Near-IR Polarized Scattered Light Imagery of the DoAr 28 Transitional Disk

TL;DR

This study presents the first high-resolution polarized light images of the DoAr 28 transitional disk, revealing disk structure, a candidate background star, and asymmetries potentially caused by various mechanisms.

Contribution

First spatially resolved polarized light images of the DoAr 28 disk, with detailed modeling revealing disk structure and asymmetries.

Findings

Detected disk from 13 to 65 AU in polarized light.

Identified a candidate background star near the system.

Found asymmetries in the disk possibly due to multiple mechanisms.

Abstract

We present the first spatially resolved polarized scattered light H-band detection of the DoAr 28 transitional disk. Our two epochs of imagery detect the scattered light disk from our effective inner working angle of 0.10" (13 AU) out to 0.50" (65 AU). This inner working angle is interior to the location of the system's gap inferred by previous studies using SED modeling (15 AU). We detected a candidate point source companion 1.08" northwest of the system; however, our second epoch of imagery strongly suggests that this object is a background star. We constructed a grid of Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer models of the system, and our best fit models utilize a modestly inclined (50 deg), 0.01 Msun disk that has a partially depleted inner gap from the dust sublimation radius out to ~8 AU. Subtracting this best fit, axi-symmetric model from our polarized intensity data reveals evidence for two small asymmetries in the disk, which could be attributable to variety of mechanisms.