INTERFEROMETRIC EVIDENCE FOR RESOLVED WARM DUST IN THE DQ TAU SYSTEM

Abstract

We report on near-infrared (IR) interferometric observations of the double-lined pre-main sequence binary system DQ Tau. We model these data with a visual orbit for DQ Tau supported by the spectroscopic orbit and analysis of Mathieu et al. Further, DQ Tau exhibits significant near-IR excess; modeling our data requires inclusion of near-IR light from an source. Remarkably, the excess source is resolved in our data, similar in scale to the binary itself (~0.2 AU at apastron), rather than the larger circumbinary disk (~0.4 AU radius). Our observations support the Mathieu et al. and Carr et al. inference of significant warm material near the DQ Tau binary.