Keck/NIRC2 Imaging of the Warped, Asymmetric Debris Disk around HD 32297

TL;DR

This study uses Keck/NIRC2 imaging to analyze the complex, warped debris disk around HD 32297, revealing multiple dust populations, asymmetries, and possible planetary influences on its structure.

Contribution

It provides the first high-contrast imaging of HD 32297's debris disk, modeling its warped structure and identifying multiple dust populations with potential planetary sculpting effects.

Findings

Disk is highly warped and exhibits a complex brightness profile.

Presence of at least two dust populations at different locations.

Brightness asymmetry correlates with mm emission peaks.

Abstract

We present Keck/NIRC2 $K_{s}$ band high-contrast coronagraphic imaging of the luminous debris disk around the nearby, young A star HD 32297 resolved at a projected separation of $r$ = 0.3-2.5\arcsec{} ($\approx$ 35-280 AU). The disk is highly warped to the north and exhibits a complex, "wavy" surface brightness profile interior to $r$ $\approx$ 110 AU, where the peaks/plateaus in the profiles are shifted between the NE and SW disk lobes. The SW side of the disk is 50--100% brighter at $r$ = 35-80 AU, and the location of its peak brightness roughly coincides with the disk's mm emission peak. Spectral energy distribution modeling suggests that HD 32297 has at least two dust populations that may originate from two separate belts likely at different locations, possibly at distances coinciding with the surface brightness peaks. A disk model for a single dust belt including a phase function with two components and a 5-10 AU pericenter offset explains the disk's warped structure and reproduces some of the surface brightness profile's shape (e.g. the overall "wavy" profile, the SB peak/plateau shifts) but more poorly reproduces the disk's brightness asymmetry. Although there may be alternate explanations, agreement between the SW disk brightness peak and disk's peak mm emission is consistent with an overdensity of very small, sub-blowout-sized dust and large, 0.1-1 mm-sized grains at $\approx$ 45 AU tracing the same parent population of planetesimals. New near-IR and submm observations may be able to clarify whether even more complex grain scattering properties or dynamical sculpting by an unseen planet are required to explain HD 32297's disk structure.