Dynamical Masses of Young Stars Inferred from Two Transitions of CO with ALMA

Abstract

Abstract Stellar masses are fundamental but often difficult to measure. Thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Gaia, dynamical masses of pre-main sequence stars can be precisely measured using the Keplerian rotation of protoplanetary disks. We used ALMA CO(2−1) and CO(3−2) observations of CT Cha and DS Tau to determine their masses by modeling the geometry, kinematics, and physical properties of their disks with a Bayesian-based radiative transfer modeling code (pdspy). We found that the posterior distributions of the masses from the two transitions are inconsistent at the 2–4σ level. These systematic errors may originate from assumptions in the disk model, or perhaps the modest spatial or spectral resolutions used in this study. Regardless, this indicates that dynamical mass measurements using disk kinematics should be treated with caution when using only a single transition line because of these systematic errors.