2009A&A...500.1065D

We aim at using the long baselines of the VLT Interferometer and the mid-IR combiner MIDI (8-13µm) to derive the morphology of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the Herbig Ae star AB Aurigae We present the first N-band analysis of AB Aur performed with a maximum angular resolution of 17mas (2.5AU at the Taurus-Auriga distance). We used the radiative transfer code MC3D and a silicate-dominated dust grain mixture to fit the spectral energy distribution (SED), together with the N-band dispersed visibilities (λ/δλ∼30) and to constrain the inner-disk spatial structure. The silicate band is prominent in the ∼300mas FOV of the MIDI instrument, the emission reaches 70 to 90% of the total flux measured by ISO. The circumstellar emission (CSE) is resolved even at the shortest baselines. The spectrally dispersed visibilities show a steep drop between 8 and 9.5µm, followed by a plateau between 10 and 13µm. Our modelling shows that the observed SED and visibilities can be reproduced with a simple passive disk model. For such a weakly inclined disk (i∼30deg), the mid-IR visibilities can directly determine the flaring index, while the scale height can be subsequently and unambiguously derived from the combination of the spectral and interferometric constraints. The modelling yields typical values for the scale height of about 8AU at a radial distance of 100AU and a flaring index in the range 1.25-1.30 for the explored range of model input parameters. The radial structure of the circumstellar inner disk around AB Aur is directly determined by MIDI. The radiative transfer modelling demonstrates the powerful synergy of interferometry and spectro-photometry to alleviate the degeneracy, which may hamper determining the disk morphology. Our analysis supports the classification of AB Aur among the flared disks of the first group in the Meeus classification.