Vortex-like kinematic signal, spirals, and beam smearing effect in the HD 142527 disk

TL;DR

This study detects kinematic signals in the HD 142527 disk indicative of a vortex and spirals, highlighting the challenges of distinguishing true features from observational artifacts like beam smearing.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of vortex-like kinematic deviations in the HD 142527 disk and discusses the impact of beam smearing on interpreting such signals.

Findings

Detection of velocity deviations up to 350 m/s consistent with a vortex.

Identification of spiral structures in the outer disk regions.

Highlighting beam smearing as a confounding factor in velocity measurements.

Abstract

Vortices are one of the most promising mechanisms to locally concentrate millimeter dust grains and allow the formation of planetesimals through gravitational collapse. The outer disk around the binary system HD 142527 is known for its large horseshoe structure with azimuthal contrasts of 3-5 in the gas surface density and of about 50 in the dust. Using 13CO and C18O J = 3-2 transition lines, we detect kinematic deviations to the Keplerian rotation, which are consistent with the presence of a large vortex around the dust crescent, as well as a few spirals in the outer regions of the disk. Comparisons with a vortex model suggest velocity deviations up to 350 m/s after deprojection compared to the background Keplerian rotation, as well as an extension of about 40 au radially on both sides of the vortex and 200 degrees azimuthally, yielding an azimuthal-to-radial aspect ratio of 5. Another alternative for explaining the vortex-like signal implies artificial velocity deviations generated by beam smearing in association with variations of the gas velocity due to gas pressure gradients at the inner and outer edges of the circumbinary disk. The two scenarios are currently difficult to differentiate and, for this purpose, would probably require the use of multiple lines at a higher spatial resolution. The beam smearing effect, due to the finite spatial resolution of the observations and gradients in the line emission, should be common in observations of protoplanetary disks and may lead to misinterpretations of the gas velocity, in particular around ring-like structures.