Candidate Coronagraphic Detections of Protoplanetary Disks around Four Young Stars

TL;DR

This paper reports potential detections of scattered light from protoplanetary disks around four young stars using Subaru's coronagraph, combining observations and simulations to assess the nature of the emission.

Contribution

First potential detections of protoplanetary disk scattered light around four young stars using high-contrast imaging and detailed data reduction techniques.

Findings

Detected extended emission around four young stars.

Emission is within residual PSF halo, confirmed through data reduction.

Simulations support the plausibility of the scattered light detections.

Abstract

We present potential detections of H-band scattered light emission around four young star, selected from a total sample of 45 young stars observed with the CIAO coronagraph of the Subaru telescope. Two CTTS, CI Tau and DI Cep, and two WTTS, LkCa 14 and RXJ 0338.3+1020 were detected. In all four cases, the extended emission is within the area of the residual PSF halo, and is revealed only through careful data reduction. We compare the observed extended emission with simulations of the scattered light emission, to evaluate the plausibility and nature of the detected emission.