Searching for H2 emission from protoplanetary disks using near- and mid-infrared high-resolution spectroscopy

The mass and dynamics of protoplanetary disks are dominated by molecular hydrogen (H₂). However, observationally very little is known about the H₂. In this paper, we discuss two projects aimed to constrain the properties of H₂ in the disk's planet forming region (R<50AU). First, we present a sensitive survey for pure-rotational H₂ emission at 12.278 and 17.035 μm in a sample of nearby Herbig Ae/Be and T Tauri stars using VISIR, ESO's VLT high-resolution mid-infrared spectrograph. Second, we report on a search for H₂ ro-vibrational emission at 2.1228, 2.2233 and 2.2477 μm in the classical T Tauri star LkHα 264 and the debris disk 49 Cet employing CRIRES, ESO's VLT high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph.