Warm Dusty Debris Disks and Distant Companion Stars: V488 Per and 2M1337

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of distant companion stars to V488 Per and 2M1337, suggesting a possible causal link between wide-separation companions and the presence of warm circumstellar dust in young stars.

Contribution

It provides new evidence of distant companions to warm dust stars, supporting a potential cause-and-effect relationship not previously established.

Findings

Distant companion to V488 Per identified, with the largest known infrared excess.

Distant companion to 2M1337 confirmed.

Supports hypothesis linking wide-separation companions to warm dust presence.

Abstract

A possible connection between the presence of large quantities of warm (T$\geq$200 K) circumstellar dust at youthful stars and the existence of wide-separation companion stars has been noted in the literature. Here we point out the existence of a distant companion star to V488 Per, a K-type member of the $\alpha$ Persei cluster with the largest known fractional excess infrared luminosity ($\sim$16\%) of any main sequence star. We also report the presence of a distant companion to the previously recognized warm dust star 2M1337. With these discoveries the existence of a cause and effect relationship between a distant companion and large quantities of warm dust in orbit around youthful stars now seems compelling.