skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Sabin, Laurence"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract Some evolved binaries, namely post–asymptotic giant branch (AGB) binaries, are surrounded by stable and massive circumbinary disks similar to protoplanetary disks found around young stars. Around 10% of these disks are transition disks: they have a large inner cavity in the dust. Previous interferometric measurements and modeling have ruled out these cavities being formed by dust sublimation and suggested that they are due to massive circumbinary planets that trap dust in the disk and produce the observed depletion of refractory elements on the surfaces of the post-AGB stars. In this study, we test an alternative scenario in which the large cavities could be due to dynamical truncation from the inner binary. We performed near-infrared interferometric observations with the CHARA Array on the archetype of such a transition disk around a post-AGB binary: AC Her. We detect the companion at ten epochs over 4 yr and determine the three-dimensional orbit using these astrometric measurements in combination with a radial velocity time series. This is the first astrometric orbit constructed for a post-AGB binary system. We derive the best-fit orbit with a semimajor axis of 2.01 ± 0.01 mas (2.83 ± 0.08 au), inclination (142.9 ± 1.1)°, and longitude of the ascending node (155.1 ± 1.8)°. We find that the theoretical dynamical truncation and dust sublimation radii are at least ∼3× smaller than the observed inner disk radius (∼21.5 mas or 30 au). This strengthens the hypothesis that the origin of the cavity is due to the presence of a circumbinary planet. 
    more » « less