A Hybrid Origin for the Multiple Ring-Gap Structures in the Large Protoplanetary Disk V1094 Sco: A Low-Mass Planet and Secular Gravitational Instability
Abstract
High spatial resolution observations reveal that some protoplanetary disks host multiple ring-gap pairs at large stellocentric radii, yet their physical origin remains unsettled. We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the V1094 Sco disk using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 6 continuum and CO and CO emission, together with a Very Large Telescope/SPHERE near-infrared scattered light image. The continuum image shows four narrow dust ring-gap pairs extending to exceptionally large radii ( au), while the CO isotopologues trace a spatially extended gas disk ( au) in Keplerian rotation. From the dust ring widths, we place conservative upper limits on the turbulent viscosity parameter, and potentially , implying weak turbulence. The ensemble of gap widths and depths is inconsistent with a simple one-planet-per-gap interpretation. At au, a double gap and its scattered light counterpart are consistent with multi-gap excitation by a single low-mass companion of . At au, the outer ring system shows regular spacing and no clear scattered light counterpart, indicating mechanisms that operate primarily at the disk midplane. These outer rings are quantitatively compatible with secular gravitational instability. V1094 Sco therefore supports a hybrid pathway in which weak turbulence in an extended disk allows secular gravitational instability to assemble long-lived midplane dust concentrations that can cradle planet formation beyond au, alongside planet-driven substructures at intermediate radii.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.11486,
title = {A Hybrid Origin for the Multiple Ring-Gap Structures in the Large Protoplanetary Disk V1094 Sco: A Low-Mass Planet and Secular Gravitational Instability},
author = {Masayuki Yamaguchi and Masahiro N. Machida and Ryosuke T. Tominaga and Jinshi Sai and Takayuki Muto and Michihiro Takami and Hauyu Baobab Liu and Ayumu Shoshi and Takashi Tsukagoshi and Shu Ishibashi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.11486},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
35 pages, 19 figures, 7 tables. Submitted to AAS Journals