exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks

Marcelo Barraza-Alfaro; Mario Flock; William Béthune; Richard Teague; Jaehan Bae; Myriam Benisty; Gianni Cataldi; Pietro Curone; Ian Czekala; Stefano Facchini; Daniele Fasano; Misato Fukagawa; Maria Galloway-Sprietsma; Himanshi Garg; Cassandra Hall; Jane Huang; John D. Ilee; Andrés F. Izquierdo; Kazuhiro Kanagawa; Eric W. Koch; Geoffroy Lesur; Cristiano Longarini; Ryan A. Loomis; Ryuta Orihara; Christophe Pinte; Daniel J. Price; Giovanni Rosotti; Jochen Stadler; Gaylor Wafflard-Fernandez; Andrew J. Winter; Lisa Wölfer; Hsi Wei Yen; Tomohiro C. Yoshida; Brianna Zawadzki

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d

exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks

Marcelo Barraza-Alfaro^*, Mario Flock, William Béthune, Richard Teague, Jaehan Bae, Myriam Benisty, Gianni Cataldi, Pietro Curone, Ian Czekala, Stefano Facchini, Daniele Fasano, Misato Fukagawa, Maria Galloway-Sprietsma, Himanshi Garg, Cassandra Hall, Jane Huang, John D. Ilee, Andrés F. Izquierdo, Kazuhiro Kanagawa, Eric W. KochGeoffroy Lesur, Cristiano Longarini, Ryan A. Loomis, Ryuta Orihara, Christophe Pinte, Daniel J. Price, Giovanni Rosotti, Jochen Stadler, Gaylor Wafflard-Fernandez, Andrew J. Winter, Lisa Wölfer, Hsi Wei Yen, Tomohiro C. Yoshida, Brianna Zawadzki

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Turbulent gas motions drive planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution. However, empirical constraints on turbulence are scarce, halting our understanding of its nature. Resolving signatures of the large-scale perturbations driven by disk instabilities may reveal clues on the origin of turbulence in the outer regions of planet-forming disks. We aim to predict the observational signatures of such large-scale flows, as they would appear in high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO rotational lines, such as those conducted by the exoALMA Large Program. Post-processing 3D numerical simulations, we explored the observational signatures produced by three candidate (magneto)hydrodynamical instabilities to operate in the outer regions of protoplanetary disks: the vertical shear instability (VSI), the magnetorotational instability (MRI), and the gravitational instability (GI). We found that exoALMA-quality observations should capture signatures of the large-scale motions induced by these instabilities. Mainly, flows with ring, arc, and spiral morphologies are apparent in the residuals of synthetic velocity centroid maps. A qualitative comparison between our predictions and the perturbations recovered from exoALMA data suggests the presence of two laminar disks and a scarcity of ring- and arc-like VSI signatures within the sample. Spiral features produced by the MRI or the GI are still plausible in explaining observed disk perturbations. Supporting these scenarios requires further methodically comparing the predicted perturbations and the observed disks’ complex dynamic structure.

Original language	English
Article number	L21
Number of pages	20
Journal	Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume	984
Issue number	1
Early online date	28 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2025

Keywords

Protoplanetary disks
Planet formation
Hydrodynamical simulations
Radiative transfer simulations

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Barraza-Alfaro, M., Flock, M., Béthune, W., Teague, R., Bae, J., Benisty, M., Cataldi, G., Curone, P., Czekala, I., Facchini, S., Fasano, D., Fukagawa, M., Galloway-Sprietsma, M., Garg, H., Hall, C., Huang, J., Ilee, J. D., Izquierdo, A. F., Kanagawa, K., ... Zawadzki, B. (2025). exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 984(1), Article L21. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d

@article{7acce956094647a2aa4ff638a7694e3b,

title = "exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks",

abstract = "Turbulent gas motions drive planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution. However, empirical constraints on turbulence are scarce, halting our understanding of its nature. Resolving signatures of the large-scale perturbations driven by disk instabilities may reveal clues on the origin of turbulence in the outer regions of planet-forming disks. We aim to predict the observational signatures of such large-scale flows, as they would appear in high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO rotational lines, such as those conducted by the exoALMA Large Program. Post-processing 3D numerical simulations, we explored the observational signatures produced by three candidate (magneto)hydrodynamical instabilities to operate in the outer regions of protoplanetary disks: the vertical shear instability (VSI), the magnetorotational instability (MRI), and the gravitational instability (GI). We found that exoALMA-quality observations should capture signatures of the large-scale motions induced by these instabilities. Mainly, flows with ring, arc, and spiral morphologies are apparent in the residuals of synthetic velocity centroid maps. A qualitative comparison between our predictions and the perturbations recovered from exoALMA data suggests the presence of two laminar disks and a scarcity of ring- and arc-like VSI signatures within the sample. Spiral features produced by the MRI or the GI are still plausible in explaining observed disk perturbations. Supporting these scenarios requires further methodically comparing the predicted perturbations and the observed disks{\textquoteright} complex dynamic structure.",

keywords = "Protoplanetary disks, Planet formation, Hydrodynamical simulations, Radiative transfer simulations",

author = "Marcelo Barraza-Alfaro and Mario Flock and William B{\'e}thune and Richard Teague and Jaehan Bae and Myriam Benisty and Gianni Cataldi and Pietro Curone and Ian Czekala and Stefano Facchini and Daniele Fasano and Misato Fukagawa and Maria Galloway-Sprietsma and Himanshi Garg and Cassandra Hall and Jane Huang and Ilee, \{John D.\} and Izquierdo, \{Andr{\'e}s F.\} and Kazuhiro Kanagawa and Koch, \{Eric W.\} and Geoffroy Lesur and Cristiano Longarini and Loomis, \{Ryan A.\} and Ryuta Orihara and Christophe Pinte and Price, \{Daniel J.\} and Giovanni Rosotti and Jochen Stadler and Gaylor Wafflard-Fernandez and Winter, \{Andrew J.\} and Lisa W{\"o}lfer and Yen, \{Hsi Wei\} and Yoshida, \{Tomohiro C.\} and Brianna Zawadzki",

note = "Funding: M.F. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 757957). J.B. acknowledges support from NASA XRP grant No. 80NSSC23K1312. M.B., D.F., J.S., and A.J.W. have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (PROTOPLANETS, grant agreement No. 101002188). Computations by D.F. and J.S. have been performed on the “Mesocentre SIGAMM” machine, hosted by Observatoire de la Cote d{\textquoteright}Azur. P.C. acknowledges support by the Italian Ministero dell{\textquoteright}Istruzione, Universit{\`a} e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012 - iALMA (CUP C52I13000140001) and by the ANID BASAL project FB210003. S.F. is funded by the European Union (ERC, UNVEIL, 101076613) and acknowledges the financial contribution from PRIN-MUR 2022YP5ACE. M.F. is supported by a grant-in-aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI: No. JP22H01274). C.H. acknowledges support from NSF AAG grant No. 2407679. J.D.I. acknowledges support from an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (ST/W004119/1) and a University Academic Fellowship from the University of Leeds. Support for A.F.I. was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51532.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. G.L. and G.W.-F. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 815559 (MHDiscs)). C.L. has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 823823 (DUSTBUSTERS) and by the UK Science and Technology research Council (STFC) via the consolidated grant ST/W000997/1. C.P. acknowledges Australian Research Council funding via FT170100040, DP18010423, DP220103767, and DP240103290. D.P. acknowledges Australian Research Council funding via DP18010423, DP220103767, and DP240103290. G.R. acknowledges funding from the Fondazione Cariplo, grant No. 2022-1217, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon Europe Research \& Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 101039651 (DiscEvol). G.W.-F. was granted access to the HPC resources of IDRIS under the allocation A0120402231 made by GENCI. A.J.W. has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No 101104656. H.-W.Y. acknowledges support from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan through grant NSTC 113-2112-M-001-035-, and from the Academia Sinica Career Development Award (AS-CDA-111-M03). T.C.Y. acknowledges support by grant-in-aid for JSPS Fellows JP23KJ1008. Support for B.Z. was provided by the Brinson Foundation.",

year = "2025",

month = may,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d",

language = "English",

volume = "984",

journal = "Astrophysical Journal Letters",

issn = "2041-8205",

publisher = "American Astronomical Society",

number = "1",

}

Barraza-Alfaro, M, Flock, M, Béthune, W, Teague, R, Bae, J, Benisty, M, Cataldi, G, Curone, P, Czekala, I, Facchini, S, Fasano, D, Fukagawa, M, Galloway-Sprietsma, M, Garg, H, Hall, C, Huang, J, Ilee, JD, Izquierdo, AF, Kanagawa, K, Koch, EW, Lesur, G, Longarini, C, Loomis, RA, Orihara, R, Pinte, C, Price, DJ, Rosotti, G, Stadler, J, Wafflard-Fernandez, G, Winter, AJ, Wölfer, L, Yen, HW, Yoshida, TC & Zawadzki, B 2025, 'exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks', Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 984, no. 1, L21. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d

TY - JOUR

T1 - exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks

AU - Barraza-Alfaro, Marcelo

AU - Flock, Mario

AU - Béthune, William

AU - Teague, Richard

AU - Bae, Jaehan

AU - Benisty, Myriam

AU - Cataldi, Gianni

AU - Curone, Pietro

AU - Czekala, Ian

AU - Facchini, Stefano

AU - Fasano, Daniele

AU - Fukagawa, Misato

AU - Galloway-Sprietsma, Maria

AU - Garg, Himanshi

AU - Hall, Cassandra

AU - Huang, Jane

AU - Ilee, John D.

AU - Izquierdo, Andrés F.

AU - Kanagawa, Kazuhiro

AU - Koch, Eric W.

AU - Lesur, Geoffroy

AU - Longarini, Cristiano

AU - Loomis, Ryan A.

AU - Orihara, Ryuta

AU - Pinte, Christophe

AU - Price, Daniel J.

AU - Rosotti, Giovanni

AU - Stadler, Jochen

AU - Wafflard-Fernandez, Gaylor

AU - Winter, Andrew J.

AU - Wölfer, Lisa

AU - Yen, Hsi Wei

AU - Yoshida, Tomohiro C.

AU - Zawadzki, Brianna

N1 - Funding: M.F. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 757957). J.B. acknowledges support from NASA XRP grant No. 80NSSC23K1312. M.B., D.F., J.S., and A.J.W. have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (PROTOPLANETS, grant agreement No. 101002188). Computations by D.F. and J.S. have been performed on the “Mesocentre SIGAMM” machine, hosted by Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur. P.C. acknowledges support by the Italian Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca through the grant Progetti Premiali 2012 - iALMA (CUP C52I13000140001) and by the ANID BASAL project FB210003. S.F. is funded by the European Union (ERC, UNVEIL, 101076613) and acknowledges the financial contribution from PRIN-MUR 2022YP5ACE. M.F. is supported by a grant-in-aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI: No. JP22H01274). C.H. acknowledges support from NSF AAG grant No. 2407679. J.D.I. acknowledges support from an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (ST/W004119/1) and a University Academic Fellowship from the University of Leeds. Support for A.F.I. was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51532.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. G.L. and G.W.-F. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 815559 (MHDiscs)). C.L. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 823823 (DUSTBUSTERS) and by the UK Science and Technology research Council (STFC) via the consolidated grant ST/W000997/1. C.P. acknowledges Australian Research Council funding via FT170100040, DP18010423, DP220103767, and DP240103290. D.P. acknowledges Australian Research Council funding via DP18010423, DP220103767, and DP240103290. G.R. acknowledges funding from the Fondazione Cariplo, grant No. 2022-1217, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research & Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 101039651 (DiscEvol). G.W.-F. was granted access to the HPC resources of IDRIS under the allocation A0120402231 made by GENCI. A.J.W. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101104656. H.-W.Y. acknowledges support from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan through grant NSTC 113-2112-M-001-035-, and from the Academia Sinica Career Development Award (AS-CDA-111-M03). T.C.Y. acknowledges support by grant-in-aid for JSPS Fellows JP23KJ1008. Support for B.Z. was provided by the Brinson Foundation.

PY - 2025/5/1

Y1 - 2025/5/1

N2 - Turbulent gas motions drive planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution. However, empirical constraints on turbulence are scarce, halting our understanding of its nature. Resolving signatures of the large-scale perturbations driven by disk instabilities may reveal clues on the origin of turbulence in the outer regions of planet-forming disks. We aim to predict the observational signatures of such large-scale flows, as they would appear in high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO rotational lines, such as those conducted by the exoALMA Large Program. Post-processing 3D numerical simulations, we explored the observational signatures produced by three candidate (magneto)hydrodynamical instabilities to operate in the outer regions of protoplanetary disks: the vertical shear instability (VSI), the magnetorotational instability (MRI), and the gravitational instability (GI). We found that exoALMA-quality observations should capture signatures of the large-scale motions induced by these instabilities. Mainly, flows with ring, arc, and spiral morphologies are apparent in the residuals of synthetic velocity centroid maps. A qualitative comparison between our predictions and the perturbations recovered from exoALMA data suggests the presence of two laminar disks and a scarcity of ring- and arc-like VSI signatures within the sample. Spiral features produced by the MRI or the GI are still plausible in explaining observed disk perturbations. Supporting these scenarios requires further methodically comparing the predicted perturbations and the observed disks’ complex dynamic structure.

AB - Turbulent gas motions drive planet formation and protoplanetary disk evolution. However, empirical constraints on turbulence are scarce, halting our understanding of its nature. Resolving signatures of the large-scale perturbations driven by disk instabilities may reveal clues on the origin of turbulence in the outer regions of planet-forming disks. We aim to predict the observational signatures of such large-scale flows, as they would appear in high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO rotational lines, such as those conducted by the exoALMA Large Program. Post-processing 3D numerical simulations, we explored the observational signatures produced by three candidate (magneto)hydrodynamical instabilities to operate in the outer regions of protoplanetary disks: the vertical shear instability (VSI), the magnetorotational instability (MRI), and the gravitational instability (GI). We found that exoALMA-quality observations should capture signatures of the large-scale motions induced by these instabilities. Mainly, flows with ring, arc, and spiral morphologies are apparent in the residuals of synthetic velocity centroid maps. A qualitative comparison between our predictions and the perturbations recovered from exoALMA data suggests the presence of two laminar disks and a scarcity of ring- and arc-like VSI signatures within the sample. Spiral features produced by the MRI or the GI are still plausible in explaining observed disk perturbations. Supporting these scenarios requires further methodically comparing the predicted perturbations and the observed disks’ complex dynamic structure.

KW - Protoplanetary disks

KW - Planet formation

KW - Hydrodynamical simulations

KW - Radiative transfer simulations

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105004239377

U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d

DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/adc42d

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105004239377

SN - 2041-8205

VL - 984

JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters

JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters

IS - 1

M1 - L21

ER -

exoALMA. XVI. Predicting signatures of large-scale turbulence in protoplanetary disks

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exoALMA. I. Science goals, project design, and data products

exoALMA. II. Data calibration and imaging pipeline

exoALMA. III. Line-intensity modeling and system property extraction from protoplanetary disks

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