Observations of Herbig Ae/Be stars with Herschel/PACS:The atomic and molecular contents of their protoplanetary discs

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 544; p. 1
• Main Authors: Meeus, G, Montesinos, B, Mendigutia, I, Kamp, I, Thi, W F, Eiroa, C, Grady, C A, Mathews, G, Sandell, G, Martin-Zaidi, C, Brittain, S, Dent, W R F, Howard, C, Menard, F, Pinte, C, Roberge, A, Vandenbussche, B, Williams, J P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2012
• Subjects: Indexing in process
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746

The authors observed a sample of 20 representative Herbig Ae/Be stars and 5 A-type debris discs with PACS onboard Herschel, as part of the GAS in Protoplanetary Systems project. The observations were done in spectroscopic mode, and cover the far-infrared lines of O I, C II, CO, CH..., H2O, and OH. The authors have a O I 63 mu m detection rate of 100% for the Herbig Ae/Be and 0% for the debris discs. They find that the stellar ultraviolet flux is the dominant excitation mechanism of O I 63 mu m, with the highest line fluxes being found in objects with a large amount of flaring and among the largest PAH strengths. Finally, they use a combination of the O I 63 mu m and ... line fluxes to obtain order of magnitude estimates of the disc gas masses, in agreement with the values that they find from detailed modelling of two Herbig Ae/Be stars, HD 163296 and HD 169142. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)