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arXiv · 1607.04280

Constraining the Movement of the Spiral Features and the Locations of Planetary Bodies within the AB Aur System

Abstract

We present new analysis of multi-epoch, H-band, scattered light images of the AB Aur system. We used a Monte Carlo, radiative transfer code to simultaneously model the system's SED and H-band polarized intensity imagery. We find that a disk-dominated model, as opposed to one that is envelope dominated, can plausibly reproduce AB Aur's SED and near-IR imagery. This is consistent with previous modeling attempts presented in the literature and supports the idea that at least a subset of AB Aur's spirals originate within the disk. In light of this, we also analyzed the movement of spiral structures in multi-epoch H-band total light and polarized intensity imagery of the disk. We detect no significant rotation or change in spatial location of the spiral structures in these data, which span a 5.8 year baseline. If such structures are caused by disk-planet interactions, the lack of observed rotation constrains the location of the orbit of planetary perturbers to be >47 AU.

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Jamie R. Lomax, John P. Wisniewski, Carol A. Grady, Michael W. McElwain, Jun Hashimoto, Tomoyuki Kudo, Nobuhiko Kusakabe, Yoshiko K. Okamoto, Misato Fukagawa, Lyu Abe, Wolfgang Brandner, Timothy D. Brandt, Joseph C. Carson, Thayne M. Currie, Sebastian Egner, Markus Feldt, Miwa Goto, Olivier Guyon, Yutaka Hayano, Masahiko Hayashi, Saeko S. Hayashi, Thomas Henning, Klaus W. Hodapp, Akio Inoue, Miki Ishii, Masanori Iye, Markus Janson, Ryo Kandori, Gillian R. Knapp, Masayuki Kuzuhara, Jungmi Kwon, Taro Matsuo, Satoshi Mayama, Shoken Miyama, Munetake Momose, Jun-Ichi Morino, Amaya Moro-Martin, Tetsuo Nishimura, Tae-Soo Pyo, Glenn H Schneider, Eugene Serabyn, Michael L. Sitko, Takuya Suenaga, Hiroshi Suto, Ryuji Suzuki, Yasuhiro H. Takahashi, Michihiro Takami, Naruhisa Takato, Hiroshi Terada, Christian Thalmann, Daigo Tomono, Edwin L. Turner, Makoto Watanabe, Toru Yamada, Hideki Takami, Tomonori Usuda, Motohide Tamura. 2016-07-14. Constraining the Movement of the Spiral Features and the Locations of Planetary Bodies within the AB Aur System. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637x/828/1/2

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