Published in
American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1(818), p. L15, 2016
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8205/818/1/l15
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The PDS 66 circumstellar disk as seen in polarized light with the Gemini Planet Imager.
,
Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer,
Eric L. Nielsen ,
Jason Wang ,
Andrew Cardwell,
Jeffrey Chilcote,
Ruobing Dong,
Zachary H. Draper,
Gaspard Duchêne,
Michael P. Fitzgerald ,
Stephen J. Goodsell,
Carol A. Grady,
James R. Graham,
Alexandra Z. Greenbaum
and other authors.
Full text: Download
Abstract
We present H- and K-band imaging polarimetry for the PDS 66 circumstellar disk obtained during the commissioning of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). Polarization images reveal a clear detection of the disk in to the 0farcs12 inner working angle (IWA) in the H band, almost three times closer to the star than the previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations with NICMOS and STIS (0farcs35 effective IWA). The centro-symmetric polarization vectors confirm that the bright inner disk detection is due to circumstellar scattered light. A more diffuse disk extends to a bright outer ring centered at 80 AU. We discuss several physical mechanisms capable of producing the observed ring + gap structure. GPI data confirm enhanced scattering on the east side of the disk that is inferred to be nearer to us. We also detect a lateral asymmetry in the south possibly due to shadowing from material within the IWA. This likely corresponds to a temporally variable azimuthal asymmetry observed in HST/STIS coronagraphic imaging.