A layered edge-on circumstellar disk around HK Tau B^*

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1562, USA
² Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Observatoire de Grenoble, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA

Corresponding author: G. Duchêne, duchene@astro.ucla.edu

Received: 1 July 2002
Accepted: 19 December 2002

Abstract

We present the first high angular resolution 1.4 mm and 2.7 mm continuum maps of the T Tauri binary system HK Tau obtained with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. The contributions of both components are well disentangled at 1.4 mm and the star previously known to host an edge-on circumstellar disk, HK Tau B, is elongated along the disk's major axis. The optically bright primary dominates the thermal emission from the system at both wavelengths, confirming that it also has its own circumstellar disk. Its non-detection in scattered light images indicates that the two disks in this binary system are not parallel. Our data further indicate that the circumprimary disk is probably significantly smaller than the circumsecondary disk. We model the millimeter thermal emission from the circumstellar disk surrounding HK Tau B. We show that the disk mass derived from scattered light images cannot reproduce the 1.4 mm emission using opacities of the same population of submicron dust grains. However, grain growth alone cannot match all the observed properties of this disk. We propose that this disk contains three separate layers: two thin outer surfaces which contain dust grains that are very similar to those of the ISM, and a disk interior which is relatively massive and/or has experienced limited grain growth with the largest grains significantly smaller than 1 mm. Such a structure could naturally result from dust settling in a protoplanetary disk.