Missing Outer Rings in the exoALMA Sample: Physical Mechanisms Suppressing Dust Ring Formation Despite Strong Pressure Bumps
- 1Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London , Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT ,
- 2European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München ,
Abstract
The exoALMA survey has revealed candidate gas pressure bumps at radii beyond the observed millimetre continuum discs in several protoplanetary systems, raising the question of whether these regions could host undetected dust structures. We investigate this for nine of the exoALMA discs by reconstructing gas surface density profiles from midplane pressure gradient measurements derived from 12CO and 13CO ALMA Band 7 observations. We evolve the dust using dustpy across a grid of turbulence and fragmentation parameters (α ∈ {10−4, 10−3}; vfrag ∈ {1, 10} m s−1), followed by radiative transfer calculations with radmc-3d to give predictions for the continuum emission. We find that the dominant outcome across the explored parameter space is efficient outer dust trapping, leading to prominent outer continuum rings that should be detectable at ALMA Band 7, in tension with the observations. The 13CO-based reconstructions almost universally produce detectable outer rings, whereas the 12CO-based reconstructions show more variation. We further test delayed formation of the outer pressure bump and enhanced outer-disc turbulence as possible suppression mechanisms of ring formation. Enhanced turbulence weakens the predicted outer continuum emission most effectively, although the efficiency of the mechanism depends on the system explored and on where the turbulence transition is placed. Delayed bump formation generally does not prevent rapid outer dust accumulation.
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BibTeX
@article{luo2026missing,
title = {{Missing Outer Rings in the exoALMA Sample: Physical Mechanisms Suppressing Dust Ring Formation Despite Strong Pressure Bumps}},
author = {Lilian Luo and Paola Pinilla and Jochen Stadler},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag2109},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2109/9013663},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Missing Outer Rings in the exoALMA Sample: Physical Mechanisms Suppressing Dust Ring Formation Despite Strong Pressure Bumps
AU - Lilian Luo
AU - Paola Pinilla
AU - Jochen Stadler
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stag2109
UR - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2109/9013663
AB - The exoALMA survey has revealed candidate gas pressure bumps at radii beyond the observed millimetre continuum discs in several protoplanetary systems, raising the question of whether these regions could host undetected dust structures. We investigate this for nine of the exoALMA discs by reconstructing gas surface density profiles from midplane pressure gradient measurements derived from 12CO and 13CO ALMA Band 7 observations. We evolve the dust using dustpy across a grid of turbulence and fragmentation parameters (α ∈ {10−4, 10−3}; vfrag ∈ {1, 10} m s−1), followed by radiative transfer calculations with radmc-3d to give predictions for the continuum emission. We find that the dominant outcome across the explored parameter space is efficient outer dust trapping, leading to prominent outer continuum rings that should be detectable at ALMA Band 7, in tension with the observations. The 13CO-based reconstructions almost universally produce detectable outer rings, whereas the 12CO-based reconstructions show more variation. We further test delayed formation of the outer pressure bump and enhanced outer-disc turbulence as possible suppression mechanisms of ring formation. Enhanced turbulence weakens the predicted outer continuum emission most effectively, although the efficiency of the mechanism depends on the system explored and on where the turbulence transition is placed. Delayed bump formation generally does not prevent rapid outer dust accumulation.
SN - 0035-8711
SN - 1365-2966
ER -