We report the detection of spiral substructure in both the gas velocity and temperature structure of the disk around TW~Hya, suggestive of planet-disk interactions with an unseen planet. Perturbations from Keplerian rotation tracing out a spiral pattern are observed in the SE of the disk, while significant azimuthal perturbations in the gas temperature are seen in the outer disk, outside 90~au, extending the full azimuth of the disk. The deviation in velocity is either Δvϕ/vkep∼0.1 or Δvz/vkep∼0.01 depending on whether the perturbation is in the rotational or vertical direction, while radial perturbations can be ruled out. Deviations in the gas temperature are ±4 K about the azimuthally averaged profile, equivalent to deviations of ΔTgas/Tgas∼0.05. Assuming all three structures can be described by an Archimedean spiral, measurements of the pitch angles of both velocity and temperature spirals show a radially decreasing trend for all three, ranging from 9∘ at 70 au, dropping to 3∘ at 200 au. Such low pitch-angled spirals are not readily explained through the wake of an embedded planet in the location of previously reported at 94 au, but rather require a launching mechanism which results in much more tightly wound spirals. Molecular emission tracing distinct heights in the disk is required to accurately distinguish between spiral launching mechanisms.
@article{arxiv.1910.01532,
title = {Spiral Structure in the Gas Disk of TW Hya},
author = {Richard Teague and Jaehan Bae and Jane Huang and Edwin Bergin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.01532},
year = {2019}
}