VLT/NACO Polarimetric Differential Imaging of HD100546 - Disk Structure and Dust Grain Properties between 10-140 AU

TL;DR

This study uses VLT/NACO polarimetric imaging to resolve the circumstellar disk of HD100546, revealing disk structure, dust grain properties, and potential planet formation features between 10-140 AU.

Contribution

First direct imaging of the innermost disk regions of HD100546 in polarized light, providing new insights into disk structure and dust grain size distribution.

Findings

Inner disk rim detected at ~15 AU.

Far side of the disk appears brighter, indicating backward scattering.

Larger grains dominate inner regions, smaller grains in outer regions.

Abstract

We present polarimetric differential imaging (PDI) data of the circumstellar disk around the Herbig Ae/Be star HD100546 obtained with VLT/NACO. We resolve the disk in polarized light in the H and Ks filter between ~0.1-1.4" (i.e., ~10-140 AU). The innermost disk regions are directly imaged for the first time and the mean apparent disk inclination and position angle are derived. The surface brightness along the disk major axis drops off roughly with S(r) ~ r^-3 but has a maximum around 0.15" suggesting a marginal detection of the main disk inner rim at ~15 AU. We find a significant brightness asymmetry along the disk minor axis in both filters with the far side of the disk appearing brighter than the near side. This enhanced backward scattering and a low total polarization degree of the scattered disk flux of 14%(+19%/-8%) suggests that the dust grains on the disk surface are larger than typical ISM grains. Empirical scattering functions reveal the backward scattering peak at the largest scattering angles and a second maximum for the smallest scattering angles. This indicates a second dust grain population preferably forward scattering and smaller in size. It shows that, relatively, in the inner disk regions (40-50 AU) a higher fraction of larger grains is found compared to the outer disk regions (100-110 AU). Finally, our images reveal distinct substructures between 25-35 AU physical separation from the star and we discuss the possible origin for the two features in the context of ongoing planet formation.