Using debris disk observations to infer exoplanets orbiting within or outside a planetesimal belt

We analyzed the potential to infer the presence of an exoplanet via spatially resolved observations of a coexisting debris disk.Using numerical simulations, we investigated the observable effects on a cold debris disk that are caused by secular gravitational perturbations. The perturbations originate from an exoplanet on an eccentric orbit either within (~ 40 au) or outside (~ 500 au) the planetesimal belt. We identified features in the resulting brightness distributions that are suitable to distinguish between those two types of systems and showed that these features are possibly detectable with present observatories, especially with combined observations using JWST/MIRI and ALMA.