The Ring structure in the MWC 480 disk Revealed by ALMA

Yoa Liu

Poster -- Disks

Gap-like structures in protoplanetary disks are likely related to planet formation processes. In this work, we present and analyze high resolution (0.17 arcsec × 0.11 arcsec) 1.3 mm ALMA continuum observations of the protoplanetary disk around the Herbig Ae star MWC 480. Our observation shows a gap centered at 74 au with a width of 23 au, surrounded by a bright ring centered at 98 au from the central star. Detailed radiative transfer modeling of both the ALMA image and the broadband spectral energy distribution is used to constrain the surface density profile and structural parameters of the disk. If the width of the gap corresponds to 4-8 times the Hill radius of a single forming planet, then the putative planet would have a mass of 0.4-3MJ. We test this prediction by performing global three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamic gas/dust simulations of disks hosting a migrating and accreting planet. We find that the dust emission across the disk is consistent with the presence of an embedded planet with a mass of 2.3 MJ at an orbital radius of 78 au.