Context. Debris discs are populated by belts of planetesimals, whose structure carries dynamical imprints of planets and the formation and evolutionary history of the planetary system. The relatively faint emission of debris discs has previously made it challenging to obtain a large sample of high-resolution ALMA images to characterise their substructures. Aims. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) was recently completed to cover the lack of high-resolution observations and to investigate the prevalence of substructures such as radial gaps and rings in a sample of 24 debris discs. This study characterises the radial structure of debris discs in the ARKS programme. Methods. We modelled all discs with a range of non-parametric and parametric approaches, including those that deconvolve and deproject the image or fit the visibilities directly, in order to identify and quantify the disc substructures. Results. Across the sample we find that of the 24 discs, 5 host multiple rings, 7 are single rings that display halos or additional low-amplitude rings, and 12 are single rings with at most tentative evidence of additional substructures. The fractional ring widths that we measured are significantly narrower than previously derived values, and they follow a distribution similar to the fractional widths of individual rings resolved in protoplanetary discs. However, there exists a population of rings in debris discs that are significantly wider than those in protoplanetary discs. We also find that discs with steep inner edges consistent with planet sculpting tend to be found at smaller (<100 au) radii, while more radially extended discs tend to have shallower edges more consistent with collisional evolution. An overwhelming majority of discs have radial profiles that are well-described by either a double power law or double-Gaussian parametrisation. Conclusions. While our findings suggest that it may be possible for some debris discs to inherit their structures directly from protoplanetary discs, there exists a sizeable population of broad debris discs that cannot be explained in this way. Assuming that the distribution of millimetre dust reflects the distribution of planetesimals, mechanisms that cause rings in protoplanetary discs to migrate or debris discs to broaden soon after formation may be at play, possibly mediated by planetary migration or scattering.

Context. Debris disks - collisionally sustained belts of dust and sometimes gas around main sequence stars - are remnants of planet formation processes and are found in systems greater than or similar to 10 Myr old. Millimeter-wavelength observations are particularly important, as the grains probed by these observations are not strongly affected by radiation pressure and stellar winds, allowing them to probe the dynamics of large bodies producing dust. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) is analyzing high-resolution observations of 24 debris disks to enable the characterization of debris disk substructures across a large sample for the first time. Aims. For the most highly inclined disks, it is possible to recover the vertical structure of the disk. We aim to model and analyze the most highly inclined systems in the ARKS sample in order to uniformly extract the vertical dust distributions for a sample of well-resolved debris disks. Methods. We employed both parametric and nonparametric methods to constrain the vertical dust distributions for the most highly inclined ARKS targets. Results. We find a broad range of aspect ratios, revealing a wide diversity in vertical structure, with a range of best-fit parametric values of 0.0026 <= h(HWHM) <= 0.193 and a median best-fit value of h(HWHM) = 0.021. The results obtained by nonparametric modeling are generally consistent with the parametric modeling results. We find that five of the 13 disks are consistent with having total disk masses less than that of Neptune (17 M-circle plus), assuming stirring by internal processes (self-stirring and collisional and frictional damping). Furthermore, most systems show a significant preference for a Lorentzian vertical profile rather than a Gaussian.

Debris disks are dusty structures around mature stars, primarily identified by infrared excesses in the stellar spectra. A subset, known as extreme debris disks (EDDs), exhibits stochastic infrared variability, believed to result from large-scale violent collisions that contribute to the formation or destruction of rocky planetary bodies. We analyze JWST and Spitzer mid-infrared spectra for 21 EDDs to investigate the connection between impact-produced dust mineralogy and the age and dynamical state of these systems during various stages of planet formation and evolution. Our findings indicate that EDDs contain significantly more optically thin, small dust grains compared to those typically seen in protoplanetary and debris disks. Predominantly submicron in size, these grains are thermally altered, as shown by their high levels of silica and crystalline silicate composition. Along with stochastic infrared variability, these features define EDDs as a subclass of debris systems where dust is generated from large collisions between Moon- and Mars-sized bodies. Our results not only provide diagnostic information about the physical conditions of violent events during terrestrial planet formation, aiding in differentiating the complex outcomes of these impacts, but also offer a potential marker for identifying planetary systems experiencing dynamical instability.

DX Cha (HD 104237) is a spectroscopic binary consisting of a Herbig A7.5Ve–A8Ve primary star and a K3-type companion. Here we report on new 3.55 μ m interferometric observations of this source with the Multi Aperture Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Experiment (MATISSE) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. To model the four MATISSE observations obtained between 2020 and 2023, we constructed a time-dependent interferometric model of the system, using the oimodeler software. The model consists of an asymmetric ring and two point sources on a Keplerian orbit. Our best-fit model consists of a circumbinary ring with a diameter of 0.86 au (8.1 mas), featuring a strong azimuthal asymmetry. We found that the position angle of the asymmetry changes tens of degrees between the MATISSE epochs. The ring is relatively narrow, with a full width at half-maximum of ∼0.13 au (1.23 mas). The presence of circumstellar dust emission so close to the binary is unexpected, as previous hydrodynamic simulations predicted an inner disk cavity with a diameter of ∼4 au (∼37.5 mas). Thus, we argue that the narrow envelope of material we detected is probably not a gravitationally stable circumbinary ring but may be part of tidal accretion streamers channeling material from the inner edge of the disk toward the stars.

We report the discovery of CO _2 gas emission around HD 23514, an F5V star in the ∼150 Myr old Pleiades cluster, hosting one of the rare giant-impact disks with unique mineralogy dominated by silica dust. We show that the dust feature remains stable over several decades, and that the submicron grains, which give rise to the ∼9 μ m feature, are cospatial with the hot CO _2 molecules within the sub-astronomical-unit vicinity of the star. Examining a Spitzer spectrum taken 15 yr earlier, we show that the CO _2 emission was also present at 4.3 σ significance. The existence of tiny silica grains and volatile gas requires special conditions to prevent the rapid loss caused by stellar radiation pressure and photodissociation. We explore several pathways explaining the observed properties and suggest that a past giant impact and/or stripping atmospheric event, involving large bodies with volatile content similar to carbonaceous chondritic material, can simultaneously explain both the silica and volatile emission. Our discovery provides an important context for the amount of volatiles that a newly formed planet or the largest planetesimals could retain during the giant impact phase in the early solar system evolution.

Rocky planets form by the concentration of solid particles in the inner few au regions of planet-forming disks. Their chemical composition reflects the materials in the disk available in the solid phase at the time the planets were forming. Studying the dust before it gets incorporated in planets provides a valuable diagnostic for the material composition. We aim to constrain the structure and dust composition of the inner disk of the young Herbig Ae star HD 144432, using an extensive set of infrared interferometric data taken by the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), combining PIONIER, GRAVITY, and MATISSE observations. We introduced a new physical disk model TGMdust to image the interferometric data, and to fit the disk structure and dust composition. We also performed equilibrium condensation calculations with GGchem to assess the hidden diversity of minerals occurring in a planet-forming disk such as HD 144432. Our best-fit model has three disk zones with ring-like structures at $0.15$, $1.3$, and $4.1$ au. Assuming that the dark regions in the disk at sim $0.9$ au and at sim $3$ au are gaps opened by planets, we estimate the masses of the putative gap-opening planets to be around a Jupiter mass. We find evidence for an optically thin emission ($ from the inner two disk zones ($r < 4$ au) at $ Our silicate compositional fits confirm radial mineralogy gradients, as for the mass fraction of crystalline silicates we get around $61$ in the innermost zone ($r<1.3$ au), mostly from enstatite, while only sim $20$ in the outer two zones. To identify the dust component responsible for the infrared continuum emission, we explore two cases for the dust composition, one with a silicate+iron mixture and the other with a silicate+carbon one. We find that the iron-rich model provides a better fit to the spectral energy distribution. Our GGchem calculations also support an iron-rich and carbon-poor dust composition in the warm disk regions ($r<5$ au, $T > 300$ K). We propose that in the warm inner regions ($r<5$ au) of typical planet-forming disks, most if not all carbon is in the gas phase, while iron and iron sulfide grains are major constituents of the solid mixture along with forsterite and enstatite. Our analysis demonstrates the need for detailed studies of the dust in inner disks with new mid-infrared instruments such as MATISSE and JWST/MIRI.

ABSTRACT Extreme debris discs (EDDs) are bright and warm circumstellar dusty structures around main sequence stars. They may represent the outcome of giant collisions occuring in the terrestrial region between large planetesimals or planetary bodies, and thus provide a rare opportunity to peer into the aftermaths of these events. Here, we report on results of a mini-survey we conducted with the aim to increase the number of known EDDs, investigate the presence of solid-state features around 10 μm in eight EDDs, and classify them into the silica or silicate dominated groups. We identify four new EDDs and derive their fundamental properties. For these, and for four other previously known discs, we study the spectral energy distribution around 10 μm by means of VLT/VISIR photometry in three narrow-band filters and conclude that all eight objects likely exhibit solid-state emission features from sub-micron grains. We find that four discs probably belong to the silicate dominated subgroup. Considering the age distribution of the entire EDD sample, we find that their incidence begins to decrease only after 300 Myr, suggesting that the earlier common picture that these objects are related to the formation of rocky planets may not be exclusive, and that other processes may be involved for older objects (≳100 Myr). Because most of the older EDD systems have wide, eccentric companions, we suggest that binarity may play a role in triggering late giant collisions.

We report on the discovery of a very prominent mid-infrared (18-25 mu m) excess associated with the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet (136472) Makemake. The excess, detected by the Mid-Infrared Instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope, along with previous measurements from the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes, indicates the occurrence of temperatures of similar to 150 K, much higher than what solid surfaces at Makemake's heliocentric distance could reach by solar irradiation. We identify two potential explanations: a continuously visible, currently active region powered by subsurface upwelling and possibly cryovolcanic activity covering <= 1% of Makemake's surface or an as-yet-undetected ring containing very small carbonaceous dust grains, which have not been seen before in trans-Neptunian or Centaur rings. Both scenarios point to unprecedented phenomena among trans-Neptunian objects and could greatly impact our understanding of these distant worlds.

We show the first SPHERE/IRDIS and IFS data of the CO-rich debris disc around HD 131488. We use N-body simulations to model both the scattered light images and the spectral energy distribution of the disc in a self-consistent way. We apply the Henyey-Greenstein approximation, Mie theory, and the Discrete Dipole Approximation to model the emission of individual dust grains. Our study shows that only when gas drag is taken into account can we find a model that is consistent with scattered light as well as thermal emission data of the disc. The models suggest a gas surface density of 2 x 10(-5) M(circle plus)au(-2) which is in agreement with estimates from ALMA observations. Thus, our modelling procedure allows us to roughly constrain the expected amount of gas in a debris disc without actual gas measurements. We also show that the shallow size distribution of the dust leads to a significant contribution of large particles to the overall amount of scattered light. The scattering phase function indicates a dust porosity of similar to 0.2...0.6 which is in agreement with a pebble pile scenario for planetesimal growth.

The origin and evolution of gas in debris disks are still not well understood. Secondary gas production from cometary material or a primordial origin have been proposed. So far, observations have mostly concentrated on CO, with only a few C observations available. We overview the C and CO content of debris disk gas and test state-of-the-art models. We use new and archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of CO and C i emission, complemented by C ii data from Herschel, for a sample of 14 debris disks. This expands the number of disks with ALMA measurements of both CO and C i by 10 disks. We present new detections of C i emission toward three disks: HD 21997, HD 121191, and HD 121617. We use a simple disk model to derive gas masses and column densities. We find that current state-of-the-art models of secondary gas production overpredict the C-0 content of debris disk gas. This does not rule out a secondary origin, but might indicate that the models require an additional C removal process. Alternatively, the gas might be produced in transient events rather than a steady-state collisional cascade. We also test a primordial gas origin by comparing our results to a simplified thermochemical model. This yields promising results, but more detailed work is required before a conclusion can be reached. Our work demonstrates that the combination of C and CO data is a powerful tool to advance our understanding of debris disk gas.

X-ray binaries are known to show state transitions related to accretion rate changes which are often accompanied with dramatic changes in the jet emission. However, it is not clear whether this characteristics of stellar-mass black hole systems can be scaled up to the accretion disk of active galactic nuclei. The Seyfert 1 galaxy, KUG 1141+371 has been showing a steadily increasing X-ray flux since 2007, and exhibited variability behaviour similar to the state transitions observed in X-ray binaries. It was hypothesised to undergo a rapid boost of mass accretion. If the X-ray binary analogy holds then the appearance of jet emission can also be expected in KUG 1141+371. While the source was not detected in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters in 1994, it appears in the VLA Sky Survey in 2019 and at 22 GHz in a VLA observation in 2018 at mJy flux density level. Our VLBI observations revealed a compact, flat-spectrum radio feature. Its high brightness temperature indicates the radio emission originates from an AGN.

ABSTRACT Gaia21bty, a pre-main-sequence star that previously had shown aperiodic dips in its light curve, underwent a considerable ΔG ≈ 2.9 mag brightening that occurred over a few months between 2020 October and 2021 February. The Gaia light curve shows that the star remained near maximum brightness for about 4–6 months, and then started slowly fading over the next 2 yr, with at least three superimposed ∼1 mag sudden rebrightening events. Whereas the amplitude and duration of the maximum is typical for EX Lupi-type stars, optical and near-infrared spectra obtained at the maximum are dominated by features which are typical for FU Ori-type stars (FUors). Modelling of the accretion disc at the maximum indicates that the disc bolometric luminosity is 43 L⊙ and the mass accretion rate is 2.5 × 10−5 M⊙ yr−1, which are typical values for FUors even considering the large uncertainty in the distance ($1.7_{-0.4}^{+0.8}$ kpc). Further monitoring is necessary to understand the cause of the quick brightness decline, the rebrightening, and the other post-outburst light changes, as our multicolour photometric data suggest that they could be caused by a long and discontinuous obscuration event. We speculate that the outburst might have induced large-scale inhomogeneous dust condensations in the line of sight leading to such phenomena, whilst the FUor outburst continues behind the opaque screen.

ABSTRACT Extreme debris discs are characterized by unusually strong mid-infrared excess emission, which often proves to be variable. The warm dust in these discs is of transient nature and is likely related to a recent giant collision occurring close to the star in the terrestrial region. Here we present the results of a 877 d long, gap-free photometric monitoring performed by the Spitzer Space Telescope of the recently discovered extreme debris disc around TYC 4209-1322-1. By combining these observations with other time-domain optical and mid-infrared data, we explore the disc variability of the last four decades with particular emphasis on the last 12 yr. During the latter interval the disc showed substantial changes, the most significant was the brightening and subsequent fading between 2014 and 2018 as outlined in WISE data. The Spitzer light curves outline the fading phase and a subsequent new brightening of the disc after 2018, revealing an additional flux modulation with a period of ∼39 d on top of the long-term trend. We found that all these variations can be interpreted as the outcome of a giant collision that happened at an orbital radius of ∼0.3 au sometime in 2014. Our analysis implies that a collision on a similar scale could have taken place around 2010, too. The fact that the disc was already peculiarly dust rich 40 yr ago, as implied by IRAS data, suggests that these dust production events belong to a chain of large impacts triggered by an earlier even more catastrophic collision.

Debris disks are scaled-up analogs of the Kuiper Belt in which dust is generated by collisions between planetesimals. In the collisional cascade model of debris disks, the dust lost to radiation pressure and winds is constantly replenished by grinding collisions between planetesimals. The model assumes that collisions are destructive and involve large velocities; this assumption has not been tested beyond our solar system. We present 0.'' 25 (approximate to 2.4 au) resolution observations of the lambda = 450 mu m dust continuum emission from the debris disk around the nearby M dwarf AU Microscopii with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We use parametric models to describe the disk structure, and a Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) algorithm to explore the posterior distributions of the model parameters; we fit the structure of the disk to both our data and archival lambda = 1.3 mm data (Daley et al. 2019), from which we obtain two aspect ratio measurements at 1.3 mm (h(1300) = 0.025(-0.002)(+0.008)) and at 450 mu m (h(450) = 0.019(-0.001)(+0.006)), as well as the grain-size distribution index q = 3.03 +/- 0.02. Contextualizing our aspect ratio measurements within the modeling framework laid out in Pan & Schlichting (2012), we derive a power-law index of velocity dispersion as a function of grain size p = 0.28 +/- 0.06 for the AU Mic debris disk. This result implies that smaller bodies are more easily disrupted than larger bodies by collisions, which is inconsistent with the strength regime usually assumed for such small bodies. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.

(2021, ApJ, 910, 27) Attila Moór, Péter Ábrahám , Gyula Szabó , Krisztián Vida , Gianni Cataldi , Alíz Derekas , Thomas Henning , Karen Kinemuchi , Ágnes Kóspál , József Kovács, András Pál , Paula Sarkis , Bálint Seli , Zsófia M. Szabó , and Katalin Takáts 1 Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH) Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 15-17, 1121 Budapest, Hungary; moor@konkoly.hu 2 ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Physics, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, 1117 Budapest, Hungary 3 ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Gothard Astrophysical Observatory, Szombathely, Hungary 4 MTA-ELTE Exoplanet Research Group, 9700 Szombathely, Szent Imre h.u. 112, Hungary 5 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan 6 Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan 7 Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany 8 Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University, Sunspot, NM 88349, USA 9 Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Astronomy, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, 1117 Budapest, Hungary 10 Departamento de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Andrés Bello, Avda. República 252, 32349 Santiago, Chile Received 2022 November 9; published 2022 December 6

Young stars show variability on different time-scales from hours to decades, with a range of amplitudes. We studied two young stars, which triggered the Gaia Science Alerts system due to brightenings on a time-scale of a year. Gaia20wa brightened by about half a magnitude, whereas Gaia20fgx brightened by about two and half magnitudes. We analysed the Gaia light curves, additional photometry, and spectra taken with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Several emission lines were detected towards Gaia20bwa, including hydrogen lines from H alpha to H delta, Pa beta, Br gamma, and lines of Ca II, O I, and Na I. The H alpha and Br gamma lines were detected towards Gaia20fgx in emission in its bright state, with additional CO lines in absorption, and the Pa beta line with an inverse P Cygni profile during its fading. Based on the Br gamma lines, the accretion rate was (2.4-3.1) x 10(-8) M-circle dot yr(-1) for Gaia20bwa and (4.5-6.6) x 10(-8) M-circle dot yr(-1) for Gaia20fgx during their bright state. The accretion rate of Gaia20fgx dropped by almost a factor of 10 on a time-scale of half a year. The accretion parameters of both stars were found to be similar to those of classical T Tauri stars, lower than those of young eruptive stars. However, the amplitude and time-scale of these brightenings place these stars to a region of the parameter space, which is rarely populated by young stars. This suggests a new class of young stars, which produce outbursts on a time-scale similar to young eruptive stars, but with smaller amplitudes.

Debris discs represent the last stages of planet formation and as such are expected to be depleted of primordial gas. Nonetheless, in the last few years the presence of cold gas has been reported in ∼ 20 debris discs from far-IR to (sub-)mm observations and hot gas has been observed in the optical spectra of debris discs for decades. While the origin of this gas is still uncertain, most evidences point towards a secondary origin, as a result of collisions and evaporation of small bodies in the disc. In this paper, we present ALMA observations aimed at the detection of CO gas in a sample of 8 debris discs with optical gas detections. We report the detection of CO (^12CO and ^13CO) gas in HD 36546, the brightest and youngest disc in our sample, and provide upper limits to the presence of gas in the remaining seven discs.

DI Cha A is K0-type pre-main-sequence star, the brightest component of a quadruple stellar system. Here we report on a detailed study of this star based on archival VLTI/MIDI and VLTI/PIONIER infrared interferometric observations, as well as optical-infrared photometric monitoring from ground-based and space-born instruments. We determined the structure of the circumstellar disk by fitting simultaneously the interferometric visibilities and the spectral energy distribution, using both analytical models and the radiative transfer code RADMC-3D. The modeling revealed that the radial density distribution of the disk appears to have a gap between 0.21 and 3.0 au. The inner ring, whose inner size coincides with the sublimation radius, is devoid of small, submicrometer-sized dust grains. The inner edge of the outer disk features a puffed-up rim, typically seen in intermediate-mass stars. Grain growth, although less progressed, was also detected in the outer disk. The inner ring is variable at mid-infrared wavelengths on both daily and annual timescales, while the star stays remarkably constant in the optical, pointing to geometrical or accretion changes in the disk as possible explanations for the flux variations.

ABSTRACT The nature of the gas in CO-rich debris discs remains poorly understood, as it could either be a remnant from the earlier Class II phase or of secondary origin, driven by the destruction of icy planetesimals. The aim of this paper was to elucidate the origin of the gas content in the debris discs via various simple molecules that are often detected in the less-evolved Class II discs. We present millimetre molecular line observations of nine circumstellar discs around A-type stars: four CO-rich debris discs (HD 21997, HD 121617, HD 131488, HD 131835) and five old Herbig Ae protoplanetary discs (HD 139614, HD 141569, HD 142666, HD 145718, HD 100453). The sources were observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Bands 5 and 6 with 1–2 arcsec resolution. The Herbig Ae discs are detected in the CO isotopologues, CN, HCN, HCO+, C2H, and CS lines. In contrast, only CO isotopologues are detected in the debris discs, showing a similar amount of CO to that found in the Herbig Ae protoplanetary discs. Using chemical and radiative transfer modelling, we show that the abundances of molecules other than CO in debris discs are expected to be very low. We consider multiple sets of initial elemental abundances with various degrees of H2 depletion. We find that the HCO+ lines should be the second brightest after the CO lines, and that their intensities strongly depend on the overall CO/H2 ratio of the gas. However, even in the ISM-like scenario, the simulated HCO+ emission remains weak as required by our non-detections.

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 <51 au to 194(-2)(+13) au. We model the disk with a continuous, gapped, and double power-law model of the surface density profile and find strong evidence for a local minimum in the surface density distribution near a radius of 70 au, consistent with a gap in the disk with an inner radius of 63(-16)(+8) au and width 31(-7)(+11) au. Gapped structure has been observed in four other debris disks-essentially every other radially resolved debris disk observed with sufficient angular resolution and sensitivity with ALMA-and could be suggestive of the presence of an additional planetary-mass companion.