English

Atomic Gas in Debris Discs

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2016-12-19 v1

Abstract

We have conducted a search for optical circumstellar absorption lines in the spectra of 16 debris disc host stars. None of the stars in our sample showed signs of emission line activity in either Hα_{\alpha}, Ca II or Na I, confirming their more evolved nature. Four stars were found to exhibit narrow absorption features near the cores of the photospheric Ca II and Na I D lines (when Na I D data were available). We analyse the characteristics of these spectral features to determine whether they are of circumstellar or interstellar origins. The strongest evidence for circumstellar gas is seen in the spectrum of HD110058, which is known to host a debris disc observed close to edge-on. This is consistent with a recent ALMA detection of molecular gas in this debris disc, which shows many similarities to the β\beta Pictoris system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.05465,
  title  = {Atomic Gas in Debris Discs},
  author = {Antonio S. Hales and M. J. Barlow and I. A. Crawford and S. Casassus},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.05465},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Accepted 13/12/2016. Received 2/12/2016; Deposited on 22/11/2016. - 13 Pages, 9 Figures - MNRAS Advance Access published December 15, 2016

R2 v1 2026-06-22T17:26:02.863Z