Hot circumstellar material resolved around beta Pic with VLTI/PIONIER

Abstract

We aim at resolving the circumstellar environment around beta Pic in the near-infrared in order to study the inner planetary system (< 200 mas, i.e., ~4 AU). Precise interferometric fringe visibility measurements were obtained over seven spectral channels dispersed across the H band with the four-telescope VLTI/PIONIER interferometer. Thorough analysis of interferometric data was performed to measure the stellar angular diameter and to search for circumstellar material. We detected near-infrared circumstellar emission around beta Pic that accounts for 1.37% +/- 0.16% of the near-infrared stellar flux and that is located within the field-of-view of PIONIER (i.e., ~200 mas in radius). The flux ratio between this excess and the photosphere emission is shown to be stable over a period of 1 year and to vary only weakly across the H band, suggesting that the source is either very hot (> 1500 K) or dominated by the scattering of the stellar flux. In addition, we derived the limb-darkened angular diameter of beta Pic with an unprecedented accuracy (theta_LD= 0.736 +/- 0.019 mas). The presence of a small H-band excess originating in the vicinity of beta Pic is revealed for the first time thanks to the high-precision visibilities enabled by VLTI/PIONIER. This excess emission is likely due to the scattering of stellar light by circumstellar dust and/or the thermal emission from a yet unknown population of hot dust, although hot gas emitting in the continuum cannot be firmly excluded.

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (19)

• A probable giant planet imaged in the Beta Pictoris disk
• The angular size of dwarf stars and subgiants - Surface brightness relations calibrated by interferometry
• PIONIER: a 4-telescope visitor instrument at VLTI
• A planet on an inclined orbit as an explanation of the warp in the Beta Pictoris disk
• Rotational velocities of A-type stars. III. Velocity distributions
• Dynamical modeling of large scale asymmetries in the beta Pictoris dust disk
• The Carbon-Rich Gas in the Beta Pictoris Circumstellar Disk
• Circumstellar material in the Vega inner system revealed by CHARA/FLUOR
• A catalog of bright calibrator stars for 200-meter baseline near-infrared stellar interferometry
• beta Pic b position relative to the Debris Disk
• Scattering of small bodies by planets: a potential origin for exozodiacal dust ?
• Hot exozodiacal dust resolved around Vega with IOTA/IONIC
• Searching for faint companions with VLTI/PIONIER. I. Method and first results
• Constrains on planets around beta Pic with Harps radial velocity data
• A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disc stars. II. CHARA/FLUOR observations of six early-type dwarfs
• An interferometric study of the Fomalhaut inner debris disk. I. Near-infrared detection of hot dust with VLTI/VINCI
• Planets of Beta Pictoris revisited
• VLT/NACO coronagraphic observations of fine structures in the disk of beta Pictoris
• Deep near-infrared interferometric search for low-mass companions around beta Pictoris

Cited by in corpus (28)

• The HOSTS survey for exozodiacal dust: Observational results from the complete survey
• A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disc stars. III. First statistics based on 42 stars observed with CHARA/FLUOR
• A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris-disc stars. IV. An unbiased sample of 92 southern stars observed in H-band with VLTI/PIONIER
• The Orbit and Transit Prospects for $\beta$ Pictoris b constrained with One Milliarcsecond Astrometry
• An interferometric study of the Fomalhaut inner debris disk. III. Detailed models of the exozodiacal disk and its origin
• A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris-disc stars. V. PIONIER search for variability
• The HOSTS survey - Exozodiacal dust measurements for 30 stars
• The path towards high-contrast imaging with the VLTI: the Hi-5 project
• Inner mean-motion resonances with eccentric planets: A possible origin for exozodiacal dust clouds
• Polarization measurements of hot dust stars and the local interstellar medium
• Near-infrared emission from sublimating dust in collisionally active debris disks
• The co-existence of hot and cold gas in debris discs
• The Pseudo-zodi Problem for Edge-on Planetary Systems
• Very deep images of the innermost regions of the beta Pictoris debris disc at Lp
• Revisiting the pulsational characteristics of the exoplanet host star $\beta$ Pictoris
• Spin-orbit alignment of the $\beta$ Pictoris planetary system
• A Comprehensive Dust Model Applied to the Resolved Beta Pictoris Debris Disk from Optical to Radio Wavelengths
• Gas trapping of hot dust around main-sequence stars
• Models of the Eta Corvi debris disk from the Keck Interferometer, Spitzer and Herschel
• Potential multi-component structure of the debris disk around HIP 17439 revealed by Herschel/DUNES
• Nature of the gas and dust around 51 Oph
• Hot exozodis: cometary supply without trapping is unlikely to be the mechanism
• First L band detection of hot exozodiacal dust with VLTI/MATISSE
• Formation of the warped debris disc around $\beta$ Pictoris
• Prospects for the characterisation of exo-zodiacal dust with the VLTI
• Review and prospects of hot exozodiacal dust research for future exo-Earth direct imaging missions
• Visibility Estimation for the CHARA/JouFLU Exozodi Survey
• VLTI/MATISSE observations of the hot dust around $\beta$ Pictoris: Observing faint objects with MATISSE