ALMA SURVEY OF LUPUS PROTOPLANETARY DISKS. I. DUST AND GAS MASSES

Abstract

We present the first high-resolution sub-millimeter 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 the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) to survey 89 protoplanetary disks around stars with 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-millimeter continuum to constrain to a few Martian masses (0.2–0.4 M _⊕) and the CO isotopologue lines to constrain to roughly a Jupiter mass (assuming an interstellar medium (ISM)-like abundance). Of 89 sources, we detect 62 in continuum, 36 in ¹³CO, and 11 in C¹⁸O at significance. Stacking individually undetected sources limits their average dust mass to Lunar masses (0.03 M _⊕), indicating rapid evolution once disk clearing begins. We find a positive correlation between and M _*, and present the first evidence for a positive correlation between 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 and gas-to-dust ratios , assuming an ISM-like 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.