HOTDISK. Finding Massive Protostellar Disks with Water and Refractory Molecular Species

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Kai, Zhang, Yichen, Tanaka, Kei E. I., Liu, Tie, Sakai, Nami, Zhang, Ziwei E., Lee, Gyuho, Kim, Kee-Tae, Ginsburg, Adam, Wang, Lile, Wang, Yao, Tang, Yongzhi, Cheng, Yu, Liu, Hongli, Jiao, Wenyu, Xu, Fengwei, Liu, Xunchuan, Mai, Xiaofeng, Yang, Dongting
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Yang, Kai
Zhang, Yichen
Tanaka, Kei E. I.
Liu, Tie
Sakai, Nami
Zhang, Ziwei E.
Lee, Gyuho
Kim, Kee-Tae
Ginsburg, Adam
Wang, Lile
Wang, Yao
Tang, Yongzhi
Cheng, Yu
Liu, Hongli
Jiao, Wenyu
Xu, Fengwei
Liu, Xunchuan
Mai, Xiaofeng
Yang, Dongting
author_facet Yang, Kai
Zhang, Yichen
Tanaka, Kei E. I.
Liu, Tie
Sakai, Nami
Zhang, Ziwei E.
Lee, Gyuho
Kim, Kee-Tae
Ginsburg, Adam
Wang, Lile
Wang, Yao
Tang, Yongzhi
Cheng, Yu
Liu, Hongli
Jiao, Wenyu
Xu, Fengwei
Liu, Xunchuan
Mai, Xiaofeng
Yang, Dongting
contents We present high-angular-resolution ($\sim0.05^{\prime\prime}$) ALMA Band~6 observations from the HOTDISK project (Hot-Origin Tracer survey of DISKs of massive protostars) aimed at investigating the "hot-disk" chemical pattern traced by vibrationally excited water, NaCl, SiS, and SiO in the innermost regions around massive protostars. Ten targets were selected based on strong CH$_3$CN emission exhibiting clear rotational signatures and centrally concentrated SiO emission from lower-resolution observations. We detect vibrationally excited water emission toward 7 of the 10 sources. In all detections, the blueshifted and redshifted components are compact and located on opposite sides of the 1.3 mm continuum peak, with velocity gradients approximately perpendicular to the outflow axes, consistent with rotation on disk scales. Emission from NaCl and SiS is detected toward 5 of these 7 sources and exhibits similar kinematics, further supporting the presence of compact rotating structures. In contrast, commonly used hot-core tracers (e.g., CH$_3$CN and SO$_2$) primarily probe larger-scale envelope gas. These results demonstrate that vibrationally excited water, NaCl, and SiS are powerful tracers of disk structures on $\sim$100 au scales, when observed at sufficient angular resolution and sensitivity. The high detection rate suggests that hot-disk chemical patterns - and thus compact rotating disks - are common in massive star-forming regions, at least among sources with well-developed rotating envelopes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_19366
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle HOTDISK. Finding Massive Protostellar Disks with Water and Refractory Molecular Species
Yang, Kai
Zhang, Yichen
Tanaka, Kei E. I.
Liu, Tie
Sakai, Nami
Zhang, Ziwei E.
Lee, Gyuho
Kim, Kee-Tae
Ginsburg, Adam
Wang, Lile
Wang, Yao
Tang, Yongzhi
Cheng, Yu
Liu, Hongli
Jiao, Wenyu
Xu, Fengwei
Liu, Xunchuan
Mai, Xiaofeng
Yang, Dongting
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present high-angular-resolution ($\sim0.05^{\prime\prime}$) ALMA Band~6 observations from the HOTDISK project (Hot-Origin Tracer survey of DISKs of massive protostars) aimed at investigating the "hot-disk" chemical pattern traced by vibrationally excited water, NaCl, SiS, and SiO in the innermost regions around massive protostars. Ten targets were selected based on strong CH$_3$CN emission exhibiting clear rotational signatures and centrally concentrated SiO emission from lower-resolution observations. We detect vibrationally excited water emission toward 7 of the 10 sources. In all detections, the blueshifted and redshifted components are compact and located on opposite sides of the 1.3 mm continuum peak, with velocity gradients approximately perpendicular to the outflow axes, consistent with rotation on disk scales. Emission from NaCl and SiS is detected toward 5 of these 7 sources and exhibits similar kinematics, further supporting the presence of compact rotating structures. In contrast, commonly used hot-core tracers (e.g., CH$_3$CN and SO$_2$) primarily probe larger-scale envelope gas. These results demonstrate that vibrationally excited water, NaCl, and SiS are powerful tracers of disk structures on $\sim$100 au scales, when observed at sufficient angular resolution and sensitivity. The high detection rate suggests that hot-disk chemical patterns - and thus compact rotating disks - are common in massive star-forming regions, at least among sources with well-developed rotating envelopes.
title HOTDISK. Finding Massive Protostellar Disks with Water and Refractory Molecular Species
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.19366