Do puffed up inner disk rims exist?

Dejan Vinkovic ( IAS) - May 5 at 12:00 noon

Processes in the immediate vicinity of young T Tau and Herbig Ae/Be pre-main-sequence stars influence the initial stellar evolution. One of the long standing problems is the dynamics and reprocessing of dust in the inner hot circumstellar disk regions. A model of this disk region that has recently gained on popularity incorporates puffing up at the dust sublimation radius, creating a large disk rim or wall of hot dust. Thanks to recent advances in the imaging techniques, we reexamine the observational evidence for this disk feature and find it inconsistent with the imaging data. In reality, these observations provide the first direct evidence for an optically thin dusty halo surrounding the inner disk regions. The exact physical mechanism behind this dusty halo is not known, but there are some interesting correlations with the large scale structures around these stars.

The seminar will be held in 501 Campbell Hall.


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