A survey for circumstellar disks around young stellar objects

Results are presented from a survey for 1.3 mm radiation toward 86 stars in the Taurus-Auriga dark clouds, including classical T Tauri stars, stars in T associations, and a few weak emission-line stars or naked T Tauri stars. The results show that 42 percent of the stars have detectable emission from small particles. The aggregate particle masses are found to be between 0.00001 and 0.01 solar mass, suggesting total disk masses between 0.001 and 1 solar mass. For several source between 1.3 and 2.7 mm, the spectral indices indicate that the particle emissivities are weaker functions of frequency, compared to the usual case of interstellar grains. Particle growth via adhesion in the dense disks is proposed to explain this result. The results show that disks more massive than the minimum mass of the protosolar system commonly accompany the birth of solar-mass stars, indicating that planetary systems are probably common in the Galaxy. 59 refs