Constraining the Movement of the Spiral Features and the Locations of Planetary Bodies within the AB Aur System

Abstract

We present new analysis of multi-epoch, H-band, scattered light images of the AB Aur system. We used a Monte Carlo, radiative transfer code to simultaneously model the system's SED and H-band polarized intensity imagery. We find that a disk-dominated model, as opposed to one that is envelope dominated, can plausibly reproduce AB Aur's SED and near-IR imagery. This is consistent with previous modeling attempts presented in the literature and supports the idea that at least a subset of AB Aur's spirals originate within the disk. In light of this, we also analyzed the movement of spiral structures in multi-epoch H-band total light and polarized intensity imagery of the disk. We detect no significant rotation or change in spatial location of the spiral structures in these data, which span a 5.8 year baseline. If such structures are caused by disk-planet interactions, the lack of observed rotation constrains the location of the orbit of planetary perturbers to be >47 AU.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, Accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (20)

• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. IV. The Silicate-Graphite-PAH Model in the Post-Spitzer Era
• Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. II. Fitting observed SEDs using a large grid of pre-computed models
• Circumstellar Dust Disks in Taurus-Auriga: The Submillimeter Perspective
• Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. I. A grid of 200,000 YSO model SEDs
• The Mass Dependence Between Protoplanetary Disks and their Stellar Hosts
• 2-D Radiative Transfer in Protostellar Envelopes: I. Effects of Geometry on Class I Sources
• Discovery of Small-Scale Spiral Structures in the Disk of SAO 206462 (HD 135344B): Implications for the Physical State of the Disk from Spiral Density Wave Theory
• Direct Imaging of Fine Structures in Giant Planet Forming Regions of the Protoplanetary Disk around AB Aurigae
• The Spectral Energy Distribution of HH30 IRS: Constraining The Circumstellar Dust Size Distribution
• Sub-arcsec imaging of the AB Aur molecular disk and envelope at millimeter wavelengths: a non Keplerian disk
• Three-Dimensional Radiation Transfer in Young Stellar Objects
• Protoplanetary Disk Masses from Stars to Brown Dwarfs
• A Tale of Two Herbig Ae stars -MWC275 and AB Aurigae: Comprehensive Models for SED and Interferometry
• The circumstellar disk of AB Aurigae: evidence for envelope accretion at late stages of star formation?
• The Solar-System-Scale Disk Around AB Aurigae
• The Case of AB Aurigae's Disk in Polarized Light: Is There Truly a Gap?
• Possible Molecular Spiral Arms in the Protoplanetary Disk of AB Aur
• Emission from Very Small Grains and PAH Molecules in Monte Carlo Radiation Transfer Codes: Application to the Edge-On Disk of Gomez's Hamburger
• Pre-transitional disk nature of the AB Aur disk
• Radiative Transfer Models of a Possible Planet in the AB Aurigae Disk

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Planet Formation in AB Aurigae: Imaging of the inner gaseous Spirals observed inside the Dust Cavity
• Possible evidence of ongoing planet formation in AB Aurigae. A showcase of the SPHERE/ALMA synergy
• Protoplanetary Disk Masses from Radiative Transfer Modeling: A Case Study in Taurus
• A Decade of MWC 758 Disk Images: Where Are the Spiral-Arm-Driving Planets?
• Constrained Reference Star Differential Imaging: Enabling High-Fidelity Imagery of Highly Structured Circumstellar Disks
• Origins of the UV/X-ray Relation in Arakelian 120