English

Peering into the Young Planetary System AB Pic. Atmosphere, Orbit, Obliquity & Second Planetary Candidate

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2023-02-22 v2

Abstract

We aim to revisit the system AB Pic which has a known companion at the exoplanet/ brown-dwarf boundary. We based this study on a rich set of observations to investigate the companion's orbit and atmosphere. We composed a spectrum of AB Pic b merging archival VLT/SINFONI K-band data, with published spectra at J and H-band (SINFONI) and Lp-band (Magellan-AO), and photometric measurements (HST and Spitzer). We modeled the spectrum with ForMoSA, based on two atmospheric models: ExoREM and BT-SETTL13. We determined the orbital properties of b fitting the astrometric measurements from NaCo (2003 and 2004) and SPHERE (2015). The orbital solutions favor a semi-major axis of \sim190au viewed edge-on. With Exo-REM, we derive a Teff_{eff} of 1700±\pm50K and surface gravity of 4.5±\pm0.3dex, consistent with previous works, and we report for the first time a C/O ratio of 0.58±\pm0.08 (\simsolar). The posteriors are sensitive to the wavelength interval and the family of models used. Given the 2.1hr rotation period and our vsin(i) of \sim73km/s, we estimate for the first time the true obliquity to be \sim45 or \sim135deg, indicating a significant misalignment between the planet's spin and orbit orientations. Finally, a proper motion anomaly between the Hipparcos and Gaia eDR3 compared to our SPHERE detection limits and adapted radial velocity limits indicate the existence of a \sim6MJup_{Jup} inner planet orbiting from 2 to 10au (40-200mas). The possible existence of an inner companion and the likely miss-alignment of the spin axis orientation strongly favor a formation path by gravitational instability or core accretion within a disk closer inside followed by dynamical interactions. Confirmation and characterization of planet c and access to a broader wavelength coverage for planet b will be essential to probe the uncertainties associated with the parameters.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.01474,
  title  = {Peering into the Young Planetary System AB Pic. Atmosphere, Orbit, Obliquity & Second Planetary Candidate},
  author = {P. Palma-Bifani and G. Chauvin and M. Bonnefoy and P. M. Rojo and S. Petrus and L. Rodet and M. Langlois and F. Allard and B. Charnay and C. Desgrange and D. Homeier and A. -M. Lagrange and J. -L. Beuzit and P. Baudoz and A. Boccaletti and A. Chomez and P. Delorme and S. Desidera and M. Feldt and C. Ginski and R. Gratton and A. -L. Maire and M. Meyer and M. Samland and I. Snellen and A. Vigan and Y. Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.01474},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages, 13 Figures, 6 Tables

R2 v1 2026-06-28T05:03:41.632Z