The Orbit and Occultations of KH 15D

Abstract

The unusual flux variations of the pre-main-sequence binary star KH 15D have been attributed to occultations by a circumbinary disk. We test whether or not this theory is compatible with newly available data, including recent radial velocity measurements, CCD photometry over the past decade, and photographic photometry over the past 50 years. We find the model to be successful, after two refinements: a more realistic motion of the occulting feature, and a halo around each star that probably represents scattering by the disk. The occulting feature is exceptionally sharp-edged, raising the possibility that the dust in the disk has settled into a thin layer, and providing a tool for fine-scale mapping of the immediate environment of a T Tauri star. However, the window of opportunity is closing, as the currently visible star may be hidden at all orbital phases by as early as 2008.

arXiv commentTo appear in ApJ [16 pages, 13 figures]

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Cited by in corpus (35)

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• The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in Exoplanet Research
• Young Stellar Object Variability (YSOVAR): Long Timescale Variations in the Mid-Infrared
• Periodic accretion from a circumbinary disk in the young binary UZ Tau E
• Gaia's potential for the discovery of circumbinary planets
• Time-Series Photometry of Stars in and around the Lagoon Nebula. I. Rotation Periods of 290 Low-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stars in NGC 6530
• Locating the Trailing Edge of the Circumbinary Ring in the KH 15D System
• The Peculiar Periodic YSO WL 4 in Rho Ophiuchus
• Reflected Light from Sand Grains in the Terrestrial Zone of a Protoplanetary Disk
• Mass and period limits on the ringed companion transiting the young star J1407
• The transiting dust clumps in the evolved disk of the Sun-like UXor RZ Psc
• The Light Curve of the Weakly-Accreting T Tauri Binary KH 15D from 2005-10: Insights into the Nature of its Protoplanetary Disk
• Bipolar jets produced by a spectroscopic binary
• Hydrodynamic Processes in Young Binary Systems as a Source of Cyclic Variations of Circumstellar Extinction
• An occultation event in a triple post-AGB star
• Constraining the Circumbinary Disk Tilt in the KH 15D system
• Complex Variability of the H$\alpha$ Emission Line Profile of the T Tauri Binary System KH 15D: The Influence of Orbital Phase, Occultation by the Circumbinary Disk, and Accretion Phenomenae
• OGLE-BLG182.1.162852: An Eclipsing Binary with a Circumstellar Disk
• OGLE-LMC-ECL-11893: The discovery of a long-period eclipsing binary with a circumstellar disk
• Optical and Radio Observations of the T Tauri Binary KH 15D (V582 Mon): Stellar Properties, Disk Mass Limit and Discovery of a CO Outflow
• Multi-Wavelength Photometry of the T Tauri Binary V582 Mon (KH 15D): A New Epoch of Occultations
• Two Candidate KH 15D-like Systems from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• An unusual very low-mass high-amplitude pre-main sequence periodic variable
• Secular Evolution Driven by Massive Eccentric Disks/Rings: An Apsidally Aligned Case
• Seeing Through the Ring: Near-Infrared Photometry of V582 Mon (KH 15D)
• Extending the Model of KH 15D: Estimating the Effects of Forward Scattering and Curvature of the Occulting Ring Edge
• Gas Absorption in the KH 15D System: Further Evidence for Dust Settling in the Circumbinary Disk
• Untangling the Near-IR Spectral Features in the Protoplanetary Environment of KH 15D
• Double-peaked OI profile: a likely signature of the gaseous ring around KH 15D
• The Recurrent Eclipse of an Unusual Pre--Main-Sequence Star in IC 348
• The spectral type of CHS7797 - an intriguing very low mass periodic variable in the Orion Nebula Cluster
• Large Amplitude Photometric Variability of the Candidate Protoplanet TMR-1C
• On The Unusual Variability of 2MASS J06195260-2903592: A Long-Lived Disk around a Young Ultracool Dwarf