Evidence for dust clearing through resolved submillimeter imaging

Abstract

Mid-infrared spectrophotometric observations have revealed a small subclass of circumstellar disks with spectral energy distributions (SEDs) suggestive of large inner gaps with low dust content. However, such data provide only an indirect and model-dependent method of finding central holes. Imaging of protoplanetry disks provides an independent check of SED modeling. We present here the direct characterization of three 33-47 AU radii inner gaps, in the disks around LkHalpha 330, SR 21N, and HD 135344B, via 340 GHz (880 mum) dust continuum aperture synthesis observations obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). The large gaps are fully resolved at ~0farcs3 by the SMA data and mostly empty of dust, with less than (1-7.5) × 10-6 M sun of fine grained solids inside the holes. Gas (as traced by atomic accretion markers and CO 4.7 mum rovibrational emission) is still present in the inner regions of all three disks. For each, the inner hole exhibits a relatively steep rise in dust emission to the outer disk, a feature more likely to originate from the gravitational influence of a companion body than from a process expected to show a more shallow gradient like grain growth. Importantly, the good agreement between the spatially resolved data and spectrophotometry-based models lends confidence to current interpretations of SEDs, wherein the significant dust emission deficits arise from disks with inner gaps or holes. Further SED-based searches can therefore be expected to yield numerous additional candidates that can be examined at high spatial resolution.