Discovery of Line Pressure Broadening and Direct Constraint on Gas Surface Density in a Protoplanetary Disk

The gas surface density profile of protoplanetary disks is one of the most fundamental physical properties to understanding planet formation. However, it is challenging to determine the surface density profile observationally, because the H-2 emission cannot be observed in low-temperature regions. We analyzed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) archival data of the (CO)-C-12 J = 3 - 2 line toward the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya and discovered extremely broad line wings due to the pressure broadening. In conjunction with a previously reported optically thin CO isotopologue line, the pressure broadened line wings enabled us to directly determine the midplane gas density for the first time. The gas surface density at similar to 5 au from the central star reaches similar to 10(3) g cm(-2), which suggests that the inner region of the disk has enough mass to form a Jupiter-mass planet. Additionally, the gas surface density drops at the inner cavity by similar to 2 orders of magnitude compared to outside the cavity. We also found a low CO abundance of similar to 10(-6) with respect to H-2, even inside the CO snow line, which suggests conversion of CO to less volatile species. Combining our results with previous studies, the gas surface density jumps at r similar to 20 au, suggesting that the inner region (3 < r < 20 au) might be the magnetorotational instability dead zone. This study sheds light on the direct gas surface density constraint without assuming the CO/H-2 ratio using ALMA.

Automated summary

Using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have directly determined the gas surface density of a protoplanetary disk for the first time. The study revealed that the inner region of the disk has enough mass to form a Jupiter-mass planet and identified a significant drop in gas surface density at the inner cavity compared to outside the cavity.