Mapping Protoplanetary Disk Vertical Structure with CO Isotopologue Line Emission

Abstract

High-spatial-resolution observations of CO isotopologue line emission in protoplanetary disks at mid-inclinations (≈30°–75°) allow us to characterize the gas structure in detail, including radial and vertical substructures, emission surface heights and their dependencies on source characteristics, and disk temperature profiles. By combining observations of a suite of CO isotopologues, we can map the two-dimensional ( r , z ) disk structure from the disk upper atmosphere, as traced by CO, to near the midplane, as probed by less abundant isotopologues. Here, we present high-angular-resolution (≲0.″1 to ≈0.″2; ≈15–30 au) observations of CO, ^13 CO, and C ^18 O in either or both J = 2–1 and J = 3–2 lines in the transition disks around DM Tau, Sz 91, LkCa 15, and HD 34282. We derived line emission surfaces in CO for all disks and in ^13 CO for the DM Tau and LkCa 15 disks. With these observations, we do not resolve the vertical structure of C ^18 O in any disk, which is instead consistent with C ^18 O emission originating from the midplane. Both the J = 2–1 and J = 3–2 lines show similar heights. Using the derived emission surfaces, we computed radial and vertical gas temperature distributions for each disk, including empirical temperature models for the DM Tau and LkCa 15 disks. After combining our sample with literature sources, we find that ^13 CO line emitting heights are also tentatively linked with source characteristics, e.g., stellar host mass, gas temperature, disk size, and show steeper trends than seen in CO emission surfaces.

Keywords

• Protoplanetary disks
• Planet formation
• CO line emission
• High angular resolution