Observations and modelling of CO and [C i] in protoplanetary disks

First detections of [C i] and constraints on the carbon abundance^⋆

¹ Leiden Observatory, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
e-mail: mkama@strw.leidenuniv.nl
² Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
³ SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, 3584, The Netherlands
⁴ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
⁵ NOVA, J.H. Oort Building, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
⁷ Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands
⁸ ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
⁹ Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, A. Mickiewicz University, Sloneczna 36, 60-286 Poznan, Poland
¹⁰ UK Astronomy Technology Center, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
¹¹ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, 2801 West Bancroft Street, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
¹³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA

Received: 19 June 2015
Accepted: 5 January 2016

Abstract

Context. The gas-solid budget of carbon in protoplanetary disks is related to the composition of the cores and atmospheres of the planets forming in them. The principal gas-phase carbon carriers CO, C⁰, and C⁺ can now be observed regularly in disks.

Aims. The gas-phase carbon abundance in disks has thus far not been well characterized observationally. We obtain new constraints on the [C]/[H] ratio in a large sample of disks, and compile an overview of the strength of [C i] and warm CO emission.

Methods. We carried out a survey of the CO 6–5 line and the [C i] 1–0 and 2–1 lines towards 37 disks with the APEX telescope, and supplemented it with [C ii] data from the literature. The data are interpreted using a grid of models produced with the DALI disk code. We also investigate how well the gas-phase carbon abundance can be determined in light of parameter uncertainties.

Results. The CO 6–5 line is detected in 13 out of 33 sources, [C i] 1–0 in 6 out of 12, and [C i] 2–1 in 1 out of 33. With separate deep integrations, the first unambiguous detections of the [C i] 1–0 line in disks are obtained, in TW Hya and HD 100546.

Conclusions. Gas-phase carbon abundance reductions of a factor of 5–10 or more can be identified robustly based on CO and [C i] detections, assuming reasonable constraints on other parameters. The atomic carbon detection towards TW Hya confirms a factor of 100 reduction of [C]/[H]_gas in that disk, while the data are consistent with an ISM-like carbon abundance for HD 100546. In addition, BP Tau, T Cha, HD 139614, HD 141569, and HD 100453 are either carbon-depleted or gas-poor disks. The low [C i] 2–1 detection rates in the survey mostly reflect insufficient sensitivity for T Tauri disks. The Herbig Ae/Be disks with CO and [C ii] upper limits below the models are debris-disk-like systems. An increase in sensitivity of roughly order of magnitude compared to our survey is required to obtain useful constraints on the gas-phase [C]/[H] ratio in most of the targeted systems.