Rachel AKESON : Michelson Science Center, Caltech
Studying inner disk properties with infrared interferometry
Optical and infrared interferometry are ideal for studying the small scale characteristics of young stars and their circumstellar material. Early observations with this technique of Herbig Ae/Be, T Tauri and FU Ori stars measured the spatial size of the hot inner edge of the circumstellar disks surrounding these objects and revealed larger than predicted sizes. These results were part of the observational motivation for modified circumstellar disk models in which the inner edge of the dust disk is located at the dust sublimation radius and is vertically extended. I will present recent results from the Keck Interferometer which extend these observations to a much larger sample of objects in both mass and luminosity.Last modified: Sun Jul 9 17:24:31 2006