Detecting T Tauri disks with optical long-baseline interferometry

Abstract

We present synthetic images of disks around T Tauri stars. We calculate visibility curves in order to study the possibility of directly detecting thermal emission from T Tauri disks. Total fluxes of T Tauri disks are compared to the sensitivity of VISA, the interferometric sub-array of the European Very Large Telescope. We conclude that thermal emission from circumstellar disk around T Tauri stars is detectable with current or soon-to-be interferometric techniques at wavelengths longer than 2.2 microns.