Large Dust Grains and a Possible Dust Trap in the Polar Circumbinary Disc of HD 98800B

TL;DR

This study uses VLA observations to analyze the dust properties and potential dust trapping mechanisms in the polar circumbinary disc of HD 98800B, revealing large grains and asymmetries suggestive of dust concentration.

Contribution

First multi-wavelength VLA observations of HD 98800B's disc, demonstrating optically thick emission and large dust grains, and identifying azimuthal asymmetry possibly caused by a vortex.

Findings

Dust spectral index indicates large grains in the disc.

Emission is optically thick at short millimetre wavelengths.

Azimuthal asymmetry suggests a local dust overdensity.

Abstract

HD 98800 is a nearby hierarchical quadruple system comprising two binaries orbiting each other. Surprisingly, despite its $\sim$ 10 Myr age and dynamic environment, the Ba-Bb component is surrounded by a compact gas-rich disc in a polar configuration. Previous millimetre continuum observations of this disc found a low millimetre spectral index ($\alpha \sim$ 2.1 up to 9 mm), potentially arising from large dust grains, optically thick emission, or both. Furthermore, the interpretation was complicated by emission mechanisms other than dust thermal continuum at longer wavelengths. We present new observations of this system with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 6.8 mm and 3 cm, providing crucial additional sampling of the emission at millimetre/centimetre wavelengths. By combining these with ancillary data, we derive a dust spectral index $\alpha_{\rm dust} <$ 3 for wavelengths $\le$ 1 cm. Our modeling suggests that the emission is optically thick at short millimetre wavelengths ($\lambda \le$ 3 mm) and it becomes at least partially optically thin for the VLA observations. The shallow spectral index thus indicates the existence of large grains in the disc. We also identify gyro-synchrotron emission from the A and B components at $\lambda \gtrsim $ 3 cm. The VLA images also reveal an azimuthal asymmetry at 6.8 mm and 8.8 mm, which is not present in high-resolution ALMA 1.3 mm data. After ruling out geometric and illumination effects, we interpret this asymmetry as a local dust overdensity, possibly induced by a vortex or a relic of the previous passage of the A component.