Searching for molecular hydrogen mid-infrared emission in the circumstellar environments of Herbig Be stars (Research Note)

Context. Molecular hydrogen (H(2)) is the most abundant molecule in the circumstellar (CS) environments of young stars, and is a key element in giant planet formation. The measurement of the H(2) content provides the most direct probe of the total amount of CS gas, especially in the inner warm planet-forming regions of the disks. Aims. Most Herbig Be stars (HBes) are distant from the Sun and their nature and evolution are still debated. We therefore conducted mid-infrared observations of H(2) as a tracer of warm gas around HBes known to have gas-rich CS environments. Methods. We report a search for the H(2) S(1) emission line at 17.0348 mu m in the CS environments of 5 HBes with the high resolution spectroscopic mode of VISIR (ESO VLT Imager and Spectrometer for the mid-InfraRed). Results. No source shows evidence for H2 emission at 17.0348 mu m. Stringent 3 sigma upper limits on the integrated line fluxes are derived. Depending on the adopted temperature, limits on column densities and masses of warm gas are also estimated. These non-detections constrain the amount of warm (> 150 K) gas in the immediate CS environments of our target stars to be less than similar to 1-10 M(Jup).