An analysis of the Herbig star population and their protoplanetary disks within 1 kpc

@article{l2026analysis,
  title = {{An analysis of the Herbig star population and their protoplanetary disks within 1 kpc}},
  author = {Stapper L. M. and Vioque M. and Winter A. J. and Wilner D. J. and Williams J. P. and Benisty M. and Booth A. S. and Grant S. L. and Hogerheijde M. R.},
  journal = {Astronomy \& Astrophysics},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202661132},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202661132},
  note = {CC BY},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - An analysis of the Herbig star population and their protoplanetary disks within 1 kpc
AU  - Stapper L. M.
AU  - Vioque M.
AU  - Winter A. J.
AU  - Wilner D. J.
AU  - Williams J. P.
AU  - Benisty M.
AU  - Booth A. S.
AU  - Grant S. L.
AU  - Hogerheijde M. R.
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
JO  - Astronomy & Astrophysics
DO  - 10.1051/0004-6361/202661132
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202661132
AB  - Context. Herbig stars are intermediate mass pre-main sequence stars of 1.5 to ∼15 M⊙ and are between low- and high-mass star formation. Despite the giant exoplanet occurrence rate peaking at intermediate mass stars, a systematic analysis of the complete known Herbig star and protoplanetary disk population is lacking. Aims. This work provides a catalog of all 243 known bona fide Herbig stars with clear infrared excess and in many cases accretion signatures within 1 kpc. It contains archival, recalibrated, and newly derived stellar parameters, accretion rate properties, and disk dust mass measurements. With these, we aim to examine the Herbig star relationship between the accretion rate and the stellar and disk dust mass, get an estimate for the completeness of our catalog, and obtain an estimate of the lifetime of a Herbig star. These relationships and disk dust masses are put into the context of T Tauri stars and the giant exoplanet population. Methods. We revised the stellar masses, radii, and ages using a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, and computed new accretion rates for part of our sample. We derived dust masses for all targets using a combination of newly obtained millimeter photometry (60% of the targets) and literature values, from a combination of ALMA, ACA, SMA, and NOEMA data. Results. We find that 50% of Herbig dust disks are more massive than 10 M⊕, while this is only true for 20% and 5% of the T Tauri disks in Lupus and Upper Scorpius, respectively. Furthermore, the Herbig disk dust mass distribution is bimodal; it consists of a high and low disk mass population with a mean dust mass of 21 M⊕ and 0.45 M⊕, respectively. We find that the catalog is near complete for within 300 pc, however, this decreases to 24% out to 1 kpc. We also find a decreasing Herbig lifetime with increasing stellar mass of the form t = 12 × M⋆−1.4 Myr. The bulk of the Herbig disks are above the T Tauri accretion rate-disk mass relationship, and we observe a flat relation for Herbig disks due to objects with short disk lifetimes, caused by a combination of low disk masses and high accretion rates. Furthermore, we find the peak of the occurrence rate of massive (>10 M⊕) disks to occur at ∼1–2 M⊙ stars, which coincides with the peak in occurrence rate of giant exoplanets. For higher stellar masses, the disk dust mass decreases again. Conclusions. This catalog characterizes intermediate mass star formation, and links massive disks to the occurrence rate of giant exoplanets. The scarcity of Herbig stars with low accretion rates (<10−8 M⊙ yr−1) or disk masses (≲1 M⊕), combined with the lack of disk dust mass age dependence, suggests that the observed Herbig star population represents the surviving disk-hosting phase in late intermediate mass star formation. We attribute this survival to deep dust traps, late-infall replenishment, or a combination of the two.
SN  - 0004-6361
SN  - 1432-0746
ER  -