Seminario DAS: Observational constraints on protoplanetary disks

Speaker: Dr. Pietro Curone
Affiliation: CATA postdoc - Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile.

Abstract: Over the last decade, high-resolution observations of protoplanetary disks from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed intricate substructures in their continuum emission, such as rings, gaps, and spirals. Such observational effort allows us to put tighter constraints on the physical mechanisms regulating protoplanetary disks. In this seminar, I will present three different works, targeting this topic from different but complementary perspectives. First, the talk will focus on CIDA 1, a very low-mass star surrounded by a disk with a prominent gap. Numerical models coupling hydrodynamical and radiative transfer simulations suggest the presence of a massive planet to explain the observed disk structure. Next, the compact disk CX Tau will be examined. A multiwavelength analysis of this source reveals a spectral flux density distribution with a peculiar behavior. Lastly, I will delve into the continuum emission from the disks within exoALMA, a Large Program targeting 15 sources to study their gas dynamics. This campaign has yielded continuum data of the sample with high angular resolution and unprecedented sensitivity, allowing for a thorough examination of the dust substructures. These cases underscore how different morphologies can provide us with valuable insights into the disk history and evolution.