Context.A low-mass brown dwarf has recently been imaged around HR 2562 (HD 50571), a star hosting a debris disk resolved in the far infrared. Interestingly, the companion location is compatible with an orbit coplanar with the disk and interior to the debris belt. This feature makes the system a valuable laboratory to analyze the formation of substellar companions in a circumstellar disk and potential disk-companion dynamical interactions. Aims. We aim to further characterize the orbital motion of HR 2562 B and its interactions with the host star debris disk. Methods. We performed a monitoring of the system over ∼10 months in 2016 and 2017 with the VLT/SPHERE exoplanet imager. Results. We confirm that the companion is comoving with the star and detect for the first time an orbital motion at high significance, with a current orbital motion projected in the plane of the sky of 25 mas (∼0.85 au) per year. No orbital curvature is seen in the measurements. An orbital fit of the SPHERE and literature astrometry of the companion without priors on the orbital plane clearly indicates that its orbit is (quasi-)coplanar with the disk. To further constrain the other orbital parameters, we used empirical laws for a companion chaotic zone validated by N-body simulations to test the orbital solutions that are compatible with the estimated disk cavity size. Non-zero eccentricities (>0.15) are allowed for orbital periods shorter than 100 yr, while only moderate eccentricities up to ∼0.3 for orbital periods longer than 200 yr are compatible with the disk observations. A comparison of synthetic Herschel images to the real data does not allow us to constrain the upper eccentricity of the companion.
Context. Hot exozodiacal dust has been shown to be present in the innermost regions of an increasing number of main sequence stars over the past 15 yr. However, the origin of hot exozodiacal dust and its connection with outer dust reservoirs remains unclear. Aims. We aim to explore the possible connection between hot exozodiacal dust and warm dust reservoirs (≥100 K) in asteroid belts. Methods. We use precision near-infrared interferometry with VLTI/PIONIER to search for resolved emission at H-band around a selected sample of 62 nearby stars that show possible signs of warm dust populations. Results. Our observations reveal the presence of resolved near-infrared emission around 17 out of 52 stars with sufficient data quality. For four of these, the emission is shown to be due to a previously unknown stellar companion. The 13 other H-band excesses are thought to originate from the thermal emission of hot dust grains, close to their sublimation temperature. Taking into account earlier PIONIER observations, where some stars with warm dust were also observed, and after re-evaluating the warm dust content of all our PIONIER targets through spectral energy distribution modeling, we find a detection rate of 17.1−4.6+8.1% for H-band excess around main sequence stars hosting warm dust belts, which is statistically compatible with the occurrence rate of 14.6−2.8+4.3% found around stars showing no signs of warm dust. After correcting for the sensitivity loss due to partly unresolved hot disks, under the assumption that they are arranged in a thin ring around their sublimation radius, we find tentative evidence at the 3σ level that H-band excesses around stars with outer dust reservoirs (warm or cold) could be statistically larger than H-band excesses around stars with no detectable outer dust. Conclusions. Our observations do not suggest a direct connection between warm and hot dust populations at the sensitivity level of the considered instruments, although they bring to light a possible correlation between the level of H-band excess and the presence of outer dust reservoirs in general.
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