Dynamical detection of a companion driving a spiral arm in a protoplanetary disk

Abstract

Radio and near-infrared observations have observed dozens of protoplanetary disks that host spiral arm features. Numerical simulations have shown that companions may excite spiral density waves in protoplanetary disks via companion-disk interaction. However, the lack of direct observational evidence for spiral-driving companions poses challenges to current theories of companion-disk interaction. Here we report multi-epoch observations of the binary system HD 100453 with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) facility at the Very Large Telescope. By recovering the spiral features via robustly removing starlight contamination, we measure spiral motion across 4 yr to perform dynamical motion analyses. The spiral pattern motion is consistent with the orbital motion of the eccentric companion. With this first observational evidence of a companion driving a spiral arm among protoplanetary disks, we directly and dynamically confirm the long-standing theory on the origin of spiral features in protoplanetary disks. With the pattern motion of companion-driven spirals being independent of companion mass, here we establish a feasible way of searching for hidden spiral-arm-driving planets that are beyond the detection of existing ground-based high-contrast imagers.

Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics; 12 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (24)

• Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties
• Shadows and spirals in the protoplanetary disk HD 100453
• Images of Embedded Jovian Planet Formation At A Wide Separation Around AB Aurigae
• orbitize!: A Comprehensive Orbit-fitting Software Package for the High-contrast Imaging Community
• No Clear, Direct Evidence for Multiple Protoplanets Orbiting LkCa 15: LkCa 15 bcd are Likely Inner Disk Signals
• Spiral arms in the proto-planetary disc HD100453 detected with ALMA: evidence for binary-disc interaction and a vertical temperature gradient
• AF Lep b: the lowest mass planet detected coupling astrometric and direct imaging data
• Direct imaging discovery of a super-Jovian around the young Sun-like star AF Leporis
• Direct Imaging and Astrometric Detection of a Gas Giant Planet Orbiting an Accelerating Star
• The widest H$\alpha$ survey of accreting protoplanets around nearby transition disks
• Ongoing flyby in the young multiple system UX Tauri
• The Young Suns Exoplanet Survey: Detection of a wide orbit planetary mass companion to a solar-type Sco-Cen member
• Reference-star differential imaging on SPHERE/IRDIS
• ALMA study of the HD 100453 AB system and the tidal interaction of the companion with the disk
• Dynamical Evidence of a Spiral Arm--Driving Planet in the MWC 758 Protoplanetary Disk
• A likely flyby of binary protostar Z CMa caught in action
• Searching for proto-planets with MUSE
• Spirals, shadows & precession in HD 100453 -- I. The orbit of the binary
• Spiral Arm Pattern Motion in the SAO 206462 Protoplanetary Disk
• Stellar Flyby Analysis for Spiral Arm Hosts with Gaia DR3
• A Simple Time-Dependent Method for Calculating Spirals: Applications to Eccentric Planets in Protoplanetary discs
• Investigating point sources in MWC 758 with SPHERE
• The Appearance of Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks in Near-Infrared Scattered Light
• Apparent motion of the circumstellar envelope of CQ Tau in scattered light

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Protoplanetary disks in $K_s$-band total intensity and polarized light
• Karhunen-Loève Data Imputation in High Contrast Imaging
• NMF-based GPU accelerated coronagraphy pipeline
• Winding Motion of Spirals in a Gravitationally Unstable Protoplanetary Disk
• The complex inner disk of the Herbig Ae star HD 100453 with VLTI/MATISSE