Where is the warm H₂? A search for H₂ emission from disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars

C. Martin-Zaïdi (1) , J.-C. Augereau (1) , F. Ménard (1) , J. Olofsson , A. Carmona , C. Pinte (1) , E. Habart

1 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

Context. Mid-infrared (mid-IR) emission lines of molecular hydrogen (H-2) are useful probes to determine the mass of warm gas present in the surface layers of circumstellar disks. In the past years, numerous observations of Herbig Ae/Be stars (HAeBes) have been performed, but only two detections of H-2 mid-IR emission toward HD 97048 and AB Aur have been reported. Aims. We aim at tracing the warm gas in the circumstellar environment of five additional HAeBes with gas-rich environments and/or physical characteristics close to those of AB Aur and/or HD 97048, to discuss whether the detections toward these two objects are suggestive of peculiar conditions for the observed gas. Methods. We search for the H-2 S(1) emission line at 17.035 mu m using high-resolution mid-IR spectra obtained with VLT/VISIR, and complemented by CH molecule observations with VLT/UVES. We gather the H-2 measurements from the literature to put the new results in context and search for a correlation with some disk properties. Results. None of the five VISIR targets shows evidence for H-2 emission at 17.035 mu m. From the 3 sigma upper limits on the integrated line fluxes we constrain the amount of optically thin warm (>150 K) gas to be less than similar to 1.4 M-Jup in the disk surface layers. There are now 20 HAeBes observed with VISIR and TEXES instruments to search for warm H-2, but only two detections (HD 97048 and AB Aur) were made so far. We find that the two stars with detected warm H-2 show at the same time high 30/13 mu m flux ratios and large PAH line fluxes at 8.6 and 11.3 mu m compared to the bulk of observed HAeBes and have emission CO lines detected at 4.7 mu m. We detect the CH 4300.3 angstrom absorption line toward both HD 97048 and AB Aur with UVES. The CH to H-2 abundance ratios that this would imply if it were to arise from the same component as well as the radial velocity of the CH lines both suggest that CH arises from a surrounding envelope, while the detected H-2 would reside in the disk. Conclusions. The two detections of the S(1) line in the disks of HD 97048 and AB Aur suggest either peculiar physical conditions or a particular stage of evolution. New instruments such as Herschel / PACS should bring significant new data for the constraints of thermodynamics in young disks by observing the gas and the dust simultaneously.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

C. Martin-Zaïdi, J.-C. Augereau, F. Ménard, J. Olofsson, A. Carmona, et al.. Where is the warm H₂? A search for H₂ emission from disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2010, 516, pp.A110. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/200913776⟩. ⟨hal-00631894⟩