_version_ 1866909595967946752
author Gardner, Charles H.
Isella, Andrea
Li, Hui
Li, Shengtai
Bae, Jaehan
Barraza-Alfaro, Marcelo
Benisty, Myriam
Cataldi, Gianni
Curone, Pietro
Eisner, Josh A.
Facchini, Stefano
Fasano, Daniele
Flock, Mario
Follette, Katherine B.
Fukagawa, Misato
Galloway-Sprietsma, Maria
Garg, Himanshi
Hall, Cassandra
Huang, Jane
Ilee, John D.
Ireland, Michael J.
Izquierdo, Andrés F.
Johns-Krull, Christopher M.
Kanagawa, Kazuhiro
Kraus, Adam L.
Lesur, Geoffroy
Liu, Shangfei
Longarini, Cristiano
Loomis, Ryan A.
Menard, Francois
Orihara, Ryuta
Pinte, Christophe
Price, Daniel
Ricci, Luca
Rosotti, Giovanni
Sallum, Steph
Stadler, Jochen
Teague, Richard
Wafflard-Fernandez, Gaylor
Wilner, David J.
Winter, Andrew J.
Wölfer, Lisa
Yen, Hsi-Wei
Yoshida, Tomohiro C.
Zawadzki, Brianna
Zhu, Zhaohuan
author_facet Gardner, Charles H.
Isella, Andrea
Li, Hui
Li, Shengtai
Bae, Jaehan
Barraza-Alfaro, Marcelo
Benisty, Myriam
Cataldi, Gianni
Curone, Pietro
Eisner, Josh A.
Facchini, Stefano
Fasano, Daniele
Flock, Mario
Follette, Katherine B.
Fukagawa, Misato
Galloway-Sprietsma, Maria
Garg, Himanshi
Hall, Cassandra
Huang, Jane
Ilee, John D.
Ireland, Michael J.
Izquierdo, Andrés F.
Johns-Krull, Christopher M.
Kanagawa, Kazuhiro
Kraus, Adam L.
Lesur, Geoffroy
Liu, Shangfei
Longarini, Cristiano
Loomis, Ryan A.
Menard, Francois
Orihara, Ryuta
Pinte, Christophe
Price, Daniel
Ricci, Luca
Rosotti, Giovanni
Sallum, Steph
Stadler, Jochen
Teague, Richard
Wafflard-Fernandez, Gaylor
Wilner, David J.
Winter, Andrew J.
Wölfer, Lisa
Yen, Hsi-Wei
Yoshida, Tomohiro C.
Zawadzki, Brianna
Zhu, Zhaohuan
contents In the past decade, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed a plethora of substructures in the disks surrounding young stars. These substructures have several proposed formation mechanisms, with one leading theory being the interaction between the disk and newly formed planets. In this Letter, we present high angular resolution ALMA observations of LkCa~15's disk that reveal a striking difference in dust and CO emission morphology. The dust continuum emission shows a ring-like structure characterized by a dust-depleted inner region of $\sim$40 au in radius. Conversely, the CO emission is radially smoother and shows no sign of gas depletion within the dust cavity. We compare the observations with models for the disk-planet interaction, including radiative transfer calculation in the dust and CO emission. This source is particularly interesting as the presence of massive planets within the dust cavity has been suggested based on previous NIR observations. We find that the level of CO emission observed within the dust cavity is inconsistent with the presence of planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting between 10-40 au. Instead, we argue that the LkCa~15 innermost dust cavity might be created either by a chain of low-mass planets, or by other processes that do not require the presence of planets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_19868
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle exoALMA XI: ALMA Observations and Hydrodynamic Models of LkCa 15: Implications for Planetary Mass Companions in the Dust Continuum Cavity
Gardner, Charles H.
Isella, Andrea
Li, Hui
Li, Shengtai
Bae, Jaehan
Barraza-Alfaro, Marcelo
Benisty, Myriam
Cataldi, Gianni
Curone, Pietro
Eisner, Josh A.
Facchini, Stefano
Fasano, Daniele
Flock, Mario
Follette, Katherine B.
Fukagawa, Misato
Galloway-Sprietsma, Maria
Garg, Himanshi
Hall, Cassandra
Huang, Jane
Ilee, John D.
Ireland, Michael J.
Izquierdo, Andrés F.
Johns-Krull, Christopher M.
Kanagawa, Kazuhiro
Kraus, Adam L.
Lesur, Geoffroy
Liu, Shangfei
Longarini, Cristiano
Loomis, Ryan A.
Menard, Francois
Orihara, Ryuta
Pinte, Christophe
Price, Daniel
Ricci, Luca
Rosotti, Giovanni
Sallum, Steph
Stadler, Jochen
Teague, Richard
Wafflard-Fernandez, Gaylor
Wilner, David J.
Winter, Andrew J.
Wölfer, Lisa
Yen, Hsi-Wei
Yoshida, Tomohiro C.
Zawadzki, Brianna
Zhu, Zhaohuan
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
In the past decade, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed a plethora of substructures in the disks surrounding young stars. These substructures have several proposed formation mechanisms, with one leading theory being the interaction between the disk and newly formed planets. In this Letter, we present high angular resolution ALMA observations of LkCa~15's disk that reveal a striking difference in dust and CO emission morphology. The dust continuum emission shows a ring-like structure characterized by a dust-depleted inner region of $\sim$40 au in radius. Conversely, the CO emission is radially smoother and shows no sign of gas depletion within the dust cavity. We compare the observations with models for the disk-planet interaction, including radiative transfer calculation in the dust and CO emission. This source is particularly interesting as the presence of massive planets within the dust cavity has been suggested based on previous NIR observations. We find that the level of CO emission observed within the dust cavity is inconsistent with the presence of planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting between 10-40 au. Instead, we argue that the LkCa~15 innermost dust cavity might be created either by a chain of low-mass planets, or by other processes that do not require the presence of planets.
title exoALMA XI: ALMA Observations and Hydrodynamic Models of LkCa 15: Implications for Planetary Mass Companions in the Dust Continuum Cavity
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.19868