Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets: I. Methodology and Validation

Abstract

We examine the observational consequences of partial gaps being opened by planets in protoplanetary disks. We model the disk using a static alpha-disk model with detailed radiative transfer, parametrizing the shape and size of the partially cleared gaps based on the results of hydrodynamic simulations. Shadowing and illumination by stellar irradiation at the surface of the gap leads to increased contrast as the gap trough is deepened by shadowing and cooling and the far gap wall is puffed up by illumination and heating. In calculating observables, we find that multiple scattering is important and derive an approximation to include these effects. A gap produced by a 200 M_Earth (70 M_Earth) planet at 10 AU can lower/raise the midplane temperature of the disk by up to ~-25/+29% (~-11/+19%) by shadowing in the gap trough and illumination on the far shoulder of the gap. At the distance of Taurus, this gap would be resolvable with ~0.01" angular resolution. The gap contrast is most significant in scattered light and at thermal continuum wavelengths characteristic of the surface temperature, reducing or raising the surface brightness by up to order of magnitude. Since gaps sizes are correlated to planet mass, this is a promising way of finding and determining the masses of planets embedded in protoplanetary disks.

11 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (13)

• On the Luminosity of Young Jupiters
• A comparative study of disc-planet interaction
• Monte Carlo radiative transfer in protoplanetary disks
• Cavity opening by a giant planet in a protoplanetary disc and effects on planetary migration
• On disc protoplanet interactions in a non-barotropic disc with thermal diffusion
• Imaging of a Transitional Disk Gap in Reflected Light: Indications of Planet Formation Around the Young Solar Analog LkCa 15
• Gas accretion onto planetary cores: three-dimensional self-gravitating radiation hydrodynamical calculations
• A Tale of Two Herbig Ae stars -MWC275 and AB Aurigae: Comprehensive Models for SED and Interferometry
• Signatures of Planet Formation in Gravitationally Unstable Disks
• Planet Shadows in Protoplanetary Disks. II: Observable Signatures
• Planet Shadows in Protoplanetary Disks. I: Temperature Perturbations
• A Hot Gap Around Jupiter's Orbit in the Solar Nebula
• The Vertical Structure of Planet-induced Gaps in Proto-Planetary Discs

Cited by in corpus (40)

• Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Gaps Opened by Single and Multiple Young Planets in Disks
• Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks II: Spiral Arms Observed in Scattered Light Imaging Can be Induced by Planets
• Gaps in the HD169142 protoplanetary disk revealed by polarimetric imaging: Signs of ongoing planet formation?
• CO and dust properties in the TW Hya disk from high-resolution ALMA observations
• An azimuthal asymmetry in the LkHa 330 disk
• Discovery of a Disk Gap Candidate at 20 AU in TW Hydrae
• Three-Dimensional Radiation Transfer in Young Stellar Objects
• What is the Mass of a Gap-Opening Planet?
• Non-negative Matrix Factorization: Robust Extraction of Extended Structures
• The 0.5-2.22-micron Scattered Light Spectrum of the Disk Around TW Hya: Detection of a Partially Filled Disk Gap at 80 AU
• Rings and gaps in the disc around Elias 24 revealed by ALMA
• Chasing Shadows: Rotation of the Azimuthal Asymmetry in the TW Hya Disk
• An opening criterion for dust gaps in protoplanetary discs
• Imaging the Inner and Outer Gaps of the Pre-Transitional Disk of HD 169142 at 7 mm
• Optical imaging polarimetry of the LkCa 15 protoplanetary disk with SPHERE ZIMPOL
• Mapping H-band Scattered Light Emission in the Mysterious SR21 Transitional Disk
• Detailed structure of the outer disk around HD 169142 with polarized light in H-band
• The SEEDS High Contrast Imaging Survey of Exoplanets around Young Stellar Objects
• Scattered light shadows in warped protoplanetary discs
• Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets: II. Inclined Disks
• The Orbit of the Companion to HD 100453A: Binary-Driven Spiral Arms in a Protoplanetary Disk
• Tracing large-scale structures in circumstellar disks with ALMA
• The impact of planet wakes on the location and shape of the water iceline in a protoplanetary disk
• Tracing planet-induced structures in circumstellar disks using molecular lines
• Surface Geometry of Protoplanetary Disks Inferred From Near-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry
• Shedding Light on the Eccentricity Valley: Gap Heating and Eccentricity Excitation of Giant Planets in Protoplanetary Disks
• The Effects of Self-Shadowing by a Puffed up Inner Rim in Scattered Light Images of Protoplanetary Disks
• The surprising evolution of the shadow on the TW Hya disk
• A global two-layer radiative transfer model for axisymmetric, shadowed protoplanetary disks
• The inner structure of the TW Hya Disk as revealed in scattered light
• The detection of dust gap-ring structure in the outer region of the CR Cha protoplanetary disk
• The Molecular Composition of Shadowed Protosolar Disk Midplanes beyond the Water Snowline
• Self-consistent ring model in protoplanetary disks: temperature dips and substructure formation
• Three-temperature radiation hydrodynamics with PLUTO: Thermal and kinematic signatures of accreting protoplanets
• Linear Corotation Torques in Non-Barotropic Disks
• Asymmetric fundamental band CO lines as a sign of an embedded giant planet
• Photoevaporation Does Not Create a Pileup of Giant Planets at 1 AU
• Near-IR Polarized Scattered Light Imagery of the DoAr 28 Transitional Disk
• The Synthetic ALMA Multiband Analysis of the Dust Properties of the TW Hya Protoplanetary Disk
• Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks as Signatures of Planets: III. Polarization