Radial Variations in Grain Sizes and Dust Scale Heights in the Protoplanetary Disk around HD 163296 Revealed by ALMA Polarization Observations

Abstract

Abstract The disk of HD 163296 shows ring and gap substructures in observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. In addition, this is the only disk where the rings and gaps are spatially resolved in millimeter-wave polarization measurements. In this paper, we conduct radiative transfer modeling that includes self-scattering polarization to constrain the grain size and its distribution. We found that the grain size and dust scale height are the key parameters for reproducing the radial and azimuthal distributions of the observed polarization signature. Radial variation is mainly determined by grain size. The polarization fraction is high if the particle size is ∼λ/2π; it is low if the particle size is larger or smaller than this. In contrast, azimuthal variation in polarization is enhanced if the dust scale height is increased. Based on detailed modeling of the polarization of HD 163296, we found the following radial variations in the grain size and dust scale height. The maximum grain size was 140 μm in the gaps and significantly larger or smaller in the rings. The dust scale height is less than one-third of the gas scale height inside the 70 au ring, and two-thirds of it outside. Furthermore, we constrained the gas turbulence to be α ≲ 1.5 × 10−3 in the 50 au gap and α ∼ 0.015–0.3 in the 90 au gap. The transition in the turbulence strength at the boundary of the 70 au ring indicates the existence of a dead zone.