A Dynamical Measurement of the Disk Mass in Elias 2-27

Recent multi-wavelength Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the protoplanetary disk orbiting around Elias 2-27 revealed a two-armed spiral structure. The observed morphology, together with the young age of the star and the disk-to-star mass ratio estimated from dust-continuum emission, make this system a perfect laboratory to investigate the role of self-gravity in the early phases of star formation. This is particularly interesting if we consider that gravitational instabilities could be a fundamental first step for the formation of planetesimals and planets. In this Letter, we model the rotation curve obtained by CO data of Elias 2-27 with a theoretical rotation curve, including both the disk self-gravity and the star contribution to the gravitational potential. We compare this model with a purely Keplerian one and with a simple power-law function. We find that (especially for the (CO)-C-13 isotopologue) the rotation curve is better described by considering not only the star, but also the disk self-gravity. We are thus able to obtain for the first time a dynamical estimate of the disk mass of 0.08 +/- 0.04 M (circle dot) and the star mass of 0.46 +/- 0.03 M (circle dot) (in the more general case), the latter being comparable with previous estimates. From these values, we derive that the disk is 17% of the star mass, meaning that it could be prone to gravitational instabilities. This result would strongly support the hypothesis that the two spiral arms are generated by gravitational instabilities.

Automated summary

Recent ALMA observations of the protoplanetary disk around Elias 2-27 revealed a two-armed spiral structure, making it an ideal laboratory to investigate the role of self-gravity in early star formation. The dynamical estimate suggests that the disk mass is 17% of the star mass, indicating that the disk could be prone to gravitational instabilities.