Location and origin of dust in circumstellar debris disks: A mid-infrared imaging study

Approximately one third of A-type stars host dusty disks beyond the expected timescales for dissipation of the primordial disk material. The primordial dust particles may either be blown out by radiation pressure from the star or they may experience destructive collisions that generate smaller particles that are then blown out of the system. We infer from the sustained presence of the dust that it must be resupplied through collisions of already-formed planets and planetesimals or through the sublimation of cometary bodies, and systems with such dust are called debris disks. Since the 1984 discovery of the debris disk Vega, observations of circumstellar debris disks have revealed the presence planetary systems that would otherwise have remained unknown.

In this work, we set out to find asymmetric structures in debris disks that would indicate a physical process sculpting the disk, such as a catastrophic planetesimal collision that generates a bright region of newly-formed dust, or a clumpy pattern comprised of dust that is trapped in an orbital resonance with a giant planet. We obtained high spatial resolution ([Special characters omitted.] 0.5") images of the thermally emitting dust in 21 debris disk candidates (some of which are now known not to be debris disks), and in most cases we did not detect any brightness asymmetry nor was the source even spatially resolved.

However, among the resolved disks, we have discovered several structures that may be analogous to those in our own solar system, such as a potential asteroid belts (in z Lep) and a snow line (in HD 32297). One brightness asymmetry is seen, in the disk of 16 HR 4796A, and we have determined that the bright side of the disk is also hotter than the opposite side. We review the possible origins of such a temperature asymmetry in the dust disk, such as pericenter glow and resonant trapping, and this investigation is ongoing. More generally, two disk archetypes are observed among all of the disks in this sample: Kuiper Belt analogs (four) and asteroid belt analogs (two). The asteroid belt analog is a new archetype among the overall group ([Special characters omitted.] 20) of spatially resolved debris disks, and its impact on descriptions of planetary system architecture will be better understood as the sample of resolved disks grows.