A VLA View of the Flared, Asymmetric Disk Around the Class 0 Protostar L1527 IRS

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution VLA observations to analyze the asymmetric, flared dust disk around the Class 0 protostar L1527 IRS, revealing brightness asymmetries and constraining potential gap features.

Contribution

First high-resolution VLA imaging of L1527 IRS's disk, revealing asymmetry, flaring, and constraints on possible gaps in the disk structure.

Findings

Disk is asymmetric with brighter southern side

Disk is flared at 7 mm wavelength

No statistically significant evidence for gaps in the disk

Abstract

We present high resolution Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the protostar L1527 IRS at 7 mm, 1.3 cm, and 2 cm wavelengths. We detect the edge-on dust disk at all three wavelengths and find that it is asymmetric, with the southern side of the disk brighter than the northern side. We confirm this asymmetry through analytic modeling and also find that the disk is flared at 7 mm. We test the data against models including gap features in the intensity profile, and though we cannot rule such models out, they do not provide a statistically significant improvement in the quality of fit to the data. From these fits, we can however place constraints on allowed properties of any gaps that could be present in the true, underlying intensity profile. The physical nature of the asymmetry is difficult to associate with physical features due to the edge-on nature of the disk, but could be related to spiral arms or asymmetries seen in other imaging of more face-on disks.