GG Tau: the fifth element

Abstract

We aim at unveiling the observational imprint of physical mechanisms that govern planetary formation in young, multiple systems. In particular, we investigate the impact of tidal truncation on the inner circumstellar disks. We observed the emblematic system GG Tau at high-angular resolution: a hierarchical quadruple system composed of low-mass T Tauri binary stars surrounded by a well-studied, massive circumbinary disk in Keplerian rotation. We used the near-IR 4-telescope combiner PIONIER on the VLTI and sparse-aperture-masking techniques on VLT/NaCo to probe this proto-planetary system at sub-AU scales. We report the discovery of a significant closure-phase signal in H and Ks bands that can be reproduced with an additional low-mass companion orbiting GG Tau Ab, at a (projected) separation rho = 31.7 +/- 0.2mas (4.4 au) and PA = 219.6 +/- 0.3deg. This finding offers a simple explanation for several key questions in this system, including the missing-stellar-mass problem and the asymmetry of continuum emission from the inner dust disks observed at millimeter wavelengths. Composed of now five co-eval stars with 0.02 <= Mstar <= 0.7 Msun, the quintuple system GG Tau has become an ideal test case to constrain stellar evolution models at young ages (few 10^6yr).

5pages, 3 figures, 1 appendix (online material)

References in corpus (18)

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• The inner radius of T Tauri disks estimated from near-infrared interferometry: the importance of scattered light
• Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of the GG Tau circumbinary ring
• Sculpting the disk around T Cha: an interferometric view
• Circumbinary Gas Accretion onto a Central Binary: Infrared Molecular Hydrogen Emission from GG Tau A
• High resolution imaging of the GG Tau system at 267 GHz
• The Orbit of GG Tau A
• Sparse Aperture Masking Observations of the FL Cha Pre-transitional Disk
• Dust Grain Evolution in Spatially Resolved T Tauri Binaries

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Dust depleted inner disks in a large sample of transition disks through long-baseline ALMA observations
• The Degree of Alignment Between Circumbinary Disks and Their Binary Hosts
• Circumbinary discs: Numerical and physical behaviour
• Chemistry in Disks X: The Molecular Content of Proto-planetary Disks in Taurus
• Gap, shadows, spirals, streamers: SPHERE observations of binary-disk interactions in GG Tau A
• Dynamical Masses of Low Mass Stars in the Taurus and Ophiuchus Star Forming Regions
• First detection of H${}_2$S in a protoplanetary disk. The dense GG Tau A ring
• Protoplanetary Disk Masses from Radiative Transfer Modeling: A Case Study in Taurus
• Multiplicity and clustering in Taurus star-forming region. I. Unexpected ultra-wide pairs of high-order multiplicity in Taurus
• Planets Around Low-Mass Stars (PALMS). V. Age-Dating Low-Mass Companions to Members and Interlopers of Young Moving Groups
• Circumbinary Ring, Circumstellar disks and accretion in the binary system UY Aurigae
• Mapping CO Gas in the GG Tauri A Triple System with 50 AU Spatial Resolution
• Dynamics of Circumstellar Disks III: The case of GG Tau A
• Testing dust trapping in the circumbinary disk around GG Tau A
• GG Tau A: gas properties and dynamics from the cavity to the outer disk
• Near-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of Inner Region of GG Tau A Disk
• A Search for Spatially Resolved Infrared Ro-Vibrational Molecular Hydrogen Emission from the Disks of Young Stars
• Accretion rates in hierarchical triple systems with discs
• Interferometric study on the temporal variability of the brightness distributions of protoplanetary disks
• GG Tau A: Dark shadows on the ringworld
• Polar circumtriple planets and disks can only form close to a triple star
• A Quintuple Star System Containing Two Eclipsing Binaries
• An unbiased NOEMA 2.6 to 4 mm survey of the GG Tau ring: First detection of CCS in a protoplanetary disk
• Orbital dynamics in the GG Tau A system: investigating its enigmatic disc
• On the frequencies of circumbinary discs in protostellar systems
• Tatooine Nurseries: Structure and Evolution of Circumbinary Protoplanetary Disks
• Evolution of circumbinary protoplanetary disks with photoevaporative winds driven by External Far Ultraviolet Radiation
• Astrometric view of companions in the inner dust cavities of protoplanetary disks
• Brightness variability in polar circumbinary disks