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High dust density in the midplane of protoplanetary disks is favorable for efficient grain growth and can allow fast formation of planetesimals and planets, before disks dissipate. Vertical settling and dust trapping in pressure maxima are two mechanisms allowing dust to concentrate in geometrically thin and high-density regions. In this work, we aim to study these mechanisms in the highly inclined protoplanetary disk SSTC2D J163131.2-242627 (Oph 163131, i ∼ 84°). We present new high-angular-resolution continuum and 12CO ALMA observations of Oph 163131. The gas emission appears significantly more extended in the vertical and radial direction compared to the dust emission, consistent with vertical settling and possibly radial drift. In addition, the new continuum observations reveal two clear rings. The outer ring, located at ∼100 au, is well-resolved in the observations, allowing us to put stringent constraints on the vertical extent of millimeter dust particles. We model the disk using radiative transfer and find that the scale height of millimeter-sized grains is 0.5 au or less at 100 au from the central star. This value is about one order of magnitude smaller than the scale height of smaller micron-sized dust grains constrained by previous modeling, which implies that efficient settling of the large grains is occurring in the disk. When adopting a parametric dust settling prescription, we find that the observations are consistent with a turbulent viscosity coefficient of about α ≲ 10−5 at 100 au. Finally, we find that the thin dust scale height measured in Oph 163131 is favorable for planetary growth by pebble accretion: a 10 M E planet may grow within less than 10 Myr, even in orbits exceeding 50 au.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the Class I source Oph IRS 63 in the context of the Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks large program. Our ALMA observations of Oph IRS 63 show a myriad of protostellar features, such as a shell-like bipolar outflow (in 12CO), an extended rotating envelope structure (in 13CO), a streamer connecting the envelope to the disk (in C18O), and several small-scale spiral structures seen toward the edge of the dust continuum (in SO). By analyzing the velocity pattern of 13CO and C18O, we measure a protostellar mass of M ⋆ = 0.5 ± 0.2 M ⊙ and confirm the presence of a disk rotating at almost Keplerian velocity that extends up to ∼260 au. These calculations also show that the gaseous disk is about four times larger than the dust disk, which could indicate dust evolution and radial drift. Furthermore, we model the C18O streamer and SO spiral structures as features originating from an infalling rotating structure that continuously feeds the young protostellar disk. We compute an envelope-to-disk mass infall rate of ∼10−6 M ⊙ yr−1 and compare it to the disk-to-star mass accretion rate of ∼10−8 M ⊙ yr−1, from which we infer that the protostellar disk is in a mass buildup phase. At the current mass infall rate, we speculate that soon the disk will become too massive to be gravitationally stable.

The size of a disk encodes important information about its evolution. Combining new Submillimeter Array observations with archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data, we analyze millimeter continuum and CO emission line sizes for a sample of 44 protoplanetary disks around stars with masses of 0.15–2 M ⊙ in several nearby star-forming regions. Sizes measured from 12CO line emission span from 50 to 1000 au. This range could be explained by viscous evolution models with different α values (mostly of 10−4–10−3) and/or a spread of initial conditions. The CO sizes for most disks are also consistent with MHD wind models that directly remove disk angular momentum, but very large initial disk sizes would be required to account for the very extended CO disks in the sample. As no CO size evolution is observed across stellar ages of 0.5–20 Myr in this sample, determining the dominant mechanism of disk evolution will require a more complete sample for both younger and more evolved systems. We find that the CO emission is universally more extended than the continuum emission by an average factor of 2.9 ± 1.2. The ratio of the CO to continuum sizes does not show any trend with stellar mass, millimeter continuum luminosity, or the properties of substructures. The GO Tau disk has the most extended CO emission in this sample, with an extreme CO-to-continuum size ratio of 7.6. Seven additional disks in the sample show high size ratios (≳4) that we interpret as clear signs of substantial radial drift.

The accretion of material from protoplanetary disks onto their central stars is a fundamental process in the evolution of these systems and a key diagnostic in constraining the disk lifetime. We analyze the relationship between the stellar accretion rate and the disk mass in 32 intermediate-mass Herbig Ae/Be systems and compare them to their lower-mass counterparts, T Tauri stars. We find that the Ṁ –M disk relationship for Herbig Ae/Be stars is largely flat at ∼10−7 M ☉ yr−1 over 3 orders of magnitude in dust mass. While most of the sample follows the T Tauri trend, a subset of objects with high accretion rates and low dust masses are identified. These outliers (12 out of 32 sources) have an inferred disk lifetime of less than 0.01 Myr and are dominated by objects with low infrared excess. This outlier sample is likely identified in part by the bias in classifying Herbig Ae/Be stars, which requires evidence of accretion that can only be reliably measured above a rate of ∼10−9 M ☉ yr−1 for these spectral types. If the disk masses are not underestimated and the accretion rates are not overestimated, this implies that these disks may be on the verge of dispersal, which may be due to efficient radial drift of material or outer disk depletion by photoevaporation and/or truncation by companions. This outlier sample likely represents a small subset of the larger young, intermediate-mass stellar population, the majority of which would have already stopped accreting and cleared their disks.

Protoplanetary disks display the so-called size–luminosity relation, where their millimeter wavelength fluxes scale linearly with their emitting areas. This suggests that these disks are optically thick in millimeter band, an interpretation further supported by their near-blackbody spectral indexes. Such characteristics are seen not only among disks in very young star-forming regions like Lupus (1–3 Myr), but, as we demonstrate here, also among disks in the much older Upper Scorpius region (5–11 Myr). How can disks shine brightly for so long, when grain growth and subsequent radial drift should have quickly depleted their solid reservoir? Here, we suggest that the “bouncing barrier” provides the answer. Even colliding at very low speeds (below 1 cm s−1), grains already fail to stick to each other but instead bounce off in elastically. This barrier stalls grain growth at a near-universal size of ∼100 μm. These small grains experience much reduced radial drift, and so are able to keep the disks bright for millions of years. They are also tightly coupled to gas, offering poor prospects for processes like streaming instability or pebble accretion. We speculate briefly on how planetesimals can arise in such a bath of 100 μm grains.

Radial drift of solid particles in the protoplanetary disk is often invoked as a threat to planet formation, as it removes solid material from the disk before it can be assembled into planets. However, it may also concentrate solids at particular locations in the disk, thus accelerating the coagulation process. Planetesimals are thought to drift much faster in an eccentric disk, due to their higher velocities with respect to the gas, but their drift rate has only been calculated using approximate means. In this work, we show that in some cases previous estimates of the drift rate, based on a modification of the results for an axisymmetric disk, are highly inaccurate. In particular, we find that under some easily realized circumstances, planetesimals may drift outwards, rather than inwards. This results in the existence of radii in the disk that act as stable attractors of planetesimals. We show that this can lead to a local enhancement of more than an order of magnitude in the surface density of planetesimals, even when a wide dispersion of planetesimal size is considered.

Incremental particle growth in turbulent protoplanetary nebulae is limited by a combination of barriers that can slow or stall growth. Moreover, particles that grow massive enough to decouple from the gas are subject to inward radial drift, which could lead to the depletion of most disk solids before planetesimals can form. Compact particle growth is probably not realistic. Rather, it is more likely that grains grow as fractal aggregates, which may overcome this so-called radial drift barrier because they remain more coupled to the gas than compact particles of equal mass. We model fractal aggregate growth and compaction in a viscously evolving solar-like nebula for a range of turbulent intensities α t = 10−5–10−2. We do find that radial drift is less influential for porous aggregates over much of their growth phase; however, outside the water snowline fractal aggregates can grow to much larger masses with larger Stokes numbers more quickly than compact particles, leading to rapid inward radial drift. As a result, disk solids outside the snowline out to ∼10–20 au are depleted earlier than in compact growth models, but outside ∼20 au material is retained much longer because aggregate Stokes numbers there remain lower initially. Nevertheless, we conclude even fractal models will lose most disk solids without the intervention of some leapfrog planetesimal forming mechanism such as the streaming instability (SI), though conditions for the SI are generally never satisfied, except for a brief period at the snowline for α t = 10−5.

The streaming instability (SI) is one of the most promising pathways to the formation of planetesimals from pebbles. Understanding how this instability operates under realistic conditions expected in protoplanetary disks (PPDs) is therefore crucial to assess the efficiency of planet formation. Contemporary models of PPDs show that magnetic fields are key to driving gas accretion through large-scale, laminar magnetic stresses. However, the effect of such magnetic fields on the SI has not been examined in detail. To this end, we study the stability of dusty, magneftized gas in a protoplanetary disk. We find the SI can be enhanced by passive magnetic torques and even persist in the absence of a global radial pressure gradient. In this case, instability is attributed to the azimuthal drift between dust and gas, unlike the classical SI, which is driven by radial drift. This suggests that the SI can remain effective inside dust-trapping pressure bumps in accreting disks. When a live vertical field is considered, we find the magneto-rotational instability can be damped by dust feedback, while the classic SI can be stabilized by magnetic perturbations. We also find that Alfvén waves can be destabilized by dust–gas drift, but this instability requires nearly ideal conditions. We discuss the possible implications of these results for dust dynamics and planetesimal formation in PPDs.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) large program AGE-PRO explores protoplanetary disk evolution by studying gas and dust across various ages. This work focuses on 10 evolved disks in Upper Scorpius, observed in dust continuum emission, CO and its isotopologues, and N2H+ with ALMA Bands 6 and 7. Disk radii, from the radial location enclosing 68% of the flux, are comparable to those in the younger Lupus region for both gas and dust tracers. However, solid masses are about an order of magnitude below those in Lupus and Ophiuchus, while the dust spectral index suggests some level of dust evolution. These empirical findings align with a combination of radial drift, dust trapping, and grain growth into larger bodies. A moderate correlation between CO and continuum fluxes suggests a link between gas and dust content, through the increased scatter compared to younger regions, possibly due to age variations, gas-to-dust ratio differences, or CO depletion. Additionally, the correlation between C18O and N2H+ fluxes observed in Lupus persists in Upper Scorpius, indicating a relatively stable CO gas abundance over the Class II stage of disk evolution. In conclusion, the AGE-PRO survey of Upper Scorpius disks reveals intriguing trends in disk evolution. The findings point toward potential gas evolution and the presence of dust traps in these older disks. Future high-resolution observations are needed to confirm these possibilities and further refine our understanding of disk evolution and planet formation in older environments.

We present a study of the abundance of calcium in the innermost disk of 70 T Tauri stars in the star-forming regions of Chamaeleon I, Lupus, and Orion OB1b. We use calcium as a proxy for the refractory material that reaches the inner disk. We used magnetospheric accretion models to analyze the Ca ii emission lines and estimate abundances in the accretion flows of the stars, which feed from the inner disks. We find Ca depletion in disks of all three star-forming regions, with 57% of the sample having [Ca/H] < –0.30 relative to the solar abundance. All disks with cavities and/or substructures show depletion, consistent with trapping of refractories in pressure bumps. Significant Ca depletion ([Ca/H] < –0.30) is also measured in 60% of full disks, although some of those disks may have hidden substructures or cavities. We find no correlation between Ca abundance and stellar or disk parameters except for the mass accretion rate onto the star. This could suggest that the inner and outer disks are decoupled, and that the mass accretion rate is related to a mass reservoir in the inner disk, while refractory depletion reflects phenomena in the outer disk related to the presence of structure and forming planets. Our results of refractory depletion and timescales for depletion are qualitatively consistent with expectations of dust growth and radial drift, including partitioning of elements, and constitute direct evidence that radial drift of solids locked in pebbles takes place in disks.