The Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA). Substructures as a function of SED Class and disc mass in 100 systems

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA Band 8 observations of about 100 protoplanetary discs in Ophiuchus to analyze substructures, revealing their correlation with disc mass, SED class, and stages of planet formation.

Contribution

It provides a complete, flux-limited high-resolution survey of faint and bright discs, extending understanding of substructure evolution across different disc masses and classes.

Findings

Higher optical depths at Band 8 still effectively trace substructures.

Discs with >10 Earth masses of dust show evolving substructures.

Evolved substructures increase from 23% in Class I to 50% in Class II.

Abstract

Current high-resolution studies of protoplanetary discs are biased toward small samples of the brightest (flux > 50 mJy at 225 GHz) and largest systems. We present a complete flux-limited high-resolution study of about 100 discs from the Ophiuchus Disc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA), spanning fluxes of about 4-400 mJy at 225 GHz. We investigate substructures as a function of SED Class and disc mass using ALMA Band 8 continuum observations (410 GHz, 0.7 mm). The survey extends to faint discs containing as little as about 2 Earth masses of dust. Given the flux-size relation, sources with flux >= 20 mJy were observed at about 20 au resolution, while fainter sources were observed at three times higher resolution. We used the Frankenstein code to fit non-parametric models to the visibilities, achieving sub-beam resolution. We classify substructures into an evolutionary sequence linking morphology with stages of giant planet formation, from featureless discs (Stage 0) to inflection-point discs, gap-ring systems, and discs with central cavities. Despite higher optical depths, Band 8 efficiently traces substructures and recovers gaps and cavities seen at longer wavelengths with shorter integration times. Discs with dust masses above about 10 Earth masses show structures consistent with this sequence, even at modest resolution. The fraction of evolved substructures increases from 23 percent (6 of 26) in Class I sources to at least 50 percent (16 of 30) in Class II objects. In contrast, lower-mass discs rarely show such features, likely due to the steep flux-size relation and limited resolution. These results support a link between substructures in discs above about 10 Earth masses and giant planet formation, and highlight Band 8 as a powerful probe of disc substructures.