The likelihood of not detecting cavity-carving companions in transition discs -- A statistical approach

Abstract

Protoplanetary discs with cavities, also known as ``transition discs'', constitute ~10% of protoplanetary discs at sub-mm wavelengths. Among several explanations, one hypothesis suggests these cavities are carved by undetected stellar or planetary companions. We present a novel approach to quantify the likelihood that a cavity-carving companion goes undetected because it is either too close to the star (i.e., has a small projected separation) or too faint to be resolved. We generate two independent samples of stellar and planetary companions with random sky orientations, assuming distributions in eccentricity, mass ratio, and time-weighted orbital phases, to study the statistical properties of the cavities they produce. We calculate the likelihood that a companion appears with a projected separation $d$ relative to its semi-major axis $a_{bin}$ ($d/a_{bin}$). Then, using a disc truncation model, we calculate the likelihood that companions carve a cavity with size $a_{cav}$ relative to its semi-major axis $a_{bin}$ and projected separation $d$, deriving distributions of $a_{bin}/a_{cav}$ and $d/a_{cav}$. We find that stellar companions carve cavities with median sizes ~3 times larger than their projected separation $d$ ($a_{cav}\sim 3d$, $a_{cav}\sim 1.7d$ for planets), but with a statistically significant tail towards larger values ($a_{cav}\gg 3d$). We estimate the likelihood that cavity-carving companions go undetected due to projection effects when the system is observed with spatial resolution $R$, $P(d<R)$. Considering observational constraints on companion masses, we apply this framework to 13 well-known transition discs. We find that undetected stellar companions are unlikely in 8 out of 13 systems we considered, with 5 notable exceptions: ABAur, MWC758, HD135344B, CQTau and HD169142. The presence of undetected planets cannot be excluded in any of the transition discs considered.

arXiv comment15 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (89)

• Stellar Multiplicity
• Mind your Ps and Qs: the Interrelation between Period (P) and Mass-ratio (Q) Distributions of Binary Stars
• The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP): I. Motivation, Sample, Calibration, and Overview
• Long-Term Stability of Planets in Binary Systems
• Passive irradiated circumstellar disks with an inner hole
• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• Discovery of a planetary-mass companion within the gap of the transition disk around PDS 70
• On the width and shape of gaps in protoplanetary disks
• Gaps and Rings in an ALMA Survey of Disks in the Taurus Star-forming Region
• Photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs II: evolutionary models and observable properties
• Separating gas-giant and ice-giant planets by halting pebble accretion
• Dust Filtration by Planet-Induced Gap Edges: Implications for Transitional Disks
• The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP): VII. The Planet-Disk Interactions Interpretation
• Eccentricity Evolution for Planets in Gaseous Disks
• Dust filtration at gap edges: Implications for the spectral energy distributions of discs with embedded planets
• Planetary Torques as the Viscosity of Protoplanetary Disks
• Orbital and atmospheric characterization of the planet within the gap of the PDS 70 transition disk
• ALMA unveils rings and gaps in the protoplanetary system HD 169142: signatures of two giant protoplanets
• Disk eccentricity and embedded planets
• Radial migration of gap-opening planets in protoplanetary disks. I. The case of a single planet
• Shadows cast on the transition disk of HD 135344B. Multiwavelength VLT/SPHERE polarimetric differential imaging
• Viscous Hydrodynamics Simulations of Circumbinary Accretion Discs: Variability, Quasi-Steady State, and Angular Momentum Transfer
• The minimum mass of detectable planets in protoplanetary discs and the derivation of planetary masses from high resolution observations
• Possible planet-forming regions on submillimetre images
• Post-Oligarchic Evolution of Protoplanetary Embryos and the Stability of Planetary Systems
• Dust depleted inner disks in a large sample of transition disks through long-baseline ALMA observations
• Gap Opening by Extremely Low Mass Planets in a Viscous Disk
• Circumstellar and Circumbinary Disks in Eccentric Stellar Binaries
• The Eccentric Cavity, Triple Rings, Two-Armed Spirals, and Double Clumps of the MWC 758 Disk
• Tidal Truncation of Inclined Circumstellar and Circumbinary Discs in Young Stellar Binaries
• Evolution of Giant Planets in Eccentric Disks
• Images of Embedded Jovian Planet Formation At A Wide Separation Around AB Aurigae
• Can dead zones create structures like a transition disk?
• Constraining the Nature of the PDS 70 Protoplanets with VLTI/GRAVITY
• Asymmetric transition disks: Vorticity or eccentricity?
• Orbital Evolution of Equal-mass Eccentric Binaries due to a Gas Disk: Eccentric Inspirals and Circular Outspirals
• The Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA)-III: the evolution of substructures in massive discs at 3-5 au resolution
• New insights into the nature of transition disks from a complete disk survey of the Lupus star forming region
• On the origin of horseshoes in transitional discs
• Misaligned gas discs around eccentric black-hole binaries and implications for the final-parsec problem
• On the diversity of asymmetries in gapped protoplanetary disks
• Imaging diagnostics for transitional discs
• The stability and fates of hierarchical two-planet systems
• Highly inclined and eccentric massive planets I: Planet-disc interactions
• Homogeneous Analysis of the Dust Morphology of Transition Disks Observed with ALMA: Investigating dust trapping and the origin of the cavities
• Migration and gas accretion scenarios for the Kepler 16, 34 and 35 circumbinary planets
• An opening criterion for dust gaps in protoplanetary discs
• Inclination Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks Around Eccentric Binaries
• The evolution of large cavities and disc eccentricity in circumbinary discs
• Possible evidence of ongoing planet formation in AB Aurigae. A showcase of the SPHERE/ALMA synergy
• Circumbinary discs: Numerical and physical behaviour
• Eccentricity evolution during planet-disc interaction
• Inferring giant planets from ALMA millimeter continuum and line observations in (transition) disks
• Stability Limits of Circumbinary Planets: Is There a Pile-up in the Kepler CBPs?
• Perturbers: SPHERE detection limits to planetary-mass companions in protoplanetary disks
• Gap, shadows, spirals, streamers: SPHERE observations of binary-disk interactions in GG Tau A
• Preferential Accretion and Circumbinary Disk Precession in Eccentric Binary Systems
• A dust and gas cavity in the disc around CQ Tau revealed by ALMA
• Shallow Cavities in Multiple-Planet Systems
• Signatures of an eccentric disc cavity: Dust and gas in IRS 48
• Planet formation and stability in polar circumbinary discs
• Long-Lived Eccentric Modes in Circumbinary Disks
• Polar alignment of a protoplanetary disc around an eccentric binary III: Effect of disc mass
• Transition disks: the observational revolution from SEDs to imaging
• Chaotic zones around gravitating binaries
• Geometrical and Physical Properties of Circumbinary Discs in Eccentric Stellar Binaries
• Hydrodynamical turbulence in eccentric circumbinary discs and its impact on the in situ formation of circumbinary planets
• Long lived dust rings around HD169142
• Planet migration, resonant locking and accretion streams in PDS70: Comparing models and data
• Circumbinary and circumstellar discs around the eccentric binary IRAS 04158+2805 -- a testbed for binary-disc interaction
• Non-Keplerian spirals, a gas-pressure dust trap and an eccentric gas cavity in the circumbinary disc around HD 142527
• Dusty clumps in circumbinary discs
• The Architecture of the V892 Tau System: the Binary and its Circumbinary Disk
• The role of the drag force in the gravitational stability of dusty planet forming disc -- I. Analytical theory
• Interpreting Brightness Asymmetries in Transition Disks: Vortex at Dead Zone or Planet Carved Gap Edges?
• Observational signatures of eccentric Jupiters inside gas cavities in protoplanetary discs
• Eccentric Dust Ring in the IRS 48 Transition Disk
• A Simple Time-Dependent Method for Calculating Spirals: Applications to Eccentric Planets in Protoplanetary discs
• Probing the eccentricity in protostellar discs -- Modeling kinematics and morphologies
• Viscous circumbinary protoplanetary discs -- I. Structure of the inner cavity
• Wide Dust Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks Induced by Eccentric Planets: A Mass-Eccentricity Degeneracy
• Inward and outward migration of massive planets: moving towards a stalling radius
• Orbital dynamics in the GG Tau A system: investigating its enigmatic disc
• Kinematical Constraint on Eccentricity in the Protoplanetary Disk MWC 758 with ALMA
• The protoplanetary disc around HD 169142: circumstellar or circumbinary?
• How the planetary eccentricity influences the pebble isolation mass
• Density waves in protoplanetary discs excited by eccentric planets: linear theory
• On the origin of transition disk cavities: Pebble-accreting protoplanets vs Super-Jupiters
• Stability of coorbital planets around binaries

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Astrometric view of companions in the inner dust cavities of protoplanetary disks
• Planetary architectures under the influence of a stellar binary
• Probing dust and grain growth in the optically thick circumbinary ring of V892 Tau
• The influence of tight binaries on proto-planetary disk masses