Confirming the Primarily Smooth Structure of the Vega Debris Disk at Millimeter Wavelengths

TL;DR

This study uses new millimeter-wavelength observations to show that the Vega debris disk is primarily smooth and axisymmetric, contradicting earlier reports of clumpy structures caused by dust trapping in planetary resonances.

Contribution

The paper provides the first high-sensitivity, multi-instrument observations that confirm the smooth, axisymmetric nature of the Vega debris disk, refuting previous claims of clumpy structures.

Findings

No significant clumpy structure detected in SMA and CARMA data.

Supports a smooth, broad, axisymmetric disk model for Vega.

Previous clumpy detections were likely spurious.

Abstract

Clumpy structure in the debris disk around Vega has been previously reported at millimeter wavelengths and attributed to concentrations of dust grains trapped in resonances with an unseen planet. However, recent imaging at similar wavelengths with higher sensitivity has disputed the observed structure. We present three new millimeter-wavelength observations that help to resolve the puzzling and contradictory observations. We have observed the Vega system with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) at a wavelength of 880 um and angular resolution of 5"; with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) at a wavelength of 1.3 mm and angular resolution of 5"; and with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at a wavelength of 3.3 mm and angular resolution of 10". Despite high sensitivity and short baselines, we do not detect the Vega debris disk in either of the interferometric data sets (SMA and CARMA), which should be sensitive at high significance to clumpy structure based on previously reported observations. We obtain a marginal (3-sigma) detection of disk emission in the GBT data; the spatial distribution of the emission is not well constrained. We analyze the observations in the context of several different models, demonstrating that the observations are consistent with a smooth, broad, axisymmetric disk with inner radius 20-100 AU and width >50 AU. The interferometric data require that at least half of the 860 um emission detected by previous single-dish observations with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope be distributed axisymmetrically, ruling out strong contributions from flux concentrations on spatial scales of <100 AU. These observations support recent results from the Plateau de Bure Interferometer indicating that previous detections of clumpy structure in the Vega debris disk were spurious.