J/A+A/705/A238 Protoplanetary disks companions (Vioque+, 2026)
Astrometric view of companions in the inner dust cavities of protoplanetary
disks.
Vioque M., Booth R.A., Ragusa E., Ribas A., Kurtovic N.T., Rosotti G.P.,
Penoyre Z., Facchini S., Garufi A., Manara C.F., Huelamo N., Winter A.,
Perez S., Benisty M., Mendigutia I., Cuello N., Penzlin A.B.T.,
Castro-Ginard A., Teague R.
<Astron. Astrophys. 705, A238 (2026)>
=2026A&A...705A.238V 2026A&A...705A.238V (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: YSOs ; Stars, double and multiple ; Effective temperatures ;
Stars, masses ; Proper motions ; Optical
Keywords: planets and satellites: formation - protoplanetary disks -
planet-disk interactions - stars: formation -
stars: pre-main sequence - stars: variables: T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be
Abstract:
Protoplanetary discs with inner dust cavities (often referred to as
"transition discs") are potential signposts of planet formation.
However, few companions have been identified within these cavities,
and the role of companions in shaping them remains unclear.
We used Gaia astrometry to search for planetary and stellar companions
in a sample of 98 transition discs, assessing the occurrence rate of
such companions and their potential influence on cavity formation.
For the 98 young stellar objects (YSOs) with inner dust cavities, we
computed Gaia proper motion anomalies, which together with the
renormalised unit weight error (RUWE), identify companions with mass
ratios q≳0.01 at ∼0.1-30au. We assessed the impact of disc gravity,
accretion, disc-scattered light, dippers, starspots, jets, and
outflows on the measured proper motion anomalies, concluding that
these effects are unlikely to affect our analyses and that astrometric
techniques such as the one of this work can be robustly applied to
YSOs.
Significant proper motion anomalies are found in 31 transition discs
(32% of the sample), indicative of companions. We recovered 85% of the
known companions within our sensitivity range. Assuming that the
astrometry of each system is dominated by a single companion, we
modelled the semi-major axis and mass required to reproduce the
observed astrometric signals. Most inferred companions have M>30MJ,
placing many within or near the stellar mass regime. Seven sources
host companions compatible with a planetary mass (M<13MJ, HD 100453,
J04343128+1722201, J16102955-3922144, MHO6, MP Mus, PDS 70, and Sz
76). For the non-detections, we provide the companion masses and
semi-major axes that can be excluded in future searches. About half
(53%) of detected companions cannot be reconciled with having carved
the observed dust cavities.
We have gathered evidence of the presence of companions in a large
sample of transition discs. However, we find that the population of
transition discs cannot be fully described as a circumbinary
population. Transition discs host as many companions within our
sensitivity range as do randomly sampled groups of YSOs and
main-sequence stars. If dust cavities are shaped by companions, such
companions must reside at larger orbital separations than those of the
companions detected here, and we predict them to be of planetary mass.
Description:
The table lists, for each of the 98 YSO sources with inner dust
cavities ("transition disks") considered in this work, the presence
and properties of any detected companion (companion mass and
semi-major axis). We list stellar parameters from the literature,
namely effective temperature and luminosity (the latter, updated to
Gaia DR3 distances), and the stellar masses derived in this work. We
also list the dust-disks inclinations and position angles, and the
dust-disks cavity sizes. We tabulate the measured Gaia DR2 to Gaia DR3
proper motion anomalies (PMa), and their uncertainties and
significance. The Gaia DR3 astrometric parameters, including the RUWE,
are also tabulated, together with the Gaia DR3 G magnitude. See the
References section below for the mapping between reference codes in
the table and full references.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
tablea1.dat 605 98 Transition disk sources analysed for companions
via Gaia DR2-DR3 proper motion anomalies
refs.dat 69 62 References
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See also:
I/345 : Gaia DR2 (Gaia Collaboration, 2018)
I/355 : Gaia DR3 Part 1. Main source (Gaia Collaboration, 2022)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: tablea1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 18 A18 --- Name Target identifier (star or system name used
in the paper; usually a common catalog name
appearing in SIMBAD)
20- 22 A3 --- Comp [Yes No] Flag indicating the detection in
this paper of a stellar or sub-stellar
companion
24- 43 F20.15 Mjup MComp ? Estimated mass of the companion (50th
percentile of the distribution of possible
companion masses)
45- 63 F19.14 Mjup E_MComp ? Upper uncertainty on Companion_mass
(up to the 90th percentile)
65- 83 F19.15 Mjup e_MComp ? Lower uncertainty on Companion_mass
(down to the 10th percentile)
85-102 F18.16 au SepComp ? Estimated semi-major axis of the companion
(50th percentile of the distribution of
possible companion semi-major axes)
104-122 F19.16 au E_SepComp ? Upper uncertainty on Companion_separation
(up to the 90th percentile)
124-142 F19.17 au e_SepComp ? Lower uncertainty on Companion_separation
(down to the 10th percentile)
144-161 F18.12 K Teff Adopted effective temperature of the
central star
163-181 F19.14 K E_Teff Upper uncertainty on Teff
183-200 F18.14 K e_Teff Lower 1σ uncertainty on Teff
202-220 F19.16 Lsun Lumstar Stellar luminosity of the central star
(updated to Gaia DR3 distances)
222-241 F20.18 Lsun E_Lumstar Upper uncertainty on Lumstar
243-262 F20.18 Lsun e_Lumstar Lower uncertainty on Lumstar
264-268 A5 --- Refstel Reference code for the source of the
effective temperature and luminosity
in refs.dat file
270-288 F19.17 Msun Massstar Derived stellar mass of the central star
290-309 F20.18 Msun e_Massstar Uncertainty on Massstar
311-315 F5.2 deg inc ? Dust-disk inclination relative to the line
of sight (0deg = face-on,
90deg = edge-on)
317-321 F5.2 deg e_inc ? Uncertainty on inc
323-328 F6.2 deg PA ? Disc position angle on the sky,
between 0 to 180deg
330-334 F5.2 deg e_PA ? Uncertainty on PA
336-341 F6.2 au CavitySize Radius of the inner dust-disk cavity
343-351 A9 --- Refdiskm Reference code for disk geometries
in refs.dat file
353-372 F20.17 --- SNRPMa Signal-to-noise ratio of the Gaia DR2 to DR3
proper-motion anomaly (PMa)
374-384 F11.8 --- RUWE Gaia DR3 renormalised unit weight error
386-406 F21.18 mas/yr PMa Gaia DR2 to DR3 proper-motion anomaly
408-426 F19.17 mas/yr e_PMa Uncertainty on PMa
428-446 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia DR3 source identifier of the star
448-466 I19 --- GaiaDR2 Gaia DR2 source identifier of the star
468-486 F19.15 deg RAdeg Gaia DR3 right ascension (ICRS)
at Ep=2016.0 of the source
488-507 F20.16 deg DEdeg Gaia DR3 declination (ICRS)
at Ep=2016.0 of the source
509-527 F19.16 mas plx Gaia DR3 parallax of the source
529-539 F11.9 mas e_plx Uncertainty on parallax_dr3
541-551 F11.8 mas/yr PM Total proper motion of the source from
Gaia DR3
553-572 F20.16 mas/yr pmRA Proper motion of the source in right
ascension from Gaia DR3
574-594 F21.17 mas/yr pmDE Proper motion of the source in declination
from Gaia DR3
596-605 F10.7 mag Gmag Gaia DR3 mean G-band magnitude of the source
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: refs.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 2 A2 --- Ref Reference code
4- 26 A23 --- Aut Author's name
28- 46 A19 --- BibCode BibCode
48- 69 A22 --- Com Comments
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Acknowledgements:
Miguel Vioque, miguel.vioque(at)eso.org
Please cite the original Vioque et al. paper when using this catalogue.
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 02-Dec-2025