Grain growth and dust settling in a brown dwarf disk: Gemini/T-ReCS observations of CFHT-BD-Tau 4

Abstract

We present accurate mid-infrared observations of the disk around the young, bona-fide brown dwarf CFHT-BD-Tau 4. We report GEMINI/T-ReCS measurements in the 7.9, 10.4 and 12.3 micron filters, from which we infer the presence of a prominent, broad silicate emission feature. The shape of the silicate feature is dominated by emission from 2 micron amorphous olivine grains. Such grains, being an order of magnitude larger than those in the interstellar medium, are a first proof of dust processing and grain growth in disks around brown dwarfs. The object's spectral energy distribution is below the prediction of the classical flared disk model but higher than that of the two-layer flat disk. A good match can be achieved by using an intermediate disk model with strongly reduced but non-zero flaring. Grain growth and dust settling processes provide a natural explanation for this disk geometry and we argue that such intermediate flaring might explain the observations of several other brown dwarf disks as well.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, 4.5 pages with 1 figure

References in corpus (22)

• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri Stars With Passive Circumstellar Disks
• Passive irradiated circumstellar disks with an inner hole
• Evidence for a developing gap in a 10 Myr old protoplanetary disk
• Flaring vs. self-shadowed disks: the SEDs of Herbig Ae/Be stars
• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri and Herbig Ae Disks: Grain Mineralogy, Parameter Dependences, and Comparison with ISO LWS Observations
• Large grains in the disk of CQ Tau
• A search for evolved dust in Herbig Ae stars
• Evidence for a T Tauri Phase in Young Brown Dwarfs
• A Disk Census for Young Brown Dwarfs
• Evidence for Circumstellar Disks around Young Brown Dwarfs in the Trapezium Cluster
• Exploring Brown Dwarf Disks
• Exploring Brown Dwarf Disks in rho Oph
• First Detection of Millimeter Dust Emission from Brown Dwarf Disks
• Evidence for grain growth in T Tauri disks
• Four Brown Dwarfs in the Taurus Star-Forming Region
• A Survey for Circumstellar Disks Around Young Substellar Objects
• The First Detailed Look at a Brown Dwarf Disk
• The Structure of Brown Dwarf Circumstellar Disks
• Mid-IR spectroscopy of T Tauri stars in Chamealeon I: evidence for processed dust at the earliest stages
• Grain growth and dust settling in a brown dwarf disk: Gemini/T-ReCS observations of CFHT-BD-Tau 4
• Flared Disks and Silicate Emission in Young Brown Dwarfs
• Probing Dust around Brown Dwarfs: The naked LP 944-20 and the Disk of Cha Ha2

Cited by in corpus (38)

• The Mass Dependence Between Protoplanetary Disks and their Stellar Hosts
• Coagulation, fragmentation and radial motion of solid particles in protoplanetary disks
• A Giant Planet Candidate near a Young Brown Dwarf
• The T Tauri Phase Down to Nearly Planetary Masses: Echelle Spectra of 82 Very Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
• The Formation and Early Evolution of Low-mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs
• The Onset of Planet Formation in Brown Dwarf Disks
• The formation and evolution of planetary systems: Grain growth and chemical processing of dust in T Tauri systems
• The Different Evolution of Gas and Dust in Disks around Sun-like and Cool Stars
• Planetesimal formation around the snow line in MRI-driven turbulent protoplanetary disks
• Evolution of brown dwarf disks: A Spitzer survey in Upper Scorpius
• Brown dwarf disks with ALMA: evidence for truncated dust disks in Ophiuchus
• Evolution of Young Brown Dwarf Disks in the Mid-Infrared
• The Disk Fractions of Brown Dwarfs in IC 348 and Chamaeleon I
• Dust distribution in protoplanetary disks - Vertical settling and radial migration
• Silicate Dust in Evolved Protoplanetary Disks: Growth, Sedimentation, and Accretion
• Optical Linear Polarization of Late M- and L-Type Dwarfs
• Impact of grain evolution on the chemical structure of protoplanetary disks
• On the stratified dust distribution of the GG Tau circumbinary ring
• Grain growth and dust settling in a brown dwarf disk: Gemini/T-ReCS observations of CFHT-BD-Tau 4
• New Brown Dwarf Disks in the TW Hydrae Association
• Spitzer Identification of the Least Massive Known Brown Dwarf with a Circumstellar Disk
• The transition disc frequency in M stars
• A Herschel Search For Cold Dust in Brown Dwarf Disks: First Results
• Demographics of disks around young very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Lupus
• Characterizing the disk around the TW Hydrae Association brown dwarf 2MASSW J1207334-393254
• SPH simulations of grain growth in protoplanetary disks
• The clearing of discs around late type T Tauri stars: constraints from the infrared two colour plane
• Stellar-Mass-Dependent Disk Structure in Coeval Planet-Forming Disks
• Growth of grains in Brown Dwarf disks
• Abundant crystalline silicates in the disk of a very low mass star
• K2 Ultracool Dwarfs Survey. IV. Monster flares observed on the young brown dwarf CFHT-BD-Tau 4
• Modeling the Protoplanetary Disks of Two Brown Dwarfs in the Taurus Molecular Cloud
• On the settling of small grains in dusty discs: analysis and formulas
• Spitzer Spectroscopy of the Circumprimary Disk in the Binary Brown Dwarf 2MASS J04414489+2301513
• A Spitzer Search For Planetary-Mass Brown Dwarfs With Circumstellar Disks: Candidate Selection
• The disk around the brown dwarf KPNO Tau 3
• MINDS. Cha Hα 1, a brown dwarf with a hydrocarbon-rich disk
• Dynamic Photometric Variability in Three Young Brown Dwarfs in Taurus: Detection of Optical Flares with TESS data