The Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA). Substructures as a function of SED Class and disc mass in 100 systems
Trisha Bhowmik, Lucas Cieza, J. M. Miley, P. H. Nogueira, Camilo González-Ruilova + 15 more
TLDR
The Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA) studies substructures in 100 protoplanetary discs, linking them to giant planet formation.
Key contributions
- Conducted a flux-limited ALMA Band 8 survey of 100 protoplanetary discs in Ophiuchus, spanning 4-400 mJy.
- Investigated substructures (gaps, rings, cavities) as a function of SED Class and disc mass using sub-beam resolution.
- Found that discs >10 Earth masses show an evolutionary sequence of substructures linked to giant planet formation.
- Demonstrated ALMA Band 8's efficiency in tracing substructures, even in faint discs, with shorter integration times.
Why it matters
This study provides the first complete flux-limited survey of protoplanetary disc substructures, revealing a strong link between disc morphology and giant planet formation stages. It highlights ALMA Band 8 as a powerful tool for future high-resolution disc observations, extending our understanding to fainter systems.
Original 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.
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