Kinematical Constraint on Eccentricity in the Protoplanetary Disk MWC 758 with ALMA

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations of MWC 758 to analyze gas kinematics, revealing an eccentric orbit and infall motion near the inner cavity, suggesting a planet-induced eccentricity and strong dust-gas coupling.

Contribution

It introduces a method to constrain disk eccentricity using velocity deviations, providing new insights into planet-disk interactions in MWC 758.

Findings

Detected significant velocity deviations near the inner cavity.

Eccentricity of gas orbit estimated at 0.1±0.04.

Evidence for a potential gas giant planet inside the cavity.

Abstract

We analyzed the archival data of the $^{13}\mathrm{CO}$ and $\mathrm{C}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ $J=3-2$ emission lines in the protoplanetary disk around MWC 758 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to discuss possible planet-disk interaction and non-Keplerian motion in the disk. We performed fitting of a Keplerian disk model to the observational data and measured the velocity deviations from the Keplerian rotation. We found significant velocity deviations around the inner cavity in the MWC 758 disk. We examined several possibilities that may cause the velocity deviations, such as pressure gradient, height of the emitting layer, infall motion, inner warp, and eccentricity in the disk. We found that the combination of an eccentric orbital motion with eccentricity of $0.1\pm0.04$ at the radius of the inner cavity and an infalling flow best explains the observed velocity deviations. Our kinematically constrained eccentricity of the gas orbital motion close to the inner cavity is consistent with the eccentricity of the dust ring around the inner cavity measured in the submillimeter continuum emission. Our results hint at strong dust-gas coupling around the inner cavity and presence of a gas giant planet inside the inner cavity in the MWC 758 disk.