CO is an important component of a protoplanetary disc as it is one of the most abundant gas phase species. Furthermore, observations of CO transitions can be used as a diagnostic of the gas,... Show moreCO is an important component of a protoplanetary disc as it is one of the most abundant gas phase species. Furthermore, observations of CO transitions can be used as a diagnostic of the gas, tracing conditions in both the inner and outer disc. We present Herschel/PACS spectroscopy of a sample of 22 Herbig Ae/Be (HAEBEs) and eight T Tauri stars (TTS), covering the pure rotational CO transitions from J = 14 { arr} 13 up to J = 49 { arr} 48. CO is detected in only five HAEBEs, namely AB Aur, HD 36112, HD 97048, HD 100546, and IRS 48, and in four TTS, namely AS 205, S CrA, RU Lup, and DG Tau. The highest transition detected is J = 36 { arr} 35 with E$_{up}$ of 3669 K, seen in HD 100546 and DG Tau. We construct rotational diagrams for the discs with at least three CO detections to derive T$_{rot}$ and find average temperatures of 270 K for the HAEBEs and 485 K for the TTS. The HD 100546 star requires an extra temperature component at T$_{rot}$ ~{} 900-1000 K, suggesting a range of temperatures in its disc atmosphere, which is consistent with thermo-chemical disc models. In HAEBEs, the objects with CO detections all have flared discs in which the gas and dust are thermally decoupled. We use a small model grid to analyse our observations and find that an increased amount of flaring means higher line flux, as it increases the mass in warm gas. CO is not detected in our flat discs as the emission is below the detection limit. We find that HAEBE sources with CO detections have high L$_{UV}$ and strong PAH emission, which is again connected to the heating of the gas. In TTS, the objects with CO detections are all sources with evidence of a disc wind or outflow. For both groups of objects, sources with CO detections generally have high UV luminosity (either stellar in HAEBEs or due to accretion in TTS), but this is not a sufficient condition for the detection of the far-IR CO lines. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgShow less
The Herschel Space Observatory was used to observe ~{}120 pre-main-sequence stars in Taurus as part of the GASPS Open Time Key project. Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer was used to... Show moreThe Herschel Space Observatory was used to observe ~{}120 pre-main-sequence stars in Taurus as part of the GASPS Open Time Key project. Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer was used to measure the continuum as well as several gas tracers such as [O I] 63 {$μ$}m, [O I] 145 {$μ$}m, [C II] 158 {$μ$}m, OH, H$_{2}$O, and CO. The strongest line seen is [O I] at 63 {$μ$}m. We find a clear correlation between the strength of the [O I] 63 {$μ$}m line and the 63 {$μ$}m continuum for disk sources. In outflow sources, the line emission can be up to 20 times stronger than in disk sources, suggesting that the line emission is dominated by the outflow. The tight correlation seen for disk sources suggests that the emission arises from the inner disk ({lt}50 AU) and lower surface layers of the disk where the gas and dust are coupled. The [O I] 63 {$μ$}m is fainter in transitional stars than in normal Class II disks. Simple spectral energy distribution models indicate that the dust responsible for the continuum emission is colder in these disks, leading to weaker line emission. [C II] 158 {$μ$}m emission is only detected in strong outflow sources. The observed line ratios of [O I] 63 {$μ$}m to [O I] 145 {$μ$}m are in the regime where we are insensitive to the gas-to-dust ratio, neither can we discriminate between shock or photodissociation region emission. We detect no Class III object in [O I] 63 {$μ$}m and only three in continuum, at least one of which is a candidate debris disk. Show less