exoALMA. XXI. The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows

Abstract Vertical gas flows—such as winds and meridional circulations—are natural outcomes of protoplanetary disk processes and play a critical role in the earliest stages of planet formation. We analyze the vertical gas motions in 14 disks, as part of the exoALMA Large Program, focusing on the 12 CO J = 3–2 and 13 CO J = 3–2 emission lines. Using discminer to model the Keplerian velocity field, we extract line-of-sight velocity residuals and measure the radial and vertical components of the gas motion. Vertical motions are detected in most disks. Two types of patterns emerge: (1) oscillatory up/down flows, likely linked to instabilities; and (2) transitions from downward to upward motions that we interpret as the bases of disk winds. In most cases, the velocity amplitudes are of a few tens of m s −1 . However, two disks, MWC758 and CQ Tau, show two spiral velocity features in their residual maps, red- and blueshifted, which we interpret as vertical velocities reaching up to ∼350 m s −1 (∼0.7 c s ), consistent with the gas motion in eccentric disks. Fast upward motions (up to 500 m s −1 ; ∼1.8 c s ) are also detected in the outer disk of MWC758. Synthetic observations from (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations validate the reliability of our method. Although strong molecular winds appear to be relatively rare in 12 CO and 13 CO, our study shows that, when traced by deep high-spectral-resolution line data, protoplanetary disks exhibit ubiquitous vertical flows. However, their overall velocity structure is highly complex, preventing the identification of a coherent dominant physical mechanism driving the vertical motions across all disks, thus requiring further theoretical investigation.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Published
2026-03-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae360e
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
47.65
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article

exoALMA. XXI. The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows

Maria Galloway-Sprietsma, T. Yoshida, Brianna Zawadzki, D. J. Price et al.
2 citations
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
47.65
article

exoALMA. XXI. The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows

Maria Galloway-Sprietsma, T. Yoshida, Brianna Zawadzki, D. J. Price, Lisa Wölfer, J. Bae, Andrew J. Winter, Misato Fukagawa, Hsi-Wei Yen, Gianni Cataldi, Sean M. Andrews, Richard Teague, Ryuta Orihara, Ryan A. Loomis, Gaylor Wafflard-Fernandez, Jane Huang, Kazuhiro Kanagawa, John D. Ilee, C. Pinte, Marcelo Barraza-Alfaro, Jensen Lawrence, Cristiano Longarini, Andrés F. Izquierdo, Pietro Curone, Daniele Fasano, Geoffroy Lesur, Ian Czekala, Jochen Stadler, H.P. Garg, G. Lodato, Mario Flock, Stefano Facchini, David J. Wilner, Giovanni Rosotti, Myriam Benisty, François Ménard
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Abstract Vertical gas flows—such as winds and meridional circulations—are natural outcomes of protoplanetary disk processes and play a critical role in the earliest stages of planet formation. We analyze the vertical gas motions in 14 disks, as part of the exoALMA Large Program, focusing on the 12 CO J = 3–2 and 13 CO J = 3–2 emission lines. Using discminer to model the Keplerian velocity field, we extract line-of-sight velocity residuals and measure the radial and vertical components of the gas motion. Vertical motions are detected in most disks. Two types of patterns emerge: (1) oscillatory up/down flows, likely linked to instabilities; and (2) transitions from downward to upward motions that we interpret as the bases of disk winds. In most cases, the velocity amplitudes are of a few tens of m s −1 . However, two disks, MWC758 and CQ Tau, show two spiral velocity features in their residual maps, red- and blueshifted, which we interpret as vertical velocities reaching up to ∼350 m s −1 (∼0.7 c s ), consistent with the gas motion in eccentric disks. Fast upward motions (up to 500 m s −1 ; ∼1.8 c s ) are also detected in the outer disk of MWC758. Synthetic observations from (magneto)hydrodynamic simulations validate the reliability of our method. Although strong molecular winds appear to be relatively rare in 12 CO and 13 CO, our study shows that, when traced by deep high-spectral-resolution line data, protoplanetary disks exhibit ubiquitous vertical flows. However, their overall velocity structure is highly complex, preventing the identification of a coherent dominant physical mechanism driving the vertical motions across all disks, thus requiring further theoretical investigation.

The Astrophysical Journal LettersVol. 1000(1)
Wesleyan University (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Leeds (GB), Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (TW), Queen Mary University of London (GB), University of St Andrews (GB), University of Milan (IT), The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI (JP), Tohoku University (JP), University of Cambridge (GB), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US), University of Florida (US), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), Monash University (AU), Ibaraki University (JP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), University of Chile (CL), The University of Tokyo (JP), Columbia University (US), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
47.65
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