1 research outputs found
Searching for circumplanetary disks around LkCa 15
We present Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the 7 mm
continuum emission from the disk surrounding the young star LkCa 15. The
observations achieve an angular resolution of 70 mas and spatially resolve the
circumstellar emission on a spatial scale of 9 AU. The continuum emission
traces a dusty annulus of 45 AU in radius that is consistent with the dust
morphology observed at shorter wavelengths. The VLA observations also reveal a
compact source at the center of the disk, possibly due to thermal emission from
hot dust or ionized gas located within a few AU from the central star. No
emission is observed between the star and the dusty ring, and, in particular,
at the position of the candidate protoplanet LkCa 15 b. By comparing the
observations with theoretical models for circumplanetary disk emission, we find
that if LkCa~15~b is a massive planet (>5 M_J) accreting at a rate greater than
1.e-6 M_J yr^{-1}, then its circumplanetary disk is less massive than 0.1 M_J,
or smaller than 0.4 Hill radii. Similar constraints are derived for any
possible circumplanetary disk orbiting within 45 AU from the central star. The
mass estimate are uncertain by at least one order of magnitude due to the
uncertainties on the mass opacity. Future ALMA observations of this system
might be able to detect circumplanetary disks down to a mass of 5.e-4 M_J and
as small as 0.2 AU, providing crucial constraints on the presence of giant
planets in the act of forming around this young star.Comment: Accepted for publication on Ap