The Frequency Of Binary Star Interlopers Amongst Transitional Discs

TL;DR

This study used Non-Redundant Mask interferometry to detect binary companions in transitional disks, revealing that a significant fraction of these disks' features are due to stellar binarity rather than planetary formation.

Contribution

Introduces a new Bayesian method for completeness correction in binary detection and provides the first statistical estimate of binary influence on transitional disks.

Findings

Approximately 38% of the objects show signs of binary-induced disk features.

Detected four stellar companions outside the disk truncation radii.

Many transitional disk features are caused by stellar binarity, not planet formation.

Abstract

Using Non-Redundant Mask interferometry (NRM), we searched for binary companions to objects previously classified as Transitional Disks (TD). These objects are thought to be an evolutionary stage between an optically thick disk and optically thin disk. We investigate the presence of a stellar companion as a possible mechanism of material depletion in the inner region of these disks, which would rule out an ongoing planetary formation process in distances comparable to the binary separation. For our detection limits, we implement a new method of completeness correction using a combination of randomly sampled binary orbits and Bayesian inference. The selected sample of 24 TDs belong to the nearby and young star forming regions: Ophiuchus ($\sim$ 130 pc), Taurus-Auriga ($\sim$ 140 pc) and IC348 ( $\sim$ 220 pc). These regions are suitable to resolve faint stellar companions with moderate to high confidence levels at distances as low as 2 au from the central star. With a total of 31 objects, including 11 known TDs and circumbinary disks from the literature, we have found that a fraction of 0.38 $\pm$ 0.09 of the SEDs of these objects are likely due to the tidal interaction between a close binary and its disk, while the remaining SEDs are likely the result of other internal processes such as photoevaporation, grain growth, planet disk interactions. In addition, we detected four companions orbiting outside the area of the truncation radii and we propose that the IR excesses of these systems are due to a disk orbiting a secondary companion