ALMA Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks I: Dust and Gas Masses

Abstract

We present the first high-resolution sub-mm survey of both dust and gas for a large population of protoplanetary disks. Characterizing fundamental properties of protoplanetary disks on a statistical level is critical to understanding how disks evolve into the diverse exoplanet population. We use ALMA to survey 89 protoplanetary disks around stars with M>0.1~M in the young (1--3~Myr), nearby (150--200~pc) Lupus complex. Our observations cover the 890~μm continuum and the 13CO and C18O 3--2 lines. We use the sub-mm continuum to constrain M dust to a few Martian masses (0.2--0.4~M) and the CO isotopologue lines to constrain M gas to roughly a Jupiter mass (assuming ISM-like [CO]/[H2] abundance). Of 89 sources, we detect 62 in continuum, 36 in 13CO, and 11 in C18O at >3σ significance. Stacking individually undetected sources limits their average dust mass to 6 Lunar masses (0.03~M), indicating rapid evolution once disk clearing begins. We find a positive correlation between M dust and M, and present the first evidence for a positive correlation between M gas and M, which may explain the dependence of giant planet frequency on host star mass. The mean dust mass in Lupus is 3× higher than in Upper Sco, while the dust mass distributions in Lupus and Taurus are statistically indistinguishable. Most detected disks have M gas1~M Jup and gas-to-dust ratios <100, assuming ISM-like [CO]/[H2] abundance; unless CO is very depleted, the inferred gas depletion indicates that planet formation is well underway by a few Myr and may explain the unexpected prevalence of super-Earths in the exoplanet population.

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