Interferometric Evidence for Resolved Warm Dust in the DQ Tau System

TL;DR

This study uses near-infrared interferometry to resolve warm dust close to the DQ Tau binary, revealing a compact excess source on the scale of the binary orbit, supporting the presence of significant warm material near the system.

Contribution

First direct interferometric detection of resolved warm dust in the DQ Tau system, providing spatial constraints on the dust distribution near a PMS binary.

Findings

Resolved near-IR excess source similar in scale to the binary orbit

Warm dust detected close to the binary, within 0.2 AU at apastron

Supports previous inferences of warm material near DQ Tau

Abstract

We report on near-infrared (IR) interferometric observations of the double-lined pre-main sequence (PMS) binary system DQ Tau. We model these data with a visual orbit for DQ Tau supported by the spectroscopic orbit & analysis of \citet{Mathieu1997}. Further, DQ Tau exhibits significant near-IR excess; modeling our data requires inclusion of near-IR light from an 'excess' source. Remarkably the excess source is resolved in our data, similar in scale to the binary itself ($\sim$ 0.2 AU at apastron), rather than the larger circumbinary disk ($\sim$ 0.4 AU radius). Our observations support the \citet{Mathieu1997} and \citet{Carr2001} inference of significant warm material near the DQ Tau binary.