Sulfur Monoxide as a Key Tracer in Protoplanetary Disks: Insights from AB Aurigae

Recent research has highlighted the role of sulfur monoxide (SO) as a significant tracer of shock waves in protoplanetary disks, particularly in the case of the AB Aurigae system. The study, conducted by A. Dutrey and colleagues, utilized archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to analyze SO emissions in the disk surrounding AB Aurigae, a Herbig Ae star located approximately 156 parsecs away.

The findings indicate that the maximum SO emission does not occur within the dust trap of the disk, which is a notable feature of the AB Aurigae system. Instead, the SO emission is observed to trace gas that exists beyond the dust ring, suggesting that it may originate from shock interactions at the boundaries of the disk's spiral structures. Additionally, SO was detected within the cavity of the disk, at a radius of approximately 20-30 astronomical units, with rotation velocities consistent with a potential proto-planet orbiting the star.

This research confirms that SO is an effective tracer for identifying shocks in protoplanetary disks and suggests its potential utility in detecting embedded proto-planets. The implications of these findings are significant for our understanding of planet formation processes, as they provide a new method for observing and studying the dynamics within protoplanetary disks.

The study can be referenced as: Dutrey, A., Chapillon, E., Guilloteau, S., Tang, Y.W., Boccaletti, A., Bouscasse, L., Collin-Dufresne, T., Di Folco, E., Fuente, A., Piétu, V., Rivière-Marichalar, P., Semenov, D. (2024). SO as shock tracer in protoplanetary disks: the AB Aurigae case. arXiv:2408.14276.