A Ring of Warm Dust in the HD 32297 Debris Disk

TL;DR

This study detects a warm dust ring in the HD 32297 debris disk using mid-infrared imaging, modeling the dust properties and structure, revealing insights into dust composition, dynamics, and potential sublimation effects.

Contribution

First direct imaging and modeling of a warm dust ring in HD 32297, revealing grain sizes, disk structure, and implications for dust evolution and composition.

Findings

Detected a bilobed warm dust structure at ~65 AU from HD 32297.

Best-fit models indicate submicron, icy, porous grains dominate the dust population.

Dust dynamics are influenced by grain-grain collisions and radiation pressure effects.

Abstract

We report the detection of a ring of warm dust in the edge-on disk surrounding HD 32297 with the Gemini-N/MICHELLE mid-infrared imager. Our N'-band image shows elongated structure consistent with the orientation of the scattered-light disk. The Fnu(11.2 um) = 49.9+/-2.1 mJy flux is significantly above the 28.2+/-0.6 mJy photosphere. Subtraction of the stellar point spread function reveals a bilobed structure with peaks 0.5"-0.6" from the star. An analysis of the stellar component of the SED suggests a spectral type later than A0, in contrast to commonly cited literature values. We fit three-dimensional, single-size grain models of an optically thin dust ring to our image and the SED using a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm in a Bayesian framework. The best-fit effective grain sizes are submicron, suggesting the same dust population is responsible for the bulk of the scattered light. The inner boundary of the warm dust is located 0.5"-0.7" (~65 AU) from the star, which is approximately cospatial with the outer boundary of the scattered-light asymmetry inward of 0.5". The addition of a separate component of larger, cooler grains that provide a portion of the 60 um flux improves both the fidelity of the model fit and consistency with the slopes of the scattered-light brightness profiles. Previous indirect estimates of the stellar age (~30 Myr) indicate the dust is composed of debris. The peak vertical optical depths in our models (~0.3-1 x 1e-2) imply that grain-grain collisions likely play a significant role in dust dynamics and evolution. Submicron grains can survive radiation pressure blow-out if they are icy and porous. Similarly, the inferred warm temperatures (130-200 K) suggest that ice sublimation may play a role in truncating the inner disk.