An Unbiased Survey of 500 Nearby Stars for Debris Disks: A JCMT Legacy Program

TL;DR

This paper outlines a comprehensive, unbiased survey of 500 nearby stars using JCMT to detect debris disks via submillimeter observations, aiming to expand understanding of circumstellar material around various stellar types.

Contribution

It introduces the first unbiased, large-scale survey for debris disks since IRAS, targeting 500 stars across multiple spectral types with no prior selection bias.

Findings

Expected detection of approximately 125 debris disks.

Identification of about 50 cold disks undetectable in shorter wavelengths.

Constraints on circumstellar dust mass down to 10 times the Kuiper Belt mass.

Abstract

We present the scientific motivation and observing plan for an upcoming detection survey for debris disks using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The SCUBA-2 Unbiased Nearby Stars (SUNS) Survey will observe 500 nearby main sequence and sub-giant stars (100 of each of the A, F, G, K and M spectral classes) to the 850 micron extragalactic confusion limit to search for evidence of submillimeter excess, an indication of circumstellar material. The survey distance boundaries are 8.6, 16.5, 22, 25 and 45 pc for M, K, G, F and A stars, respectively, and all targets lie between the declinations of -40 deg to 80 deg. In this survey, no star will be rejected based on its inherent properties: binarity, presence of planetary companions, spectral type or age. This will be the first unbiased survey for debris disks since IRAS. We expect to detect ~125 debris disks, including ~50 cold disks not detectable in current shorter wavelength surveys. A substantial amount of complementary data will be required to constrain the temperatures and masses of discovered disks. High resolution studies will likely be required to resolve many of the disks. Therefore, these systems will be the focus of future observational studies using a variety of observatories to characterize their physical properties. For non-detected systems, this survey will set constraints (upper limits) on the amount of circumstellar dust, of typically 200 times the Kuiper Belt mass, but as low as 10 times the Kuiper Belt mass for the nearest stars in the sample (approximately 2 pc).