A Millimeter Continuum Size-Luminosity Relationship for Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

We present a sub-arcsecond resolution survey of the 340 GHz dust continuum emission from 50 nearby protoplanetary disks, based on new and archival observations with the Submillimeter Array. The observed visibility data were modeled with a simple prescription for the radial surface brightness profile. The results were used to extract intuitive, empirical estimates of the emission "size" for each disk, $R_{\mathrm{eff}}$, defined as the radius that encircles a fixed fraction of the total continuum luminosity, $L_{\mathrm{mm}}$. We find a significant correlation between the sizes and luminosities, such that $R_{\mathrm{eff}}\propto L_{\mathrm{mm}}^{0.5}$, providing a confirmation and quantitative characterization of a putative trend that was noted previously. This correlation suggests that these disks have roughly the same average surface brightness interior to their given effective radius, ~0.2 Jy arcsec${}^{-2}$ (or 8 K in brightness temperature). The same trend remains, but the 0.2dex of dispersion perpendicular to this relation essentially disappears, when we account for the irradiation environment of each disk with a crude approximation of the dust temperatures based on the stellar host luminosities. We consider two (not mutually exclusive) explanations for the origin of this size-luminosity relationship. Simple models of the growth and migration of disk solids can account for the observed trend for a reasonable range of initial conditions, but only on timescales that are much shorter than the nominal ages present in the sample. An alternative scenario invokes optically thick emission concentrated on unresolved scales, with filling factors of a few tens of percent, that are perhaps manifestations of localized particle traps.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (22)

• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
• Protoplanetary Disk Structures in Ophiuchus
• A Steeper than Linear Disk Mass-Stellar Mass Scaling Relation
• Spiral Density Waves in a Young Protoplanetary Disk
• Structure and evolution of pre-main sequence circumstellar disks
• Magnetic Braking and Protostellar Disk Formation: The Ideal MHD Limit
• Imaging the water-snow line during a protostellar outburst
• LkH$\alpha$ 330: Evidence for dust clearing through resolved submillimeter imaging
• The Coupled Physical Structure of Gas and Dust in the IM Lup Protoplanetary Disk
• VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions I. The distance to T Tauri with 0.4% accuracy
• The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) I. Trigonometric parallax distances and depth of the Ophiuchus complex
• Gravitational collapse of magnetized clouds. I. Ideal MHD accretion flow
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. II. Performance of Bayesian distance estimators on a Gaia-like catalogue
• Survival of the mm-cm size grain population observed in protoplanetary disks
• ALMA Observations of the Orion Proplyds
• Resolving the chemistry in the disk of TW Hydrae I. Deuterated species
• The masses of young stars: CN as a probe of dynamical masses
• An ALMA Continuum Survey of Circumstellar Disks in the Upper Scorpius OB Association
• The Circumstellar Disk Mass Distribution in the Orion Trapezium Cluster
• The Structure of the DoAr 25 Circumstellar Disk
• The Transitional Disk around IRAS 04125+2902

Cited by in corpus (27)

• On the diversity and statistical properties of protostellar discs
• The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and I Protostellar Disks
• One Solution to the Mass Budget Problem for Planet Formation: Optically Thick Disks with Dust Scattering
• The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP): III. Spiral Structures in the Millimeter Continuum of the Elias 27, IM Lup, and WaOph 6 Disks
• CO and dust properties in the TW Hya disk from high-resolution ALMA observations
• Measurement of Circumstellar Disk Sizes in the Upper Scorpius OB Association with ALMA
• The time evolution of dusty protoplanetary disc radii: observed and physical radii differ
• The evolution of dust in discs influenced by external photoevaporation
• High gas/dust size ratio indicating efficient radial drift in the mm-faint CX Tau disk
• New Constraints From Dust Lines On The Surface Densities Of Protoplanetary Disks
• A dust and gas cavity in the disc around CQ Tau revealed by ALMA
• Protoplanetary Disk Masses from Radiative Transfer Modeling: A Case Study in Taurus
• Multi-epoch Ultraviolet HST Observations of Accreting Low-mass Stars
• A dusty origin for the correlation between protoplanetary disc accretion rates and dust masses
• Demographics of disks around young very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Lupus
• On the millimetre continuum flux-radius correlation of proto-planetary discs
• The End of Runaway: How Gap Opening Limits the Final Masses of Gas Giants
• Star-disc (mis-)alignment in Rho Oph and Upper Sco: insights from spatially resolved disc systems with K2 rotation periods
• The Effect of Binarity on Circumstellar Disk Evolution
• CO Detected in CI Tau b: Hot Start Implied by Planet Mass and M${}_K$
• The magnetic obliquity of accreting T Tauri stars
• The circumstellar environment around the embedded protostar EC 53
• Unveiling a cluster of protostellar disks around the massive protostar GGD27 MM1
• Planet gap opening across stellar masses
• ALMA Observations of Young Eruptive Stars: continuum disk sizes and molecular outflows
• Formation of Planetary Populations II: Effects of Initial Disk Size & Radial Dust Drift
• On the cavity size in circumbinary discs