Debris disks in tight binary systems

Details Debris disks in tight binary systems Debris disks in tight binary systems

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40078r&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #40078

Computer Science

Scientific paper

The majority of solar-type and earlier main sequence stars in the local galaxy are in multiple (binary or higher) systems. Understanding planet formation in binary systems is critical to an overall understanding of planet formation. We have recently completed a Spitzer/MIPS program to study the properties of debris disks in 69 'old' (>600 Myr) A3-F8 binary systems. Our most surprising result is that a very large fraction (57%) of observed binary systems with small (<3 AU) separations have excess thermal emission, implying circumbinary disks. This excess rate is substantially higher than the rate for single stars of comparable age and spectral type and is also higher than that for our larger binaries sample. This 'excess of excess' for tight binaries appears to be a real effect but is formally only a 1.5-sigma departure from the single star rate. The small significance of our result is largely due to the small number of stars in the original survey, with just 21 tight binaries in that sample. We propose here to observe 40 additional small separation (<3 AU) binary systems in order to confirm our intriguing but statistically underwhelming result that tight binary systems have a very high incidence of debris disks. A secondary goal is to explore the dependence of the excess rate for tight binaries on spectral type and on system age. This may potentially help reveal which mechanisms are responsible for the tight binaries result. Our results will provide a sample of debris disks in tight binaries that, when taken together with the original sample, will motivate and inform theoretical models of planetary formation and evolution in binary systems.

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