Grain Growth Revealed by Multi-wavelength Analysis of Non-axisymmetric Substructures in the Protostellar Disk WL 17

Disks around protostars are the birthplace of planets. The first step toward planet formation is grain growth from ㎛-sized grains to mm/cm-sized grains in a disk, particularly in dense regions. In order to study whether grains grow and segregate at the protostellar stage, we investigate the ALMA Band 3 (3.1 mm) and 7 (0.87 mm) dust continuum observations of the protostellar disk WL 17 in ρ Ophiuchus L1688 cloud. As reported in a previous study, the Band 3 image shows substructures: a narrow ring and a large central hole. On the other hand, the Band 7 image shows different substructures: a non-axisymmetric ring and an off-center hole. The two-band observations provide a mean spectral index of 2.3, which suggests the presence of mm/cm-sized large grains. Its non-axisymmetric distribution may imply dust segregation between small and large grains. We perform radiative transfer modeling to examine the size and spatial distributions of dust grains in the WL 17 disk. The best-fit model suggests that large grains (>1 cm) exist in the disk, settling down toward the midplane, whereas small grains (~10 ㎛) well mixed with gas are distributed off-center and non-axisymmetrically in a thick layer. The low spectral index and the modeling results suggest that grains rapidly grow at the protostellar stage and that grains differently distribute depending on sizes, resulting in substructures varying with observed wavelengths. To understand the differential grain distributions and substructures, we discuss the effects of the protoplanet(s) expected inside the large hole and the possibility of gravitational instability.