Resolving and probing the circumstellar disk of the Herbig Ae star MWC 480 at 1.4 mm: Evolved dust?

Abstract

We present high resolution 0.45" x 0.32" observations from the BIMA array toward the Herbig Ae system MWC 480 in the lambda = 1.4 mm dust continuum. We resolve a circumstellar disk of radius ~170 AU and constrain the disk parameters by comparing the observations to flat disk models. These results show that the typical fit parameters of the disk, such as the mass, Md ~ 0.04-0.18 Mo, and the surface density power law index, p=0.5 or 1, are comparable to those of the lower mass T Tauri stars. The dust in the MWC 480 disk can be modeled as processed dust material (beta ~ 0.8), similar to the Herbig Ae star CQ Tau disk; the fitted disk parameters are also consistent with less-evolved dust (beta ~ 1.2). The possibility of grain growth in the MWC 480 circumstellar disk is supported by the acceptable fits with beta ~ 0.8. The surface density power-law profiles of p=0.5 and p=1 can be easily fit to the MWC 480 disk; however, a surface density power-law profile similiar to the minimum mass solar nebula model p=1.5 is ruled out at an 80% confidence level.