Constraints on the gas content of the Fomalhaut debris belt

Cataldi, Gianni; Brandeker, Alexis; Olofsson, G.; Chen, C. H.; Dent, W. R. F.; Kamp, I.; Roberge, Aki; Vandenbussche, B.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425322

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Figure 3 shows the orientation of the spaxels with respect to β Pic in the case of the C ii observations. The telescope pointing model indicates that the central spaxel was offset from β Pic A27, page 2 of 6 The data reduction was essentially carried out as described in Cataldi et al (2015). We used the "background normalisation" pipeline script within the Herschel interactive processing environment (HIPE) version 14.0 (Ott 2010).…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To compare the models with data, we computed a grid of models, deriving the corresponding angular distribution of line luminosity in the sky (as in Cataldi et al 2014) and then used synthetic PACS observations (as described in Cataldi et al 2015, but with the updated v6 of the PACS spectrometer beams) to produce a model spectrum for each spaxel to be compared with the observed data. that C and O is mixed together well, most spatial distributions tend to underproduce the 63 µm line in comparison to the 158 µm emission.…”

Section: Comparing Models To Observationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Herscheldetects oxygen in theβPictoris debris disk

Brandeker

Cataldi

Olofsson

et al. 2016

A&A

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The young star β Pictoris is well known for its dusty debris disk produced through collisional grinding of planetesimals, kilometre-sized bodies in orbit around the star. In addition to dust, small amounts of gas are also known to orbit the star; this gas is likely the result of vaporisation of violently colliding dust grains. The disk is seen edge on and from previous absorption spectroscopy we know that the gas is very rich in carbon relative to other elements. The oxygen content has been more difficult to assess, however, with early estimates finding very little oxygen in the gas at a C/O ratio that is 20× higher than the cosmic value. A C/O ratio that high is difficult to explain and would have far-reaching consequences for planet formation. Here we report on observations by the far-infrared space telescope Herschel, using PACS, of emission lines from ionised carbon and neutral oxygen. The detected emission from C + is consistent with that previously reported observed by the HIFI instrument on Herschel, while the emission from O is hard to explain without assuming a higher density region in the disk, perhaps in the shape of a clump or a dense torus required to sufficiently excite the O atoms. A possible scenario is that the C/O gas is produced by the same process responsible for the CO clump recently observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in the disk and that the redistribution of the gas takes longer than previously assumed. A more detailed estimate of the C/O ratio and the mass of O will have to await better constraints on the C/O gas spatial distribution.

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Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparing Models To Observationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herscheldetects oxygen in theβPictoris debris disk

Brandeker

Cataldi

Olofsson

et al. 2016

A&A

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“…This can occur through instabilities within the disc (Klahr & Lin 2005;Besla & Wu 2007) but requires a significant gas presence. Herschel PACS observations failed to detect C II and O I emission lines that would have been detected had the necessary quantities of gas been present in Fomalhaut A's disc (Cataldi et al 2015). Matrà et al (2017) do detect the presence of CO in Fomalhaut A's disc using ALMA, but not in sufficient amounts to generate the necessary instabilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

ALMA imaging of the M-dwarf Fomalhaut C’s debris disc

Cronin-Coltsmann

Kennedy

Kalas

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Fomalhaut C (LP 876-10) is a low mass M4V star in the intriguing Fomalhaut triple system and, like Fomalhaut A, possesses a debris disc. It is one of very few nearby M-dwarfs known to host a debris disc and of these has by far the lowest stellar mass. We present new resolved observations of the debris disc around Fomalhaut C with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array that allow us to model its properties and investigate the system’s unique history. The ring has a radius of 26 au and a narrow full width at half-maximum of at most 4.2 au. We find a 3σ upper limit on the eccentricity of 0.14, neither confirming nor ruling out previous dynamic interactions with Fomalhaut A that could have affected Fomalhaut C’s disc. We detect no 12CO J = 3-2 emission in the system and do not detect the disc in scattered light with HST/STIS or VLT/SPHERE. We find the original Herschel detection to be consistent with our ALMA model’s radial size. We place the disc in the context of the wider debris disc population and find that its radius is as expected from previous disc radius-host luminosity trends. Higher signal-to-noise observations of the system would be required to further constrain the disc properties and provide further insight to the history of the Fomalhaut triple system as a whole.

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“…Quillen 2006;Chiang et al 2009); while dustgas interactions can cause similarly sharp (Klahr & Lin 2005;Besla & Wu 2007) and potentially eccentric (e.g. Lyra & Kuchner 2013) features without planets, there is not enough gas in the Fomalhaut system for these types of effects to occur there (Cataldi et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tidal disruption versus planetesimal collisions as possible origins for the dispersing dust cloud around Fomalhaut

Janson

Cataldi

et al. 2020

A&A

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Recent analysis suggests that the faint optical point source observed around Fomalhaut from 2004–2014 (Fomalhaut b) is gradually fading and expanding, supporting the case that it may be a dispersing dust cloud resulting from the sudden disruption of a planetesimal. These types of disruptions may arise from catastrophic collisions of planetesimals, which are perturbed from their original orbits in the Fomalhaut dust ring by nearby giant planets. However, disruptions can also occur when the planetesimals pass within the tidal disruption field of the planet(s) that perturbed them in the first place, similar to the Shoemaker-Levy event observed in the Solar System. Given that a gravitationally focusing giant planet has a much larger interaction cross-section than a planetesimal, tidal disruption events can match or outnumber planetesimal collision events in realistic regions of parameter space. Intriguingly, the Fomalhaut dust cloud offers an opportunity to directly distinguish between these scenarios. A tidal disruption scenario leads to a very specific prediction of ephemerides for the planet causing the event. At a most probable mass of 66 M⊕, a semi-major axis of 117 AU, and a system age of 400–500 Myr, this planet would be readily detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. The presence or absence of this planet at the specific, predicted position is therefore a distinctive indicator of whether the dispersing cloud originated from a collision of two planetesimals or from the disruption of a planetesimal in the tidal field of a giant planet.

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Constraints on the gas content of the Fomalhaut debris belt

Cited by 11 publications

References 33 publications

Herscheldetects oxygen in theβPictoris debris disk

Herscheldetects oxygen in theβPictoris debris disk

ALMA imaging of the M-dwarf Fomalhaut C’s debris disc

Tidal disruption versus planetesimal collisions as possible origins for the dispersing dust cloud around Fomalhaut

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