Oral Presentation

The large scale asymmetric structures in recent ALMA observations of transitional disks

Author(s): Ruobing Dong (Berkeley / ASIAA)

Presenter: Ruobing Dong (Berkeley / ASIAA)

Transitional disks are protoplanetary disks with central depleted regions (cavities), possibly been cleared out by the forming planets. Their existence was first suggested by the SED of these disks, and subsequently confirmed by directly resolving the cavities at mm and near infrared wavelengths. Recently, mm interferometric observations of several transitional disks using ALMA have showed large scale azimuthally asymmetric structures in some disks, with contrast ratio up to 100:1 on two sides of the disks. I am going to introduce the basic observational facts of this recent discovery, and go through some of the possible mechanisms with the audience.