Binary Debris Disks: Follow-on Observations of Spitzer Discoveries

Details Binary Debris Disks: Follow-on Observations of Spitzer Discoveries Binary Debris Disks: Follow-on Observations of Spitzer Discoveries

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50033s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50033

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We have completed a MIPS survey for debris disks in 63 A5-F5 main sequence binary systems having separations of 0 - 500 AU, placing the secondary within the planet-forming zone. All targets were detected at 24um; at 70um we observed 50 of the targets, detecting 50 of those at SNR > 3. A surprising result of the survey is that 18 of those systems (36%) display 70um emission in excess of the photospheres, a rate is larger than that seen for single stars of comparable age. The 9% excess rate we found at 24um is also high by that comparison. To explore this difference, we propose to complete the initial survey at 70um, and to refine the results for the systems that show excess emission. The systems lacking 70um data ~all have separations > 5 AU: completing the sample will balance the larger number of systems with 70um data and separations < 5AU. These data will provide the control sample for an approved MIPS cycle 4 survey of 50 close binaries, provide the link to existing results for single stars, and should turn up ~4 more debris disks. Our estimates for where the dust resides in these disk systems is crude, with typical errors on the distance between the stars and the dust of about one order of magnitude. We also propose to obtain IRS 7-38um spectra of 15 of the systems known to have excesses, and use the spectra to improve these uncertainties significantly. By modeling the shape of the emission spectrum, we will accurately locate the inner-edges of the disks. For circumbinary disks, the location of the inner-edge will provide tests of models for dynamical stability (of the dust parent bodies), and possibly provide evidence of planets on circumbinary orbits (if the inner-edge turns out to be well outside the region where it would be expected to be stable). For circumstellar disks, the location of the inner-edge may be diagnostic of the presence of planets on circumstellar orbits, if it is found to be well-removed from the star.

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