paper

Resolving the large exoKuiper belt of the HD 126062 debris disc and extended gas emission in its vicinity

arXiv:2511.07576 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202554463

Abstract

Intermediate-mass stars (1-3 Msun) host some of the brightest and best-studied debris discs. This stellar class is also the most frequent host of molecular gas in systems older than typical protoplanetary disc lifetimes, and the most likely to host detected giant planets in radial-velocity surveys. The debris discs of intermediate-mass stars have therefore become fertile ground for studying disc-planet interactions. In this work, we present the first ALMA observations toward the A-type star HD 126062, located in Upper Centaurus Lupus / Lower Centaurus Crux, with the aim of characterising its debris disc. We probed the thermal continuum emission using observations at 1.3 mm, analysed through image reconstruction under different visibility-weighting regimes and parametric model fitting to the observed visibilities. The setup also covered the frequency of the 12CO(2-1) line, allowing imaging of gas near the system. We detected dust continuum emission from an exo-Kuiper belt around HD 126062. Modelled as a Gaussian ring, the visibilities are consistent with a radial separation R = 2.01'' (+0.04, -0.05), equivalent to ~270 (+5, -4) au, and a full width at half maximum DeltaR = 0.71'' +- 0.09 (95 +- 12 au). The continuum emission appears nearly face-on, with inclination <=17 deg. 12CO(2-1) emission is detected in the vicinity of the debris disc, with most of it located external to the exo-Kuiper belt. The exo-Kuiper belt characterised here is among the largest yet detected and agrees with previous predictions of the dust distribution based on spectral energy distribution fitting. The morphology and velocity offset relative to the systemic velocity suggest that the gas is not associated with the star or disc, but likely originates from a diffuse cloud in the nearby galaxy.

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