exoALMA XXI: The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows

TL;DR

This study analyzes vertical gas flows in 14 protoplanetary disks using ALMA data, revealing complex motions including oscillations, disk winds, and spiral features, with velocities up to 500 m/s, highlighting the ubiquity and complexity of vertical flows in early planet formation.

Contribution

First comprehensive analysis of vertical gas motions in multiple disks using high-resolution ALMA data, identifying diverse flow patterns and validating methods with simulations.

Findings

Vertical motions detected in most disks.

Identification of oscillatory and wind-related flow patterns.

Velocities up to 500 m/s observed in some disks.

Abstract

Vertical gas flows, such as winds and meridional circulations, are natural outcomes of protoplanetary disk processes and play a critical role in the earliest stages of planet formation. We analyze vertical gas motions in 14 disks as part of the exoALMA Large Program, focusing on the 12CO J=3-2 and 13CO J=3-2 emission lines. Using discminer to model the Keplerian velocity field, we extract line-of-sight velocity residuals and measure the radial and vertical components of the gas motion. Vertical motions are detected in most disks. Two types of patterns emerge: (1) oscillatory up/down flows, likely linked to instabilities, and (2) transitions from downward to upward motions that we interpret as the base of a disk wind. In most cases, the velocity amplitudes are of a few tens of m/s. Two disks, however, MWC758 and CQ Tau, show two spiral velocity features in their residual maps, red- and blue-shifted, which we interpret as vertical velocities reaching up to 350 m/s (0.7 Cs), consistent with gas motion in eccentric disks. Fast upward motions (up to 500 m/s; 1.8 Cs) is also detected in the outer disk of MWC758. Synthetic observations from (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations validate the reliability of our method. Although strong molecular winds appear to be relatively rare in 12CO and 13CO, our study shows that, when traced by deep high spectral resolution line data, protoplanetary disks exhibit ubiquitous vertical flows. However, their overall velocity structure is highly complex, preventing to identify a coherent, dominant physical mechanism driving the vertical motions across all disks, thus requiring further theoretical investigation.