Understanding the spectra of isolated Herbig stars in the frame of a passive disk model

Abstract

We discuss spectral energy distributions of a sample of Herbig Ae/Be stars in the context of a passive irradiated disk model. The data have been presented earlier by Meeus et al (2001), and preliminary interpretations of these data were given in that paper. While the spectra of Herbig Ae stars all show similarities, there is significant variation between the spectra, in particular in the shape of the mid-IR rise and in the presence or absence of a silicate feature. We explore the hypothesis that all these different spectra can be interpreted as pure disk spectra without additional components. Using the model of Dullemond, Dominik and Natta (2001) we deduce the disk parameters of a number of the sources, and find that for a large fraction of investigated sources, satisfactory fits can be obtained. The derived model parameters show that some group Ia sources can only be fit with radially increasing surface densities, indicating the presence of depleted inner disk regions. The steep-sloped SEDs of group IIa sources can be fit with very compact disks, probably representing disks with collapsed outer regions. The largest difficulties arise from sources that do not show significant silicate emission features. Our attempts to explain these objects with a pure geometric effect are only partially successful. It seems that these stars indeed require a strong depletion of small silicate grains.