ALMA Super-resolution Imaging of T Tau: r = 12 au Gap in the Compact Dust Disk around T Tau N

TL;DR

Using a novel super-resolution imaging technique on ALMA data, this study reveals a previously unresolved 12 au gap in the T Tau N disk, suggesting potential planet formation evidence.

Contribution

The paper introduces a super-resolution imaging method with sparse modeling to resolve substructures in compact protoplanetary disks beyond conventional limits.

Findings

Detected a 12 au annular gap in T Tau N disk.

Resolved the binary components T Tau Sa and Sb.

Estimated a Saturn-mass planet if the gap is caused by a planet.

Abstract

Based on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations, compact protoplanetary disks with dust radii of $r\lesssim 20-40$ au were found to be dominant in nearby low-mass star formation regions. However, their substructures have not been investigated because of the limited spatial resolution achieved so far. We apply a newly developed super-resolution imaging technique utilizing sparse modeling (SpM) to explore several au-scale structures in such compact disks. SpM imaging can directly solve for the incomplete sampling of visibilities in the spatial frequency and potentially improve the fidelity and effective spatial resolution of ALMA images. Here, we present the results of the application to the T Tau system. We use the ALMA 1.3 mm continuum data and achieve an effective spatial resolution of $\sim 30\%$ (5 au) compared with the conventional CLEAN beam size at a resolution of 17 au. The reconstructed image reveals a new annular gap structure at $r= 12$ au in the T Tau N compact disk with a dust radius of 24 au, and resolves the T Tau Sa and Sb binary into two sources. If the observed gap structure in the T Tau N disk is caused by an embedded planet, we estimate a Saturn-mass planet when the viscous parameter of the disk is $10^{-3}$. Ultimately, ALMA observations with enough angular resolution and sensitivity should be able to verify the consistency of the super-resolution imaging and definitely confirm the existence of this disk substructure.