, the PV diagram provides an accurate estimate of the central stellar mass through the whole protostellar evolution. The simulation also indicates that the circumstellar disk is massive enough to be gravitationally unstable through the evolution. Such an unstable disk can show either a circular or spiral morphology on a similar timescale.