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The radial structure of debris discs can encode important information about their dynamical and collisional history. In this paper we present a 3-phase analytical model to analyse the collisional evolution of solids in debris discs, focusing on their joint radial and temporal dependence. Consistent with previous models, we find that as the largest planetesimals reach collisional equilibrium in the inner regions, the surface density of dust and solids becomes proportional to $\sim r^{2}$ within a certain critical radius. We present simple equations to estimate the critical radius and surface density of dust as a function of the maximum planetesimal size and initial surface density in solids (and vice versa). We apply this model to ALMA observations of 7 wide debris discs. We use both parametric and non-parametric modelling to test if their inner edges are shallow and consistent with collisional evolution. We find that 4 out of 7 have inner edges consistent with collisional evolution. Three of these would require small maximum planetesimal sizes below 10 km, with HR 8799's disc potentially lacking solids larger than a few centimeters. The remaining systems have inner edges that are much sharper, which requires maximum planetesimal sizes $\gtrsim10$ km. Their sharp inner edges suggest they could have been truncated by planets, which JWST could detect. In the context of our model, we find that the 7 discs require surface densities below a Minimum Mass Solar Nebula, avoiding the so-called disc mass problem. Finally, during the modelling of HD 107146 we discover that its wide gap is split into two narrower ones, which could be due to two low-mass planets formed within the disc., Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 21 pages, 11 figures

Full list of authors: Hinkley, Sasha; Carter, Aarynn L.; Ray, Shrishmoy; Skemer, Andrew; Biller, Beth; Choquet, Elodie; Millar-Blanchaer, Maxwell A.; Sallum, Stephanie; Miles, Brittany; Whiteford, Niall; Patapis, Polychronis; Perrin, Marshall; Pueyo, Laurent; Schneider, Glenn; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Wang, Jason; Ward-Duong, Kimberly; Bowler, Brendan P.; Boccaletti, Anthony; Girard, Julien H.; Hines, Dean; Kalas, Paul; Kammerer, Jens; Kervella, Pierre; Leisenring, Jarron; Pantin, Eric; Zhou, Yifan; Meyer, Michael; Liu, Michael C.; Bonnefoy, Mickael; Currie, Thayne; McElwain, Michael; Metchev, Stanimir; Wyatt, Mark; Absil, Olivier; Adams, Jea; Barman, Travis; Baraffe, Isabelle; Bonavita, Mariangela; Booth, Mark; Bryan, Marta; Chauvin, Gael; Chen, Christine; Danielski, Camilla; De Furio, Matthew; Factor, Samuel M.; Fitzgerald, Michael P.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Grady, Carol; Greenbaum, Alexandra; Henning, Thomas; Hoch, Kielan K. W.; Janson, Markus; Kennedy, Grant; Kenworthy, Matthew; Kraus, Adam; Kuzuhara, Masayuki; Lagage, Pierre-Olivier; Lagrange, Anne-Marie; Launhardt, Ralf; Lazzoni, Cecilia; Lloyd, James; Marino, Sebastian; Marley, Mark; Martinez, Raquel; Marois, Christian; Matthews, Brenda; Matthews, Elisabeth C.; Mawet, Dimitri; Mazoyer, Johan; Phillips, Mark; Petrus, Simon; Quanz, Sascha P.; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Rameau, Julien; Rebollido, Isabel; Rickman, Emily; Samland, Matthias; Sargent, B.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Sivaramakrishnan, Anand; Stone, Jordan M.; Tamura, Motohide; Tremblin, Pascal; Uyama, Taichi; Vasist, Malavika; Vigan, Arthur; Wagner, Kevin; Ygouf, Marie.--This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., The direct characterization of exoplanetary systems with high-contrast imaging is among the highest priorities for the broader exoplanet community. As large space missions will be necessary for detecting and characterizing exo-Earth twins, developing the techniques and technology for direct imaging of exoplanets is a driving focus for the community. For the first time, JWST will directly observe extrasolar planets at mid-infrared wavelengths beyond 5 μm, deliver detailed spectroscopy revealing much more precise chemical abundances and atmospheric conditions, and provide sensitivity to analogs of our solar system ice-giant planets at wide orbital separations, an entirely new class of exoplanet. However, in order to maximize the scientific output over the lifetime of the mission, an exquisite understanding of the instrumental performance of JWST is needed as early in the mission as possible. In this paper, we describe our 55 hr Early Release Science Program that will utilize all four JWST instruments to extend the characterization of planetary-mass companions to ∼15 μm as well as image a circumstellar disk in the mid-infrared with unprecedented sensitivity. Our program will also assess the performance of the observatory in the key modes expected to be commonly used for exoplanet direct imaging and spectroscopy, optimize data calibration and processing, and generate representative data sets that will enable a broad user base to effectively plan for general observing programs in future Cycles. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved., This project was supported by a grant from STScI (JWST-ERS-01386) under NASA contract NAS5-03127. M.T.is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No.18H05442. M.B. acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through grant Kr 2164/13–2. K.W. acknowledges support from NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51472.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555., With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.

The question of what determines the width of Kuiper belt analogues (exoKuiper belts) is an open one. If solved, this understanding would provide valuable insights into the architecture, dynamics, and formation of exoplanetary systems. Recent observations by ALMA have revealed an apparent paradox in this field, the presence of radially narrow belts in protoplanetary discs that are likely the birthplaces of planetesimals, and exoKuiper belts nearly four times as wide in mature systems. If the parent planetesimals of this type of debris disc indeed form in these narrow protoplanetary rings via streaming instability where dust is trapped, we propose that this width dichotomy could naturally arise if these dust traps form planetesimals whilst migrating radially, e.g. as caused by a migrating planet. Using the dust evolution software DustPy, we find that if the initial protoplanetary disc and trap conditions favour planetesimal formation, dust can still effectively accumulate and form planetesimals as the trap moves. This leads to a positive correlation between the inward radial speed and final planetesimal belt width, forming belts up to $\sim$100 au over 10 Myr of evolution. We show that although planetesimal formation is most efficient in low viscosity ($\alpha = 10^{-4}$) discs with steep dust traps to trigger the streaming instability, the large widths of most observed planetesimal belts constrain $\alpha$ to values $\geq4\times 10^{-4}$ at tens of au, otherwise the traps cannot migrate far enough. Additionally, the large spread in the widths and radii of exoKuiper belts could be due to different trap migration speeds (or protoplanetary disc lifetimes) and different starting locations, respectively. Our work serves as a first step to link exoKuiper belts and rings in protoplanetary discs., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 15 pages,12 figures

Context. Dynamical and turbulent motions of gas in a protoplanetary disk are crucial for their evolution and affect planet formation. Recent observations suggest weak turbulence in the disk's outer regions. However, the physical mechanism of turbulence in these outer regions remains uncertain. The vertical shear instability (VSI) is a promising mechanism to produce turbulence in disks. Aims. Our aim is to study the observability of the gas velocity structure produced by the VSI via CO kinematics with ALMA. Methods. We perform global 3D hydrodynamical simulations of a VSI-unstable disk. We post-process the simulation results with radiative transfer calculations, and produce synthetic predictions of CO rotational emission lines. Following, we compute the line of sight velocity map, and its deviations from a sub-Keplerian equilibrium solution. We explore the detectability of the VSI by identifying kinematic signatures using realistic simulated observations. Results. Our 3D simulations of the VSI show the steady state dynamics of the gas in great detail. From the velocity structure we infer a turbulent stress value of $\alpha_{r\phi}=1.4 \times 10^{-4}$. On large scales, we observe velocity deviations of 50 m s$^{-1}$ as axisymmetric rings. We find optimal conditions at $i \lesssim 20^{\circ}$ to trace for the kinematic structures of the VSI. We found that current diagnostics to constrain gas turbulence from non-thermal broadening of the line emission are not applicable to anisotropic VSI turbulence. Conclusions. The detection of kinematic signatures produced by the VSI is possible with ALMA. Observations including an extended antenna configuration combined with the highest spectral resolution available are needed for robust detection. The characterization of the large-scale velocity perturbations is required to constrain the turbulence level produced by the VSI from gas observations., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 17 pages with 10 figures and 1 table

Recent observations of resolved cold debris disks at tens of au have revealed that gaps could be a common feature in these Kuiper belt analogues. Such gaps could be evidence for the presence of planets within the gaps or closer-in near the edges of the disk. We present SPHERE observations of HD 92945 and HD 107146, two systems with detected gaps. We constrained the mass of possible companions responsible for the gap to 1-2 M Jup for planets located inside the gap and to less than 5 M Jup for separations down to 20 au from the host star. These limits allow us to exclude some of the possible configurations of the planetary systems proposed to explain the shape of the disks around these two stars. In order to put tighter limits on the mass at very short separations from the star, where direct imaging data are less effective, we also combined our data with astrometric measurements from Hipparcos and Gaia and radial velocity measurements. We were able to limit the separation and the mass of the companion potentially responsible for the proper motion anomaly of HD 107146 to values of 2-7 au and 2-5 M Jup , respectively., Comment: 17 pages, 14 Figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS

Self-assembly is one of the crucial mechanisms allowing to design multifunctional materials. Soft hybrid materials contain components of different nature and exhibit competitive interactions which drive self-organisation into structures of a particular function. Here we demonstrate a novel type of a magnetic hybrid material where the molecular tilt can be manipulated through a delicate balance between the topologically-assisted colloidal self-assembly of \rev{magnetic nanoparticles} and the anisotropic molecular interactions in a liquid crystal matrix.

Debris disks are tenuous, dusty belts surrounding main sequence stars generated by collisions between planetesimals. HD 206893 is one of only two stars known to host a directly imaged brown dwarf orbiting interior to its debris ring, in this case at a projected separation of 10.4 au. Here we resolve structure in the debris disk around HD 206893 at an angular resolution of 0.6" (24 au) and wavelength of 1.3 mm with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We observe a broad disk extending from a radius of, 24 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

Young giant planets and brown dwarf companions emit near-infrared radiation that can be linearly polarized up to several percent. This polarization can reveal the presence of a circumsubstellar accretion disk, rotation-induced oblateness of the atmosphere, or an inhomogeneous distribution of atmospheric dust clouds. We measured the near-infrared linear polarization of 20 known directly imaged exoplanets and brown dwarf companions with the high-contrast imager SPHERE-IRDIS at the VLT. We reduced the data using the IRDAP pipeline to correct for the instrumental polarization and crosstalk with an absolute polarimetric accuracy, Accepted for publication in A&A. Shortened abstract. 29 pages, 22 figures

Context. Planetary systems and debris discs are natural by-products of the star formation process, and they affect each other. The direct imaging technique allows simultaneous imaging of both a companion and the circumstellar disc it resides in, and is thus a valuable tool to study companion-disc interactions. However, the number of systems in which a companion and a disc have been detected at the same time remains low. Aims. Our aim is to increase this sample, and to continue detecting and studying the population of giant planets in wide orbits. Methods. We carry out the L′ band Imaging Survey for Exoplanets in the North (LIStEN), which targeted 28 nearby stars: 24 are known to harbour a debris disc (DD) and the remaining 4 are protoplanetary disc-hosting stars. We aim to detect possible new companions, and study the interactions between the companion and their discs. Angular differential imaging observations were carried out in the L′ band at 3.8 μm using the LMIRCam instrument at the LBT, between October 2017 and April 2019. Results. No new companions were detected. We combined the derived mass detection limits with information on the disc, and on the proper motion of the host star, to constrain the presence of unseen planetary and low-mass stellar companion around the 24 disc-hosting stars in our survey. We find that 2 have an uncertain DD status and the remaining 22 have disc sizes compatible with self-stirring. Three targets show a proper motion anomaly (PMa) compatible with the presence of an unseen companion. Conclusions. Our achieved mass limits combined with the PMa analysis for HD 113337 support the presence of a second companion around the star, as suggested in previous RV studies. Our mass limits also help to tighten the constraints on the mass and semi-major axis of the unseen companions around HD 161868 and HD 8907.

Context. The detection and characterization of planets and debris disks is a very active field in current research. The F5V star HD 206893 hosts a ~25 M Jup brown dwarf detected at ~10 au in VLT/SPHERE high-contrast images. This system is also known to host a debris disk, which is inferred from its high infrared excess. This disk was recently resolved in thermal submillimeter imaging with ALMA and extends from 30 to 180 au, with a ~27 au wide gap at ~74 au.Aims. Our goal is to search for the scattered light emission of the disk using the largest amount of SPHERE imaging data available to date. We also want to bring tighter constraints on the presence of additional low-mass companions based on the available multi-epoch high-contrast imaging data.Methods. We analyzed six epochs of SPHERE near-infrared data, processed with angular, polarimetric, and reference differential imaging, in order to detect the disk around HD 206893.Results. We do not detect the debris disk. Based on recent constraints on the disk morphology from ALMA data, this non-detection is compatible with a maximum albedo of 0.55 in the H band and 0.96 in the K band. Furthermore, we do not detect additional low-mass companions in the system. A low-mass companion is expected from radial velocity and astrometric measurements between 1.4 and 2.6 au, and we estimate our probability of detection higher than 90% for brown dwarfs more massive than 55 M Jup in this separation range. At 74 au, where a gap is detected in the disk in thermal imaging, this probability of detection corresponds to planets above 2.5 M Jup .Conclusions. The non-detection of the disk through the methods used in this study should not exclude an attempt with other techniques, such as advanced reference-star differential imaging using machine-learning-based libraries or star hopping. Furthermore, the future JWST instrument NIRCam might offer the possibility of detecting the disk in scattered light thanks to its increased sensitivity.

We observed the K7 class III star NO Lup in an ALMA survey of the 1-3 Myr Lupus association and detected circumstellar dust and CO gas. Here we show that the J = 3-2 CO emission is both spectrally and spatially resolved, with a broad velocity width ${\sim}19$kms$^{-1}$ for its resolved size ${\sim}1''$ (${\sim}130$ au). We model the gas emission as a Keplerian disc, finding consistency, but only with a central mass of ${\sim}11M_{\odot}$, which is implausible given its spectral type and X-Shooter spectrum. A good fit to the data can also be found by modelling the CO emission as outflowing gas with a radial velocity ${\sim}22$kms$^{-1}$. We interpret NO Lup's CO emission as the first imaged class III circumstellar disc with outflowing gas. We conclude that the CO is continually replenished, but cannot say if this is from the break-up of icy planetesimals or from the last remnants of the protoplanetary disc. We suggest further work to explore the origin of this CO, and its higher than expected velocity in comparison to photoevaporative models., 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS following peer review (this is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF version)

The Vega planetary system hosts the archetype of extrasolar Kuiper belts, and is rich in dust from the sub-au region out to 100's of au, suggesting intense dynamical activity. We present ALMA mm observations that detect and resolve the outer dust belt from the star for the first time. The interferometric visibilities show that the belt can be fit by a Gaussian model or by power-law models with a steep inner edge (at 60-80 au). The belt is very broad, extending out to at least 150-200 au. We strongly detect the star and set a stringent upper limit to warm dust emission previously detected in the infrared. We discuss three scenarios that could explain the architecture of Vega's planetary system, including the new {ALMA} constraints: no outer planets, a chain of low-mass planets, and a single giant planet. The planet-less scenario is only feasible if the outer belt was born with the observed sharp inner edge. If instead the inner edge is currently being truncated by a planet, then the planet must be $\gtrsim$6 M$_{\oplus}$ and at $\lesssim71$ au to have cleared its chaotic zone within the system age. In the planet chain scenario, outward planet migration and inward scattering of planetesimals could produce the hot and warm dust observed in the inner regions of the system. In the single giant planet scenario, an asteroid belt could be responsible for the warm dust, and mean motion resonances with the planet could put asteroids on star-grazing orbits, producing the hot dust., 18 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

The presence of CO gas around 10-50 Myr old A stars with debris discs has sparked debate on whether the gas is primordial or secondary. Since secondary gas released from planetesimals is poor in H$_2$, it was thought that CO would quickly photodissociate never reaching the high levels observed around the majority of A stars with bright debris discs. Kral et al. 2019 showed that neutral carbon produced by CO photodissociation can effectively shield CO and potentially explain the high CO masses around 9 A stars with bright debris discs. Here we present a new model that simulates the gas viscous evolution, accounting for carbon shielding and how the gas release rate decreases with time as the planetesimal disc loses mass. We find that the present gas mass in a system is highly dependant on its evolutionary path. Since gas is lost on long timescales, it can retain a memory of the initial disc mass. Moreover, we find that gas levels can be out of equilibrium and quickly evolving from a shielded onto an unshielded state. With this model, we build the first population synthesis of gas around A stars, which we use to constrain the disc viscosity. We find a good match with a high viscosity ($\alpha\sim0.1$), indicating that gas is lost on timescales $\sim1-10$ Myr. Moreover, our model also shows that high CO masses are not expected around FGK stars since their planetesimal discs are born with lower masses, explaining why shielded discs are only found around A stars. Finally, we hypothesise that the observed carbon cavities could be due to radiation pressure or accreting planets., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 23 pages, 13 figures

Demographic surveys of protoplanetary disks, carried out mainly with ALMA, have provided access to a large range of disk dust masses ($M_{\rm{dust}}$) around stars with different stellar types and in different star-forming regions. These surveys found a power-law relation between $M_{\rm{dust}}$ and $M_{\star}$ that steepens in time, but which is also flatter for transition disks (TDs). We performed dust evolution models, which included perturbations to the gas surface density with different amplitudes to investigate the effect of particle trapping on the $M_{\rm{dust}}-M_{\star}$ relation. These perturbations were aimed at mimicking pressure bumps that originated from planets. We focused on the effect caused by different stellar and disk masses based on exoplanet statistics that demonstrate a dependence of planet mass on stellar mass and metallicity. Models of dust evolution can reproduce the observed $M_{\rm{dust}}-M_{\star}$ relation in different star-forming regions when strong pressure bumps are included and when the disk mass scales with stellar mass (case of $M_{\rm{disk}}=0.05\,M_\star$ in our models). This result arises from dust trapping and dust growth beyond centimeter-sized grains inside pressure bumps. However, the flatter relation of $M_{\rm{dust}}-M_{\star}$ for TDs and disks with substructures cannot be reproduced by the models unless the formation of boulders is inhibited inside pressure bumps. In the context of pressure bumps originating from planets, our results agree with current exoplanet statistics on giant planet occurrence increasing with stellar mass, but we cannot draw a conclusion about the type of planets needed in the case of low-mass stars. This is attributed to the fact that for $M_\star, Accepted for publication in A&A, minor changes after language edition

Low mass stars might offer today the best opportunities to detect and characterise planetary systems, especially those harbouring close-in low mass temperate planets. Among those stars, TRAPPIST-1 is exceptional since it has seven Earth-sized planets, of which three could sustain liquid water on their surfaces. Here we present new and deep ALMA observations of TRAPPIST-1 to look for an exo-Kuiper belt which can provide clues about the formation and architecture of this system. Our observations at 0.88 mm did not detect dust emission, but can place an upper limit of 23$��$Jy if the belt is smaller than 4 au, and 0.15 mJy if resolved and 100 au in radius. These limits correspond to low dust masses of $\sim10^{-5}-10^{-2}$ $M_\oplus$, which are expected after 8 Gyr of collisional evolution unless the system was born with a $>20$ $M_\oplus$ belt of 100 km-sized planetesimals beyond 40 au or suffered a dynamical instability. This $20$ $M_\oplus$ mass upper limit is comparable to the combined mass in TRAPPIST-1 planets, thus it is possible that most of the available solid mass in this system was used to form the known planets. A similar analysis of the ALMA data on Proxima Cen leads us to conclude that a belt born with a mass $\gtrsim1$ $M_\oplus$ in 100 km-sized planetesimals could explain its putative outer belt at 30 au. We recommend that future characterisations of debris discs around low mass stars should focus on nearby and young systems if possible., accepted for publication in MNRAS, 7 pages, 5 figures

Resolved ALMA and VLA observations indicate the existence of two dust traps in the protoplanetary disc MWC 758. By means of 2D gas+dust hydrodynamical simulations post-processed with 3D dust radiative transfer calculations, we show that the spirals in scattered light, the eccentric, asymmetric ring and the crescent-shaped structure in the (sub)millimetre can all be caused by two giant planets: a 1.5-Jupiter mass planet at 35 au (inside the spirals) and a 5-Jupiter mass planet at 140 au (outside the spirals). The outer planet forms a dust-trapping vortex at the inner edge of its gap (at ~85 au), and the continuum emission of this dust trap reproduces the ALMA and VLA observations well. The outer planet triggers several spiral arms which are similar to those observed in polarised scattered light. The inner planet also forms a vortex at the outer edge of its gap (at ~50 au), but it decays faster than the vortex induced by the outer planet, as a result of the disc's turbulent viscosity. The vortex decay can explain the eccentric inner ring seen with ALMA as well as the low signal and larger azimuthal spread of this dust trap in VLA observations. Finding the thermal and kinematic signatures of both giant planets could verify the proposed scenario., 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The inclination distribution of the Kuiper belt provides unique constraints on its origin and dynamical evolution, motivating vertically resolved observations of extrasolar planetesimal belts. We present ALMA observations of millimeter emission in the near edge-on planetesimal belt around $\beta$ Pictoris, finding that the vertical distribution is significantly better described by the sum of two Gaussians compared to a single Gaussian. This indicates that, as for the Kuiper belt, the inclination distribution of $\beta$ Pic's belt is better described by the sum of dynamically hot and cold populations rather than a single component. The hot and cold populations have RMS inclinations of 8.9$^{+0.7}_{-0.5}$ and 1.1$^{+0.5}_{-0.5}$ degrees. We also report that an axisymmetric belt model provides a good fit to new and archival ALMA visibilities, and confirm that the midplane is misaligned with respect to $\beta$ Pic b's orbital plane. However, we find no significant evidence for either the inner disk tilt observed in scattered light and CO emission or the South-West/North-East (SW/NE) asymmetry previously reported for millimeter emission. Finally, we consider the origin of the belt's inclination distribution. Secular perturbations from $\beta$ Pic b are unlikely to provide sufficient dynamical heating to explain the hot population throughout the belt's radial extent, and viscous stirring from large bodies within the belt alone cannot reproduce the two populations observed. This argues for an alternative or additional scenario, such as planetesimals being born with high inclinations, or the presence of a `$\beta$ Pic c' planet, potentially migrating outwards near the belt's inner edge., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures; Accepted for publication in AJ

The large crescents imaged by ALMA in transition disks suggest that azimuthal dust trapping concentrates the larger grains, but centimetre-wavelengths continuum observations are required to map the distribution of the largest observable grains. A previous detection at ~1cm of an unresolved clump along the outer ring of MWC758 (Clump1), and buried inside more extended sub-mm continuum, motivates followup VLA observations. Deep multiconfiguration integrations reveal the morphology of Clump 1 and additional cm-wave components which we characterize via comparison with a deconvolution of recent 342GHz data (~1mm). Clump1, which concentrates ~1/3 of the whole disk flux density at ~1cm, is resolved as a narrow arc with a deprojected aspect ratio Chi>5.6, and with half the azimuthal width than at 342 GHz. The spectral trends in the morphology of Clump1 are quantitatively consistent with the Lyra-Lin prescriptions for dust trapping in an anticyclonic vortex, provided with porous grains (f~0.2+-0.2) in a very elongated (Chi~14+-3) and cold (T~23+-2K) vortex. The same prescriptions constrain the turbulence parameter alpha and the gas surface density Sigma_g through log10( alpha x Sigma_g /g/cm2)~-2.3+-0.4, thus requiring values for Sigma_g larger than a factor of a few compared to that reported in the literature from the CO isotopologues, if alpha, Comment: accepted to MNRAS

Debris disks are extrasolar analogs to our own Kuiper Belt and they are detected around at least 17% of nearby Sun-like stars. The morphology and dynamics of a disk encode information about its history, as well as that of any exoplanets within the system. We used ALMA to obtain 1.3 mm observations of the debris disk around the nearby F5V star HD 170773. We image the face-on ring and determine its fundamental parameters by forward-modeling the interferometric visibilities through a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach. Using a symmetric Gaussian surface density profile, we find a 71 $\pm$ 4 au wide belt with a radius of 193$^{+2}_{-3}$ au, a relatively large radius compared to most other millimeter-resolved belts around late A / early F type stars. This makes HD 170773 part of a group of four disks around A and F stars with radii larger than expected from the recently reported planetesimal belt radius - stellar luminosity relation. Two of these systems are known to host directly imaged giant planets, which may point to a connection between large belts and the presence of long-period giant planets. We also set upper limits on the presence of CO and CN gas in the system, which imply that the exocomets that constitute this belt have CO and HCN ice mass fractions of, 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted to ApJ

The young A0V star HR 4796A is host to a bright and narrow ring of dust, thought to originate in collisions between planetesimals within a belt analogous to the Solar System's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. Here we present high spatial resolution 880$\mu$m continuum images from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. The 80au radius dust ring is resolved radially with a characteristic width of 10au, consistent with the narrow profile seen in scattered light. Our modelling consistently finds that the disk is also vertically resolved with a similar extent. However, this extent is less than the beam size, and a disk that is dynamically very cold (i.e. vertically thin) provides a better theoretical explanation for the narrow scattered light profile, so we remain cautious about this conclusion. We do not detect $^{12}$CO J=3-2 emission, concluding that unless the disk is dynamically cold the CO+CO$_2$ ice content of the planetesimals is of order a few percent or less. We consider the range of semi-major axes and masses of an interior planet supposed to cause the ring's eccentricity, finding that such a planet should be more massive than Neptune and orbit beyond 40au. Independent of our ALMA observations, we note a conflict between mid-IR pericenter-glow and scattered light imaging interpretations, concluding that models where the spatial dust density and grain size vary around the ring should be explored., Comment: accepted to MNRAS

We present 3D hydrodynamical models of the HD142527 protoplanetary disc, a bright and well studied disc that shows spirals and shadows in scattered light around a 100 au gas cavity, a large horseshoe dust structure in mm continuum emission, together with mysterious fast radial flows and streamers seen in gas kinematics. By considering several possible orbits consistent with the observed arc, we show that all of the main observational features can be explained by one mechanism - the interaction between the disc and the observed binary companion. We find that the spirals, shadows and horseshoe are only produced in the correct position angles by a companion on an inclined and eccentric orbit approaching periastron - the 'red' family from Lacour et al. (2016). Dust-gas simulations show radial and azimuthal concentration of dust around the cavity, consistent with the observed horseshoe. The success of this model in the HD142527 disc suggests other mm-bright transition discs showing cavities, spirals and dust asymmetries may also be explained by the interaction with central companions., 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Movies at http://users.monash.edu.au/~dprice/pubs/HD142527/

The TRAPPIST-1 system is unique in that it has a chain of seven terrestrial Earth-like planets located close to or in its habitable zone. In this paper, we study the effect of potential cometary impacts on the TRAPPIST-1 planets and how they would affect the primordial atmospheres of these planets. We consider both atmospheric mass loss and volatile delivery with a view to assessing whether any sort of life has a chance to develop. We ran N-body simulations to investigate the orbital evolution of potential impacting comets, to determine which planets are more likely to be impacted and the distributions of impact velocities. We consider three scenarios that could potentially throw comets into the inner region (i.e within 0.1au where the seven planets are located) from an (as yet undetected) outer belt similar to the Kuiper belt or an Oort cloud: Planet scattering, the Kozai-Lidov mechanism and Galactic tides. For the different scenarios, we quantify, for each planet, how much atmospheric mass is lost and what mass of volatiles can be delivered over the age of the system depending on the mass scattered out of the outer belt. We find that the resulting high velocity impacts can easily destroy the primordial atmospheres of all seven planets, even if the mass scattered from the outer belt is as low as that of the Kuiper belt. However, we find that the atmospheres of the outermost planets f, g and h can also easily be replenished with cometary volatiles (e.g. $\sim$ an Earth ocean mass of water could be delivered). These scenarios would thus imply that the atmospheres of these outermost planets could be more massive than those of the innermost planets, and have volatiles-enriched composition., accepted to MNRAS. We now quantify the amount of water lost owing to impacts

HR8799 is a benchmark system for direct imaging studies. It hosts two debris belts, which lie internally and externally to four giant planets. This paper considers how the four known planets and a possible fifth planet, interact with the external population of debris through N-body simulations. We find that when only the known planets are included, the inner edge of the outer belt predicted by our simulations is much closer to the outermost planet than recent ALMA observations suggest. We subsequently include a fifth planet in our simulations with a range of masses and semi-major axes, which is external to the outermost known planet. We find that a fifth planet with a mass and semi-major axis of 0.1$\mathrm{M_J}$ and 138au predicts an outer belt that agrees well with ALMA observations, whilst remaining stable for the lifetime of HR8799 and lying below current direct imaging detection thresholds. We also consider whether inward scattering of material from the outer belt can input a significant amount of mass into the inner belt. We find that for the current age of HR8799, only $\sim$1\% of the mass loss rate of the inner disk can be replenished by inward scattering. However we find that the higher rate of inward scattering during the first $\sim$10Myr of HR8799 would be expected to cause warm dust emission at a level similar to that currently observed, which may provide an explanation for such bright emission in other systems at $\sim10$Myr ages., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Low-mass stars build a significant fraction of their total mass during short outbursts of enhanced accretion known as FUor and EXor outbursts. FUor objects are characterized by a sudden brightening of ~5 magnitudes at visible wavelengths within one year and remain bright for decades. EXor objects have lower amplitude outbursts on shorter timescales. Here we discuss a 1.3 mm ALMA mini-survey of eight outbursting sources (three FUor, four EXor, and the borderline object V1647 Ori) in the Orion Molecular Cloud. While previous papers in this series discuss the remarkable molecular outflows observed in the three FUor objects and V1647 Ori, here we focus on the continuum data and the differences and similarities between the FUor and EXor populations. We find that FUor discs are significantly more massive (~80-600 M_JUP) than the EXor objects (~0.5-40 M_JUP ). We also report that the EXor sources lack the prominent outflows seen in the FUor population. Even though our sample is small, the large differences in disc masses and outflow activity suggest that the two types of objects represent different evolutionary stages. The FUor sources seem to be rather compact (Rc < 20-40 au) and to have a smaller characteristic radius for a given disc mass when compared to T Tauri stars. V1118 Ori, the only known close binary systemin our sample, is shown to host a disc around each one of the stellar components. The disc around HBC 494 is asymmetric, hinting at a structure in the outer disc or the presence of a second disc., 13 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication at MNRAS

An increasing number of observations have shown that gaseous debris discs are not an exception. However, until now we only knew of cases around A stars. Here we present the first detection of 12CO (2-1) disc emission around an F star, HD 181327, obtained with ALMA observations at 1.3 mm. The continuum and CO emission are resolved into an axisymmetric disc with ring-like morphology. Using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method coupled with radiative transfer calculations we study the dust and CO mass distribution. We find the dust is distributed in a ring with a radius of 86.0 +- 0.4 AU and a radial width of 23.2 +- 1.0 AU. At this frequency the ring radius is smaller than in the optical, revealing grain size segregation expected due to radiation pressure. We also report on the detection of low level continuum emission beyond the main ring out to ~200 AU. We model the CO emission in the non-LTE regime and we find that the CO is co-located with the dust, with a total CO gas mass ranging between 1.2x10^-6 Mearth and 2.9x10^-6 Mearth, depending on the gas kinetic temperature and collisional partners densities. The CO densities and location suggest a secondary origin, i.e. released from icy planetesimals in the ring. We derive a CO+CO2 cometary composition that is consistent with Solar system comets. Due to the low gas densities it is unlikely that the gas is shaping the dust distribution., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

HD 142527A is one of the most studied Herbig Ae/Be stars with a transitional disk, as it has the largest imaged gap in any protoplanetary disk: the gas is cleared from 30 to 90 AU. The HD142527 system is also unique in that it has a stellar companion with a small mass compared to the mass of the primary star. This factor of ~20 in mass ratio between the two objects makes this binary system different from any other YSO. The HD142527 system could therefore provide a valuable test bed. This low-mass stellar object may be responsible for both the gap and dust trapping observed by ALMA at longer distances. We observed this system with the NACO and GPI instruments using the aperture masking technique. Aperture masking is ideal for providing high dynamic range even at very small angular separations. We present the spectral energy distribution for HD142527A and B. Brightness of the companion is now known from the R band up to the M' band. We also followed the orbital motion of HD 142527B over a period of more than two years. The SED of the companion is compatible with a T=3000+/-100K object in addition to a 1700K blackbody environment (likely a circus-secondary disk). From evolution models, we find that it is compatible with an object of mass 0.13+/-0.03Msun, radius 0.90+/-0.15Rsun, and age $1.0^{+1.0}_{-0.75}$Myr. This age is significantly younger than the age previously estimated for HD142527A. Computations to constrain the orbital parameters found a semi major axis of $140^{+120}_{-70}$mas, an eccentricity of 0.5+/-0.2, an inclination of 125+/-15 degrees, and a position angle of the right ascending node of -5+/-40 degrees. Inclination and position angle of the ascending node are in agreement with an orbit coplanar with the inner disk, not coplanar with the outer disk. Despite its high eccentricity, it is unlikely that HD142527B is responsible for truncating the inner edge of the outer disk., published in A&A; 8 pages

The finding of residual gas in the large central cavity of the HD142527 disk motivates questions on the origin of its non-Keplerian kinematics, and possible connections with planet formation. We aim to understand the physical structure that underlies the intra-cavity gaseous flows, guided by new molecular-line data in CO(6-5) with unprecedented angular resolutions. Given the warped structure inferred from the identification of scattered-light shadows cast on the outer disk, the kinematics are consistent, to first order, with axisymmetric accretion onto the inner disk occurring at all azimuth. A steady-state accretion profile, fixed at the stellar accretion rate, explains the depth of the cavity as traced in CO isotopologues. The abrupt warp and evidence for near free-fall radial flows in HD 142527 resemble theoretical models for disk tearing, which could be driven by the reported low mass companion, whose orbit may be contained in the plane of the inner disk. The companion's high inclination with respect to the massive outer disk could drive Kozai oscillations over long time-scales; high-eccentricity periods may perhaps account for the large cavity. While shadowing by the tilted disk could imprint an azimuthal modulation in the molecular-line maps, further observations are required to ascertain the significance of azimuthal structure in the density field inside the cavity of HD142527., Submitted to ApJ

Detailed observations of gaps in protoplanetary disks have revealed structures that drive current research on circumstellar disks. One such feature is the two intensity nulls seen along the outer disk of the HD 142527 system, which are particularly well traced in polarized differential imaging. Here we propose that these are shadows cast by the inner disk. The inner and outer disk are thick, in terms of the unit-opacity surface in H-band, so that the shape and orientation of the shadows inform on the three-dimmensional structure of the system. Radiative transfer predictions on a parametric disk model allow us to conclude that the relative inclination between the inner and outer disks is 70+-5 deg. This finding taps the potential of high-contrast imaging of circumstellar disks, and bears consequences on the gas dynamics of gapped disks, as well as on the physical conditions in the shadowed regions., Accepted for publication in ApJ letters

We present an analytical model for light echoes (LEs) coming from circumstellar material (CSM) around Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia). Using this model we find two spectral signatures at 4100 Å and 6200 Å that are useful to identify LEs during the Lira law phase (between 35 and 80 days after maximum light) coming from nearby CSM at distances of 0.010.25 pc. We analyze a sample of 89 SNe Ia divided into two groups according to their B V decline rate during the Lira law phase, and search for LEs from CSM interaction in the group of SNe with steeper slopes by comparing their spectra with our LE model. We find that a model with LEs + pure extinction from interstellar material (ISM) fits the observed spectra better than a pure ISM extinction model that is constant in time, but we find that a decreasing extinction alone explains the observations better without the need of LEs, possibly implying dust sublimation due to the radiation from the SN., Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata

We present new ALMA Band 7 observations of the edge-on debris disc around the M1V star GSC 07396-00759. At ~20 Myr old and in the beta Pictoris Moving Group along with AU Mic, GSC 07396-00759 joins it in the handful of low mass M-dwarf discs to be resolved in the sub-mm. With previous VLT/SPHERE scattered light observations we present a multi-wavelength view of the dust distribution within the system under the effects of stellar wind forces. We find the mm dust grains to be well described by a Gaussian torus at 70 au with a FWHM of 48 au and we do not detect the presence of CO in the system. Our ALMA model radius is significantly smaller than the radius derived from polarimetric scattered light observations, implying complex behaviour in the scattering phase function. The brightness asymmetry in the disc observed in scattered light is not recovered in the ALMA observations, implying that the physical mechanism only affects smaller grain sizes. High resolution follow-up observations of the system would allow investigation into its unique dust features as well as provide a true coeval comparison for its smaller sibling AU Mic, singularly well observed amongst M-dwarfs systems., 14 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in MNRAS