A likely planet-induced gap in the disk around T Cha

We present high resolution (0.11"×0.06") 3mm ALMA observations of the highly inclined transition disk around the star T Cha. Our continuum image reveals multiple dust structures: an inner disk, a spatially resolved dust gap, and an outer ring. When fitting sky-brightness models to the real component of the 3mm visibilities, we infer that the inner emission is compact (≤1au in radius), the gap width is between 18-28 au, and the emission from the outer ring peaks at ∼36 au. We compare our ALMA image with previously published 1.6μm VLT/SPHERE imagery. This comparison reveals that the location of the outer ring is wavelength dependent. More specifically, the peak emission of the 3mm ring is at a larger radial distance than that of the 1.6μm ring, suggesting that millimeter-sized grains in the outer disk are located further away from the central star than micron-sized grains. We discuss different scenarios to explain our findings, including dead zones, star-driven photoevaporation, and planet-disk interactions. We find that the most likely origin of the dust gap is from an embedded planet, and estimate — for a single planet scenario — that T Cha's gap is carved by a 1.2M_jup planet.