Rave: A non-parametric method for recovering the surface brightness and height profiles of edge-on debris disks

Abstract

Extrasolar analogues of the Solar System's Kuiper belt offer unique constraints on outer planetary system architecture. Radial features such as the sharpness of disk edges and substructures such as gaps may be indicative of embedded planets within a disk. Vertically, the height of a disk can constrain the mass of embedded bodies. Edge-on debris disks offer a unique opportunity to simultaneously access the radial and vertical distribution of material, however recovering either distribution in an unbiased way is challenging. In this study, we present a non-parametric method to recover the surface brightness profile (face-on surface brightness as a function of radius) and height profile (scale height as a function of radius) of azimuthally symmetric, edge-on debris disks. The method is primarily designed for observations at thermal emission wavelengths, but is also applicable to scattered light observations under the assumption of isotropic scattering. By removing assumptions on underlying functional forms, this algorithm provides more realistic constraints on disk structures. We also apply this technique to ALMA observations of the AU Mic debris disk and derive a surface brightness profile consistent with estimates from parametric approaches, but with a more realistic range of possible models that is independent of parametrisation assumptions. Our results are consistent with a uniform scale height of 0.8 au, but a scale height that increases linearly with radius is also possible.

16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (39)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Images of a fourth planet orbiting HR 8799
• A probable giant planet imaged in the Beta Pictoris disk
• The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey: Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Demographics From 10-100 AU
• On the age of the $\beta$ Pictoris moving group
• Debris Disks: Structure, Composition, and Variability
• A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii
• Discovery of a large dust disk around the nearby star AU Microscopium
• Molecular Gas Clumps from the Destruction of Icy Bodies in the $\beta$ Pictoris Debris Disk
• The SPHERE infrared survey for exoplanets (SHINE). III. The demographics of young giant exoplanets below 300 au with SPHERE
• HST/ACS Multiband Coronagraphic Imaging of the Debris Disk around Beta Pictoris
• Debris Disks: Seeing Dust, Thinking of Planetesimals and Planets
• Substructure in the Circumstellar Disk around the Young Star AU Mic (GJ 803)
• The Signature of Primordial Grain Growth in the Polarized Light of the AU Mic Debris Disk
• Analysis of the Herschel DEBRIS Sun-like star sample
• Millimeter Emission Structure in the first ALMA Image of the AU Mic Debris Disk
• New constraints on the planetary system around the young active star AU Mic. Two transiting warm Neptunes near mean-motion resonance
• Azimuthal asymmetries in the debris disk around HD61005
• Kuiper Belt-Like Hot and Cold Populations of Planetesimal Inclinations in the $\beta$ Pictoris Belt Revealed by ALMA
• Self-consistent size and velocity distributions of collisional cascades
• The AU Microscopii Debris Disk: Multiwavelength Imaging and Modeling
• Radial Surface Density Profiles of Gas and Dust in the Debris Disk around 49 Ceti
• Adaptive Optics Imaging of the AU Microscopii Circumstellar Disk: Evidence for Dynamical Evolution
• The Mass of Stirring Bodies in the AU Mic Debris Disk Inferred from Resolved Vertical Structure
• Planetary embryos and planetesimals residing in thin debris disks
• Observations, Modeling and Theory of Debris Disks
• The AU Mic Debris Disk: far-infrared and submillimeter resolved imaging
• ALMA Detection of Extended Millimeter Halos in the HD 32297 and HD 61005 Debris Disks
• Insights into the planetary dynamics of HD 206893 with ALMA
• Gemini Planet Imager Observations of the AU Microscopii Debris Disk: Asymmetries within One Arcsecond
• Flares observed with XMM-Newton and the VLA
• The Scattered Disc of HR 8799
• Multiple Rings of Millimeter Dust Emission in the HD 15115 Debris Disk
• Constraining planetesimal stirring: how sharp are debris disc edges?
• Dust Populations in the Iconic Vega Planetary System Resolved by ALMA
• Near-Infrared Image of the Debris Disk around HD 15115

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Deprojecting and constraining the vertical thickness of exoKuiper belts
• Multiwavelength Vertical Structure in the AU Mic Debris Disk: Characterizing the Collisional Cascade
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) I: Motivation, sample, data reduction, and results overview
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) II. The radial structure of debris discs
• The vertical structure of debris discs and the role of disc gravity: A primer using a simplified model
• A PR drag origin for the Fomalhaut disk's pervasive inner dust: constraints on collisional strengths, icy composition, and embedded planets
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) V: Comparison between scattered light and thermal emission
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) III: The vertical structure of debris disks
• Radial Profiles of Surface Density in Debris Discs
• Collisional damping in debris discs: Only significant if collision velocities are low
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) VII: Optically thick gas with broad CO gaussian local line profiles in the HD 121617 disc
• The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS). X. Interpreting the peculiar dust rings around HD 131835