Signatures of Planets in Spatially Unresolved Disks

Computer Science

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Scientific paper

Imaging of approximately a dozen circumstellar disks in scattered light and thermal emission has revealed a variety of complex structures in these disks: inner holes, arcs, rings, warps, asymmetries and clumps. New spectroscopic observations, in particular with Spitzer, have also inferred the presence of dust clearing from the central regions of many more spatially unresolved systems. Some of these features are likely to be the result of gravitational perturbations by one or more massive planets on the dust disk via capture of dust in mean motion resonances (MMRs) with the planet and gravitational scattering of dust particles by the planet. This latter mechanism is very efficient in clearing up dust from the inner regions of the disk. We discuss the efficiency of particle ejection and the resulting dust density contrast inside and outside the orbit of the planet, as a function of the planet's mass and orbital elements and the particle size. We discuss its implications for exo-planetary debris disks and for the interpretation of in-situ dust detection experiments on space probes traveling in the outer solar system.
We show how the dust density structure carved by massive planets, in particular the inner depleted regions, affects the shape of the disk Spectral Energy Distribution (SED). The modeling of the disk SED, which depends on the grain properties (chemical composition, density and size distribution) and the mass and location of the perturbing planet, shows that a debris disk with embedded giant planets is fundamentally different from that of a disk without planets, the former showing a significant decrease of the near/mid-IR flux due to the clearing of dust inside the planet's orbit. The SED is particularly sensitive to the location of the planet, i.e. to the area interior to the planet's orbit that is depleted in dust, so in principle it is possible to use the SED of the spatially unresolved disk to infer the presence and location of perturbing bodies. However, we will see that there are some degeneracies that can complicate the interpretation of the SED in terms of planet location and ultimately spatially resolved observations are required.

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