Abstract

The carbon abundance in the Sun and other Solar System objects differs. Improving measurements will soon provide similar comparisons for extrasolar planets and their stars. To understand the origin of planetary and stellar abundance differences, and to relate the abundance pattern of a planet to its formation history, we must study the gas and solid budget of carbon in protoplanetary disks. Some of the best probes of gaseous carbon in disks are lines of atomic carbon and carbon monoxide. We present the results of an APEX survey of [CI] and CO towards several dozen disks. Comparing with models created with the DALI code (Bruderer et al.), we confirm trends of a low volatile carbon abundance on large radial scales. We also present the first deep follow-up observations of [CI], aiming to provide the first confident detections of atomic carbon in disks. We also show the first analysis of C2H follow-up data.

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