A complete Herbig disk mass survey in Orion

TL;DR

This study presents a comprehensive survey of Herbig disks in Orion, measuring their dust masses and UV irradiation effects, revealing significant differences from T Tauri disks and emphasizing the importance of complete sampling.

Contribution

It provides the first complete dust mass survey of Herbig disks in Orion, combining new NOEMA data with archival ALMA data, and analyzes the impact of UV irradiation on disk mass.

Findings

Median dust mass of 11.7 Earth masses for Herbig disks.

About 50% of Herbig disks have masses over 10 Earth masses.

Steeper relationship between dust mass and UV irradiance compared to T Tauri disks.

Abstract

Disks around intermediate mass stars called Herbig disks are the formation sites of giant exoplanets. Obtaining a complete inventory of these disks will therefore give insights into giant planet formation. However, until now no complete disk survey has been done on Herbig disks in a single star-forming region. Orion is the only nearby region with a significant number of Herbig disks (N=35) to carry out such a survey. Using new NOEMA observations of 25 Herbig disks, in combination with ALMA archival data of 10 Herbig disks, results in a complete sample of all know Herbig disks in Orion. Using uv-plane analysis for the NOEMA observed disks, and literature values of the ALMA observed disks, we obtain the dust masses of all Herbig disks and obtain a cumulative dust mass distribution. Additionally, six disks with new CO isotopologues detections are presented, one of which is detected in C17O. We calculate the external ultraviolet (UV) irradiance on each disk and compare the dust mass to it. We find a median disk dust mass of 11.7 M_\oplus for the Herbig disks. Comparing the Herbig disks in Orion to previous surveys for mainly T Tauri disks in Orion, we find that while ~50% of the Herbig disks have a mass higher than 10 M_\oplus, this is at most 25% for the T~Tauri disks. This difference is especially striking when considering that the Herbig disks are around a factor of two older than the T Tauri disks. Comparing to the Herbig disks observed with ALMA from a previous study, no significant difference is found between the distributions. We find a steeper (slope of -7.6) relationship between the dust mass and external UV irradation compared to that of the T~Tauri disks (slope of -1.3). This work shows the importance of complete samples, giving rise to the need of a complete survey of the Herbig disk population.