Time Coordinate: 3:30 pm 2nd Dec. 2016 (Friday)

Space Coordinate: NTHU General Building II, R521

Speaker: Dr. Ya-Wen Tang (ASIAA)

Planet formation in AB Auriga: imaging inner gaseous spirals inside the dust cavity

Studies of planet forming disks have rapidly advanced in the last few years thanks to high contrast high angular resolution images obtained in the optical/near infrared and in the mm/submm regime. In the meantime, several exoplanets have been found by direct imaging in nearby debris disks. Studying planet formation in younger systems where the molecular gas and dust material are not yet fully dissipated is a clue to understand how a planetary system forms and evolves while the disk dissipates.

In order to trace the structures induced by embedded objects, such as companion or planets, I observed the 12CO 2-1 transition at 0.1 angular resolution in the AB Aurigae system using ALMA. The 12CO 2-1 gas exhibits two spiral-like features within 0.7" (radius, r, 90AU) away from the star. These spirals are trailing and non-self-gravitating. Two possible locations of the embedded objects are suggested in order to explain the observed features in AB Aurigae system.