Uncertainties of the dust grain size in protoplanetary disks retrieved from millimeter continuum observations

TL;DR

This study assesses how well millimeter continuum observations can determine dust grain sizes in protoplanetary disks, highlighting the importance of multiple wavelengths and disk inclination effects on retrieval accuracy.

Contribution

It demonstrates that using four wavelengths significantly improves grain size retrieval and analyzes the impact of disk inclination on the accuracy of radiative transfer modeling.

Findings

Four-wavelength fitting accurately recovers grain sizes across the disk

Inclination angles above 60 degrees hinder reliable grain size and density estimates

Two-wavelength fitting is insufficient for accurate grain size determination

Abstract

Investigating the dust grain size and its dependence on substructures in protoplanetary disks is a crucial step in understanding the initial process of planet formation. Spectral indices derived from millimeter observations are used as a common probe for grain size. Converting observed spectral indices into grain sizes is a complex task that involves solving the radiative transfer equation, taking into account the disk structure and dust properties. In this work, we ran reference radiative transfer models with known disk properties, and generated four synthetic images at wavelengths of 0.8, 1.3, 3, and 7.8 mm, representing high-resolution continuum observations. Rings and gaps were considered in the setup. We fit the synthetic images using the analytic solution of the radiative transfer equation to investigate the circumstances under which the input grain sizes can be recovered. The results show that fitting images at only two wavelengths is not sufficient to retrieve the grain size. Fitting three images improves the retrieval of grain size, but the dust surface density is still not well recovered. When taking all of the four images into account, degeneracies between different parameters are highly reduced, and consequently the best-fit grain sizes are consistent with the reference setup at almost all radii. We find that the inclination angle has a significant impact on the fitting results. For disks with low inclinations, the analytic approach works quite well. However, when the disk is tilted above about 60 degree, neither the grain size nor the dust surface density can be constrained, as the inclination effect will smooth out all substructures in the radial intensity profile of the disk.