From circumstellar disks to planetary systems: Observation and modeling of protoplanetary disks

Abstract

In this thesis we present the results of a high angular resolution study of the first stages of planetary formation in circumstellar accretion disks around young stars. We report mm and cm observations toward three different transitional disks around stars with masses between ~0:4 and ~ 2 M and ages between ~ 1 and ~ 10 Myr. These observations, obtained with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), have allowed us to study the thermal continuum emission of the large dust grains as well as the free-free emission from ionized gas in the disk and its surroundings. In addition, we have complemented these observations with the modeling of the dust thermal emission using self-consistent radiative transfer codes for accretion disks irradiated by its central star that calculate their temperature and density distribution, as well as the predicted dust emission.