Dynamical Mass Constraints on Transition Disk Perturbers with the G23H Catalog

Read full text
Authors: Dori Blakely, William Thompson, Doug Johnstone, Jessica Speedie, Jerry W. Xuan, Simon Blouin, Jingwen Zhang, Jean-Baptiste Ruffio, Eric L. Nielsen, Brendan P. Bowler, Kyle Franson, William Roberson
+5 more Ryan Cloutier, Andre Fogal, Kaitlyn Hessel, Christian Marois, A. Rochon
Cited by: 0

Abstract

We present dynamical mass constraints on perturbers in 11 transition disk systems using a novel combination of calibrated Hipparcos and Gaia absolute astrometry data. Out of the sample of 11, we find support for companions in four systems, with significant detections in two. These systems are: HD 142527, where we clearly detect the known low-mass stellar companion HD 142527 B and MWC 758, where we detect a likely sub-stellar companion. We also find moderate evidence of companions to AB Aur and UX Tau A. For the seven systems with non-detections, we find no evidence for companions more massive than $\sim$12 $M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ with a semi-major axis greater than 3 au for both HD 100546 and HD 100453, nor for companions more massive than $\sim$3 $M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ with a semi-major axis greater than 2 au for TW Hya. We also find no evidence for stellar mass companions with semi-major axes between $\sim$4 and $\sim$25 au for HD 34282, HD 97048, CQ Tau and RY Lup. In addition to our fiducial model, we perform cross validation between astrometry sources. By comparing results across models, we find tentative evidence of a short timescale excess astrometric noise that may impact some protoplanetary disk systems. We conclude with predictions for the prospects of making dynamical mass constraints on protoplanets in protoplanetary disk systems with Gaia data release 4 using detailed simulations of Gaia DR4 data of PDS 70 and WISPIT 2.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Stellar planetary and galactic studies Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies Astro and Planetary Science

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
7 February 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Preprint