English

Multi-modal atmospheric characterization of $\beta$ Pictoris b: Adding high-resolution continuum spectra from GRAVITY

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2026-01-14 v2

Abstract

We present the first VLTI/GRAVITY observations at Rλ4000_\lambda \sim 4000 of β\beta Pic b. These four high S/N (\sim20) K-band spectra conserve both the pseudo-continuum and molecular absorption patterns. We analyze them with four self-consistent forward model grids (Exo-REM, ATMO, BT-Settl, Sonora) exploring TeffT_{\mathrm{eff}}, log(g), metallicity, C/O, and 12^{12}CO/13^{13}CO ratio. We also upgrade our forward modeling code ForMoSA to account for the data multi-modality and combine the GRAVITY epochs with published 1-5 μ\mum photometry, low- to medium-resolution spectra (0.9-7 μ\mum), and high-resolution echelle spectra (2.1-5.2 μ\mum). Sonora and Exo-REM are statistically preferred. Exo-REM yields TeffT_{\mathrm{eff}} =1607.456.20+4.85=1607.45^{+4.85}_{-6.20} K and log(g) =4.460.04+0.02=4.46^{+0.02}_{-0.04} dex from GRAVITY alone, and TeffT_{\mathrm{eff}} =1502.742.14+2.32=1502.74^{+2.32}_{-2.14} K and log(g) =4.00±0.01=4.00\pm0.01 dex when including all datasets. Archival data significantly affect the retrieved parameters. C/O remains solar (0.5520.002+0.0030.552^{+0.003}_{-0.002}) while [M/H] reaches super-solar values (0.50±\pm0.01). We report the first tentative constraint on log(12^{12}CO/13^{13}CO) \sim1.12, though this remains inconclusive due to telluric residuals. Additionally, we estimate the luminosity to be log(L/L_\odot) =4.010.05+0.04=-4.01^{+0.04}_{-0.05}, implying a heavy-element content of up to \sim5% (20-80 M_\oplus) given the system age and dynamical mass measurements. Access to both continuum and molecular lines at K-band significantly impacts the metallicity, possibly owing to collision-induced absorption shaping the continuum. Echelle spectra do not dominate the final fit with respect to lower resolution data. Future multi-modal frameworks should include weighting schemes reflecting bandwidth and central wavelength coverage.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.25338,
  title  = {Multi-modal atmospheric characterization of $\beta$ Pictoris b: Adding high-resolution continuum spectra from GRAVITY},
  author = {M. Ravet and M. Bonnefoy and G. Chauvin and S. Lacour and M. Nowak and B. Charnay and P. Tremblin and D. Homeier and C. Morley and J. Fortney and A. Denis and S. Petrus and P. Palma-Bifani and R. Landman and L. T. Parker and M. Houllé and A. Chomez and K. Worthen and F. Kiefer and G. -D. Marleau and Z. Zhang and J. L. Birkby and F. Millour and A. -M. Lagrange and A. Vigan and G. P. P. L. Otten and J. Shangguan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.25338},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in A&A