On the interferometric sizes of young stellar objects

Long-baseline optical interferometers can now detect and resolve hot dust emission thought to arise at the inner edge of circumstellar disks around young stellar objects (YSOs). We argue that the near-infrared sizes being measured are closely related to the radius at which dust is sublimated by the stellar radiation field. We consider how realistic dust optical properties and gas opacity dramatically affect the predicted location of this dust destruction radius, an exercise routinely done in other contexts but so far neglected in the analysis of near-infrared sizes of YSOs. We also present the accumulated literature of near-infrared YSO sizes in the form of a size-luminosity diagram and compare with theoretical expectations. We find evidence that large (greater than or similar to 1.0 mum) dust grains predominate in the inner disks of T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars, under the assumption that the innermost gaseous disks are optically thin at visible wavelengths.