We present H and K band imaging polarimetry for the PDS 66 circumstellar disk obtained during the commissioning of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). Polarization images reveal a clear detection of the disk in to the 0.12'' inner working angle (IWA) in H band, almost 3 times as close to the star as the previous HST observations with NICMOS and STIS (0.35'' effective IWA). The centro-symmetric polarization vectors confirm that the bright inner disk detection is due to circumstellar scattered light. A more diffuse disk extends to a bright outer ring centered at 80 AU. We discuss several physical mechanisms capable of producing the observed ring + gap structure. GPI data confirm enhanced scattering on the East side of the disk which is inferred to be nearer to us. We also detect a lateral asymmetry in the South possibly due to shadowing from material within the inner working angle. This likely corresponds to a temporally variable azimuthal asymmetry observed in HST/STIS coronagraphic imaging.
@article{arxiv.1601.07248,
title = {The PDS 66 Circumstellar Disk as seen in Polarized Light with the Gemini Planet Imager},
author = {Schuyler G. Wolff and Marshall Perrin and Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer and Eric L. Nielsen and Jason Wang and Andrew Cardwell and Jeffrey Chilcote and Ruobing Dong and Zachary H. Draper and Gaspard Duchene and Michael P. Fitzgerald and Stephen J. Goodsell and Carol A. Grady and James R. Graham and Alexandra Z. Greenbaum and Markus Hartung and Pascale Hibon and Dean C. Hines and Li-Wei Hung and Paul Kalas and Bruce Macintosh and Franck Marchis and Christian Marois and Laurent Pueyo and Fredrik T. Rantakyro and Glenn Schneider and Anand Sivaramakrishnan and Sloane J. Wiktorowicz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.07248},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL