The TW Hya Rosetta Stone Project. III. Resolving the Gaseous Thermal Profile of the Disk

The thermal structure of protoplanetary disks is a fundamental characteristic of the system that has wide-reaching effects on disk evolution and planet formation. In this study, we constrain the 2D thermal structure of the protoplanetary disk TW Hya structure utilizing images of seven CO lines. This includes new ALMA observations of (CO)-C-12 J = 2-1 and (CO)-O-18 J = 2-1 as well as archival ALMA observations of (CO)-C-12 J = 3-2, (CO)-C-13 J = 3-2 and 6-5, and (CO)-O-18 J = 3-2 and 6-5. Additionally, we reproduce a Herschel observation of the HD J = 1-0 line flux and the spectral energy distribution and utilize a recent quantification of CO radial depletion in TW Hya. These observations were modeled using the thermochemical code RAC2D, and our best-fit model reproduces all spatially resolved CO surface brightness profiles. The resulting thermal profile finds a disk mass of 0.025 M and a thin upper layer of gas depleted of small dust with a thickness of similar to 1.2% of the corresponding radius. Using our final thermal structure, we find that CO alone is not a viable mass tracer, as its abundance is degenerate with the total H-2 surface density. Different mass models can readily match the spatially resolved CO line profiles with disparate abundance assumptions. Mass determination requires additional knowledge, and, in this work, HD provides the additional constraint to derive the gas mass and support the inference of CO depletion in the TW Hya disk. Our final thermal structure confirms the use of HD as a powerful probe of protoplanetary disk mass. Additionally, the method laid out in this paper is an employable strategy for extraction of disk temperatures and masses in the future.

Automated summary

The study focuses on constraining the thermal structure of the protoplanetary disk TW Hya using CO line images, finding that CO alone is not a viable mass tracer due to degeneracy with total H-2 surface density. Different mass models can readily match spatially resolved CO line profiles.