The Structure of a Self-Gravitating Protoplanetary Disk and its Implications to Direct Imaging Observations

Abstract

We consider the effects of self-gravity on the hydrostatic balance in the vertical direction of a gaseous disk and discuss the possible signature of the self-gravity that may be captured by the direct imaging observations of protoplanetary disks in future. In this paper, we consider a vertically isothermal disk in order to isolate the effects of self-gravity. The specific disk model we consider in this paper is the one with a radial surface density gap, at which the Toomre's $Q$-parameter of the disk varies rapidly in the radial direction. We calculate the vertical structure of the disk including the effects of self-gravity. We then calculate the scattered light and the dust thermal emission. We find that if the disk is massive enough and the effects of self-gravity come into play, a weak bump-like structure at the gap edge appears in the near-infrared (NIR) scattered light, while no such bump-like structure is seen in the sub-mm dust continuum image. The appearance of the bump is caused by the variation of the height of the surface in the NIR wavelength. If such bump-like feature is detected in future direct imaging observations, with the combination of sub-mm observations, it will bring us useful information about the physical states of the disk.

12 pages, 9 figures, ApJ accepted

References in corpus (5)

• Direct Imaging of Fine Structures in Giant Planet Forming Regions of the Protoplanetary Disk around AB Aurigae
• The Thermal Regulation of Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks III. Simulations with Radiative Cooling and Realistic Opacities
• Imaging of a Transitional Disk Gap in Reflected Light: Indications of Planet Formation Around the Young Solar Analog LkCa 15
• Signatures of Planet Formation in Gravitationally Unstable Disks
• Planet Shadows in Protoplanetary Disks. II: Observable Signatures

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• Thermal Wave Instability as an Origin of Gap and Ring Structures in Protoplanetary Disks
• Non-barotropic linear Rossby wave instability in three-dimensional disks