Stellar Winds and Dust Avalanches in the AU Mic Debris Disk
Authors:
Chiang et al
Abstract:
We explain the fast-moving, ripple-like features in the edge-on debris disk orbiting the young M dwarf AU Mic. The bright features are clouds of submicron dust repelled by the host star's wind. The clouds are produced by avalanches: radial outflows of dust that gain exponentially more mass as they shatter background disk particles in collisional chain reactions. The avalanches are triggered from a region a few au across—the "avalanche zone"—located on AU Mic's primary "birth" ring at a true distance of ~35 au from the star but at a projected distance more than a factor of 10 smaller: the avalanche zone sits directly along the line of sight to the star, on the side of the ring nearest Earth, launching clouds that disk rotation sends wholly to the southeast, as observed. The avalanche zone marks where the primary ring intersects a secondary ring of debris left by the catastrophic disruption of a progenitor up to Varuna in size, less than tens of thousands of years ago. Only where the rings intersect are particle collisions sufficiently violent to spawn the submicron dust needed to seed the avalanches. We show that this picture works quantitatively, reproducing the masses, sizes, and velocities of the observed escaping clouds. The Lorentz force exerted by the wind's magnetic field, whose polarity reverses periodically according to the stellar magnetic cycle, promises to explain the observed vertical undulations. The timescale between avalanches, about 10 yr, might be set by time variability of the wind mass loss rate or, more speculatively, by some self-regulating limit cycle.
Constraints on Planetesimal Collision Models in Debris Disks
Authors:
MacGregor et al
Abstract:
Observations of debris disks offer a window into the physical and dynamical properties of planetesimals in extrasolar systems through the size distribution of dust grains. In particular, the millimeter spectral index of thermal dust emission encodes information on the grain size distribution. We have made new VLA observations of a sample of seven nearby debris disks at 9 mm, with 3" resolution and ∼5 μJy/beam rms. We combine these with archival ATCA observations of eight additional debris disks observed at 7 mm, together with up-to-date observations of all disks at (sub)millimeter wavelengths from the literature to place tight constraints on the millimeter spectral indices and thus grain size distributions. The analysis gives a weighted mean for the slope of the power law grain size distribution, n(a)∝a−q, of ⟨q⟩=3.36±0.02, with a possible trend of decreasing q for later spectral type stars. We compare our results to a range of theoretical models of collisional cascades, from the standard self-similar, steady-state size distribution (q=3.5) to solutions that incorporate more realistic physics such as alternative velocity distributions and material strengths, the possibility of a cutoff at small dust sizes from radiation pressure, as well as results from detailed dynamical calculations of specific disks. Such effects can lead to size distributions consistent with the data, and plausibly the observed scatter in spectral indices. For the AU Mic system, the VLA observations show clear evidence of a highly variable stellar emission component; this stellar activity obviates the need to invoke the presence of an asteroid belt to explain the previously reported compact millimeter source in this system.
The AU Mic Debris Disk: far-infrared and submillimeter resolved imaging
Authors:
Matthews et al
Abstract:
We present far-infrared and submillimeter maps from the Herschel Space Observatory and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope of the debris disk host star AU Microscopii. Disk emission is detected at 70, 160, 250, 350, 450, 500 and 850 micron. The disk is resolved at 70, 160 and 450 micron. In addition to the planetesimal belt, we detect thermal emission from AU Mic's halo for the first time. In contrast to the scattered light images, no asymmetries are evident in the disk. The fractional luminosity of the disk is 3.9×10−4 and its mm-grain dust mass is 0.01 MEarth (+/- 20%). We create a simple spatial model that reconciles the disk SED as a blackbody of 53 +/- 2 K (a composite of 39 and 50 K components) and the presence of small (non-blackbody) grains which populate the extended halo. The best fit model is consistent with the "birth ring" model explored in earlier works, i.e., an edge-on dust belt extending from 8.8-40 AU, but with an additional halo component with an r−1.5 surface density profile extending to the limits of sensitivity (140 AU). We confirm that AU Mic does not exert enough radiation force to blow out grains. For stellar mass loss rates of 10-100x solar, compact (zero porosity) grains can only be removed if they are very small, consistently with previous work, if the porosity is 0.9, then grains approaching 0.1 micron can be removed via corpuscular forces (i.e., the stellar wind).
Gemini Planet Imager Observations of the AU Microscopii Debris Disk: Asymmetries within One Arcsecond
Authors:
Wang et al
Abstract:
We present Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) observations of AU Microscopii, a young M dwarf with an edge-on, dusty debris disk. Integral field spectroscopy and broadband imaging polarimetry were obtained during the commissioning of GPI. In our broadband imaging polarimetry observations, we detect the disk only in total intensity and find asymmetries in the morphology of the disk between the southeast and northwest sides. The southeast side of the disk exhibits a bump at 1″ (10 AU projected separation) that is three times more vertically extended and three times fainter in peak surface brightness than the northwest side at similar separations. This part of the disk is also vertically offset by 69±30 mas to the northeast at 1″ when compared to the established disk mid-plane and consistent with prior ALMA and Hubble Space Telescope/STIS observations. We see hints that the southeast bump might be a result of detecting a horizontal sliver feature above the main disk that could be the disk backside. Alternatively when including the morphology of the northwest side, where the disk mid-plane is offset in the opposite direction ∼50 mas between 0.″4 and 1.″2, the asymmetries suggest a warp-like feature. Using our integral field spectroscopy data to search for planets, we are 50% complete for ∼4 MJup planets at 4 AU. We detect a source, resolved only along the disk plane, that could either be a candidate planetary mass companion or a compact clump in the disk.
