Discovery of a Circumbinary Disk around Herbig Ae/Be system v892 Tau

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a large, asymmetric circumbinary disk around the Herbig Ae/Be star v892 Tau, with new orbital measurements and implications for disk dynamics and stellar evolution models.

Contribution

The study presents the first direct imaging of a circumbinary disk around v892 Tau and provides initial orbital parameters and system mass estimates.

Findings

Disk inclined at ~60 degrees with a 35 AU inner hole.

Inner hole size consistent with tidal truncation theory.

Revised system luminosity suggests previous underestimation.

Abstract

We report the discovery of a circumbinary disk around the Herbig Ae/Be system v892 Tau. Our detailed mid-infrared images were made using segment-tilting interferometry on the Keck-1 Telescope and reveal an asymmetric disk inclined at ~60 degs with an inner hole diameter of 250 mas (35 AU), approximately 5X larger than the apparent separation of the binary components. In addition, we report a new measurement along the binary orbit using near-infrared Keck aperture masking, allowing a crude estimate of orbital parameters and the system mass for the first time. The size of the inner hole appears to be consistent with the minimum size prediction from tidal truncation theory, bearing a resemblance to the recently unmasked binary CoKu Tau/4. Our results have motivated a re-analysis of the system spectral energy distribution, concluding the luminosity of this system has been severely underestimated. With further study and monitoring, v892 Tau should prove a powerful testing ground for both predictions of dynamical models for disk-star interactions in young systems with gas-rich disks and for calibrations of pre-main-sequence tracks for intermediate-mass stars.