Signposts Of Planets Research Articles

Spiral arms in scattered light images of protoplanetary discs: are they the signposts of planets?

One of the striking discoveries of protoplanetary disc research in recent years are the spiral arms seen in several transitional discs in polarized scattered light. An interesting interpretation of the observed spiral features is that they are density waves launched by one or more embedded (proto)planets in the disc. In this paper, we investigate whether planets can be held responsible for the excitation mechanism of the observed spirals. We use locally isothermal hydrodynamic simulations as well as analytic formulae to model the spiral waves launched by planets. Then H-band scattered light images are calculated using a 3D continuum radiative transfer code to study the effect of surface density and pressure scaleheight perturbation on the detectability of the spirals. We find that a relative change of ∼3.5 in the surface density (δΣ/Σ) is required for the spirals to be detected with current telescopes in the near-infrared for sources at the distance of typical star-forming regions (140 pc). This value is a factor of 8 higher than what is seen in hydrodynamic simulations. We also find that a relative change of only 0.2 in pressure scaleheight is sufficient to create detectable signatures under the same conditions. Therefore, we suggest that the spiral arms observed to date in protoplanetary discs are the results of changes in the vertical structure of the disc (e.g. pressure scaleheight perturbation) instead of surface density perturbations.

SEEDS: Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru

AbstractSEEDS is the first Subaru Strategic Program, whose aim is to conduct a direct imaging survey for giant planets as well as protoplanetary/debris disks at a few to a few tens of AU region around 500 nearby solar-type or more massive young stars devoting 120 Subaru nights for 5 years. The targets are composed of five categories spanning the ages of ~1 Myr to ~1 Gyr. Some RV-planet targets with older ages are also observed. The survey employs the new high-contrast instrument HiCIAO, a successor of the previous NIR coronagraph camera CIAO for the Subaru Telescope. We describe the outline of this survey and present its first three years of results. The survey has published ~20 refereed papers by now. The main results are as follows: (1) detection and characterization of the most unequivocal and lowest-mass planet via direct imaging. (2) detection of a super-Jupiter around the most massive star ever imaged, (3) detection of companions around a retrograde exoplanet system, which supports the Kozai mechanism for the origin of retrograde orbit (not in this proceedings, but see Narita et al. 2010, 2012). We also report (4) the discovery of unprecedentedly detailed structures of more than a dozen of protoplanetary disks and some debris disks. The detected structures such as wide gaps and spirals arms of a Solar-system scale could be signpost of planet.

Planet gaps in the dust layer of 3D protoplanetary disks

[Abridged] Aims: We provide predictions for ALMA observations of planet gaps that account for the specific spatial distribution of dust that results from consistent gas+dust dynamics. Methods: In a previous work, we ran full 3D, two-fluid Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of a planet embedded in a gas+dust T Tauri disk for different planet masses and grain sizes. In this work, the resulting dust distributions are passed to the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code MCFOST to construct synthetic images in the ALMA wavebands. We then use the ALMA simulator to produce images that include thermal and phase noise for a range of angular resolutions, wavelengths, and integration times, as well as for different inclinations, declinations and distances. We also produce images which assume that gas and dust are well mixed with a gas-to-dust ratio of 100 to compare with previous ALMA predictions, all made under this hypothesis. Results: Our findings clearly demonstrate the importance of correctly incorporating the dust dynamics. We show that the gap carved by a 1 M_J planet orbiting at 40 AU is visible with a much higher contrast than the well-mixed assumption would predict. In the case of a 5 M_J planet, we clearly see a deficit in dust emission in the inner disk, and point out the risk of interpreting the resulting image as that of a transition disk with an inner hole if observed in unfavorable conditions. Planet signatures are fainter in more distant disks but declination or inclination to the line-of-sight have little effect on ALMA's ability to resolve the gaps. Conclusions: ALMA has the potential to see signposts of planets in disks of nearby star-forming regions. We present optimized observing parameters to detect them in the case of 1 and 5 M_J planets on 40 AU orbits.

High-contrast imaging of the close environment of HD 142527

Context. It has long been suggested that circumstellar disks surrounding young stars may be the signposts of planets, and still more since the recent discoveries of embedded substellar companions. The planet-disk interaction may create, according to models, large structures, gaps, rings or spirals, in the disk. In that sense, the Herbig star HD 142527 is particularly compelling as, its massive disk displays intriguing asymmetries that suggest the existence of a dynamical peturber of unknown nature. Aims. Our goal was to obtain deep thermal images of the close circumstellar environment of HD 142527 to re-image the reported close-in structures (cavity, spiral arms) of the disk and to search for stellar and substellar companions that could be connected to their presence. Results. The circumstellar environment of HD 142527 is revealed at an unprecedented spatial resolution down to the sub arcsecond level for the first time at 3.8 microns. Our images reveal important radial and azimuthal asymmetries which invalidate an elliptical shape for the disk as previously proposed. It rather suggests a bright inhomogeneous spiral arm plus various fainter spiral arms. We also confirm an inner cavity down to 30 AU and two important dips at position angles of 0 and 135 deg. The detection performance in angular differential imaging enables the exploration of the planetary mass regime for projected physical separations as close as 40 AU. The use of our detection map together with Monte Carlo simulations sets stringent constraints on the presence of planetary mass, brown dwarf or stellar companions as a function of the semi-major axis. They severely constrain the presence of massive giant planets with semi-major axis beyond 50AU, i.e. probably within the large disk's cavity that radially extends up to 145 AU or even further outside.

Dusty Debris Disks as Signposts of Planets: Implications forSpitzer Space Telescope

Submillimeter and near-infrared images of cool dusty debris disks and rings suggest the existence of unseen planets. At dusty but nonimaged stars, semimajor axes of associated planets can be estimated from the dust temperature. For some young stars these semimajor axes are greater than 1'' as seen from Earth. Such stars are excellent targets for sensitive near-infrared imaging searches for warm planets. To probe the full extent of the dust and hence of potential planetary orbits, Spitzer observations should include measurements with the 160 μm filter.