Tracing Planet Formation Through Protoplanetary Disk Continuum Emission

Tracing Planet Formation Through Protoplanetary Disk Continuum Emission

Over the past 15 years, ALMA has revealed substructures such as rings, gaps, and asymmetries in the dust continuum emission of protoplanetary disks, often read as signatures of ongoing planet formation. This same dust is also the building block from which planets are made. In this talk, I will look at both sides of this picture: disk structure can point to where planets might be forming, while dust grain properties can inform us about the material itself. Starting from large, bright disks, I will move down to the smallest disks (under 10 au) and disks around low-mass objects, where substructures remain surprisingly common. I then turn to multiwavelength continuum analysis, constraining dust grain properties with increasing detail: first averaged over the whole disk, then resolved along the disk radius, and finally with a new two-dimensional approach that maps grain properties within spiral arms.

Sebastián López
Coordinador de Coloquios
DAS/UChile – slopez@das.uchile.cl