Luminous debris disks of warm dust in the terrestrial planet zones around solar-like stars are recently found to vary, indicative of ongoing large-scale collisions of rocky objects. We use Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 {mu}m time-series observations in 2012 an
d 2013 (extended to 2014 in one case) to monitor 5 more debris disks with unusually high fractional luminosities (extreme debris disk), including P1121 in the open cluster M47 (80 Myr), HD 15407A in the AB Dor moving group (80 Myr), HD 23514 in the Pleiades (120 Myr), HD 145263 in the Upper Sco Association (10 Myr), and the field star BD+20 307 (>1 Gyr). Together with the published results for ID8 in NGC 2547 (35 Myr), this makes the first systematic time-domain investigation of planetary impacts outside the solar system. Significant variations with timescales shorter than a year are detected in five out of the six extreme debris disks we have monitored. However, different systems show diverse sets of characteristics in the time domain, including long-term decay or growth, disk temperature variations, and possible periodicity.
The final assembly of terrestrial planets occurs via massive collisions, which can launch copious clouds of dust that are warmed by the star and glow in the infrared. We report the real-time detection of a debris-producing impact in the terrestrial p
lanet zone around a 35-million year-old solar analog star. We observed a substantial brightening of the debris disk at 3-5 {mu}m, followed by a decay over a year, with quasi-periodic modulations of the disk flux. The behavior is consistent with the occurrence of a violent impact that produced vapor out of which a thick cloud of silicate spherules condensed that were ground into dust by collisions. These results demonstrate how the time domain can become a new dimension for the study of terrestrial planet formation.
Observations of debris disks allow for the study of planetary systems, even where planets have not been detected. However, debris disks are often only characterized by unresolved infrared excesses that resemble featureless blackbodies, and the locati
on of the emitting dust is uncertain due to a degeneracy with the dust grain properties. Here we characterize the Spitzer IRS spectra of 22 debris disks exhibiting 10 micron silicate emission features. Such features arise from small warm dust grains, and their presence can significantly constrain the orbital location of the emitting debris. We find that these features can be explained by the presence of an additional dust component in the terrestrial zones of the planetary systems, i.e. an exozodiacal belt. Aside from possessing exozodiacal dust, these debris disks are not particularly unique; their minimum grain sizes are consistent with the blowout sizes of their systems, and their brightnesses are comparable to those of featureless warm debris disks. These disks are in systems with a range of ages, although the older systems with features are found only around A-type stars. The features in young systems may be signatures of terrestrial planet formation. Analyzing the spectra of unresolved debris disks with emission features may be one of the simplest and most accessible ways to study the terrestrial regions of planetary systems.
Cold debris disks trace the limits of planet formation or migration in the outer regions of planetary systems, and thus have the potential to answer many of the outstanding questions in wide-orbit planet formation and evolution. We characterized the
infrared excess spectral energy distributions of 174 cold debris disks around 546 main-sequence stars observed by both Spitzer IRS and MIPS. We found a trend between the temperature of the inner edges of cold debris disks and the stellar type of the stars they orbit. This argues against the importance of strictly temperature-dependent processes (e.g. non-water ice lines) in setting the dimensions of cold debris disks. Also, we found no evidence that delayed stirring causes the trend. The trend may result from outward planet migration that traces the extent of the primordial protoplanetary disk, or it may result from planet formation that halts at an orbital radius limited by the efficiency of core accretion.
The Herschel DUst around NEarby Stars (DUNES) survey has found a number of debris disk candidates that are apparently very cold, with temperatures near 22K. It has proven difficult to fit their spectral energy distributions with conventional models f
or debris disks. Given this issue we carefully examine the alternative explanation, that the detections arise from confusion with IR cirrus and/or background galaxies that are not physically associated with the foreground star. We find that such an explanation is consistent with all of these detections.
We review the nearby debris disk structures revealed by multi-wavelength images from Spitzer and Herschel, and complemented with detailed spectral energy distribution modeling. Similar to the definition of habitable zones around stars, debris disk st
ructures should be identified and characterized in terms of dust temperatures rather than physical distances so that the heating power of different spectral type of stars is taken into account and common features in disks can be discussed and compared directly. Common features, such as warm (~150 K) dust belts near the water-ice line and cold (~50 K) Kuiper-belt analogs, give rise to our emerging understanding of the levels of order in debris disk structures and illuminate various processes about the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. In light of the disk structures in the debris disk twins (Vega and Fomalhaut), and the current limits on the masses of planetary objects, we suggest that the large gap between the warm and cold dust belts is the best signpost for multiple (low-mass) planets beyond the water-ice line.
We explore the collisional decay of disk mass and infrared emission in debris disks. With models, we show that the rate of the decay varies throughout the evolution of the disks, increasing its rate up to a certain point, which is followed by a level
ing off to a slower value. The total disk mass falls off ~ t^-0.35 at its fastest point (where t is time) for our reference model, while the dust mass and its proxy -- the infrared excess emission -- fades significantly faster (~ t^-0.8). These later level off to a decay rate of M_tot(t) ~ t^-0.08 and M_dust(t) or L_ir(t) ~ t^-0.6. This is slower than the ~ t^-1 decay given for all three system parameters by traditional analytic models. We also compile an extensive catalog of Spitzer and Herschel 24, 70, and 100 micron observations. Assuming a log-normal distribution of initial disk masses, we generate model population decay curves for the fraction of debris disk harboring stars observed at 24 micron and also model the distribution of measured excesses at the far-IR wavelengths (70-100 micron) at certain age regimes. We show general agreement at 24 micron between the decay of our numerical collisional population synthesis model and observations up to a Gyr. We associate offsets above a Gyr to stochastic events in a few select systems. We cannot fit the decay in the far infrared convincingly with grain strength properties appropriate for silicates, but those of water ice give fits more consistent with the observations.
We explore the evolution of the mass distribution of dust in collision-dominated debris disks, using the collisional code introduced in our previous paper. We analyze the equilibrium distribution and its dependence on model parameters by evolving ove
r 100 models to 10 Gyr. With our numerical models, we confirm that systems reach collisional equilibrium with a mass distribution that is steeper than the traditional solution by Dohnanyi (1969). Our model yields a quasi steady-state slope of n(m) ~ m^{-1.88} [n(a) ~ a^{-3.65}] as a robust solution for a wide range of possible model parameters. We also show that a simple power-law function can be an appropriate approximation for the mass distribution of particles in certain regimes. The steeper solution has observable effects in the submillimeter and millimeter wavelength regimes of the electromagnetic spectrum. We assemble data for nine debris disks that have been observed at these wavelengths and, using a simplified absorption efficiency model, show that the predicted slope of the particle mass distribution generates SEDs that are in agreement with the observed ones.
We present Spitzer measurements of the aromatic (also known as PAH) features for 35 Seyfert galaxies from the revised Shapley-Ames sample and find that the relative strengths of the features differ significantly from those observed in star-forming ga
laxies. Specifically, the features at 6.2, 7.7, and 8.6 micron are suppressed relative to the 11.3 micron feature in Seyferts. Furthermore, we find an anti-correlation between the L(7.7 micron)/L(11.3 micron) ratio and the strength of the rotational H2 (molecular hydrogen) emission, which traces shocked gas. This suggests that shocks suppress the short-wavelength features by modifying the structure of the aromatic molecules or destroying the smallest grains. Most Seyfert nuclei fall on the relationship between aromatic emission and [Ne II] emission for star-forming galaxies, indicating that aromatic-based estimates of the star-formation rate in AGN host galaxies are generally reasonable. For the outliers from this relationship, which have small L(7.7 micron)/L(11.3 micron) ratios and strong H2 emission, the 11.3 micron feature still provides a valid measure of the star-formation rate.
Type 2 AGNs with intrinsically weak broad emission lines (BELs) would be exceptions to the unified model. After examining a number of proposed candidates critically, we find that the sample is contaminated significantly by objects with BELs of streng
ths indicating that they actually contain intermediate-type AGNs, plus a few Compton-thick sources as revealed by extremely low ratios of X-ray to nuclear IR luminosities. We develop quantitative metrics that show two (NGC 3147 and NGC 4594) of the remaining candidates to have BELs 2-3 orders of magnitude weaker than those of typical type-1 AGNs. Several more galaxies remain as candidates to have anomalously weak BELs, but this status cannot be confirmed with the existing information. Although the parent sample is poorly defined, the two confirmed objects are well under 1% of its total number of members, showing that the absence of a BEL is possible, but very uncommon in AGN. We evaluate these two objects in detail using multi-wavelength measurements. They have little X-ray extinction with N_H < 10^21 cm^{-2}. Their IR spectra show strong silicate emission (NGC 4594) or weak aromatic features on a generally power law continuum with a suggestion of silicates in emission (NGC 3147). No polarized BEL is detected in NGC 3147. These results indicate that the two unobscured type-2 objects have circumnuclear tori that are approximately face-on. Combined with their X-ray and optical/UV properties, this behavior implies that we have an unobscured view of the nuclei and thus that they have intrinsically weak BELs. We compare their properties with those of the other less-extreme candidates. We then compare the distributions of bolometric luminosities and accretion rates of these objects with theoretical models that predict weak BELs.
