Dissertation

A Herbig disk view of planet formation

In the past decade many population studies have been performed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to understand the bulk properties of protoplanetary disks around young stars. These population studies mostly consisted of low mass stars, with relatively few of the disks around the more massive Herbig stars, even though the latter are important formation sites of giant exoplanets.

Author: L.M. Stapper
Date: 16 October 2024
Links: Thesis in Leiden Repository

This thesis presents the first systematic view of Herbig disks at millimeter wavelengths, and compares these results to the population of disks around lower mass stars. This thesis obtains the dust and gas mass of Herbig disks and their precursors, compares these values to the accretion rates of their stars, computes their vertical structure, and obtains the first complete millimeter study of Herbig disks in a single star-forming region. The results of this thesis have laid an important foundation for future research, especially for obtaining a full sample of the Herbig disk population and for detailed chemical and high-resolution follow-up studies.