Browsing by Author "Prato, Lisa"

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    K2ﾠReveals Pulsed Accretion Driven by the 2 Myr Old Hot Jupiter CI Tau b
    (IOP Publishing, 2018) Biddle, Lauren I.; Johns-Krull, Christopher M.; Llama, Joe; Prato, Lisa; Skiff, Brian A.
    CIﾠTau is a young (~2 Myr) classical T Tauri star located in the Taurus star-forming region. Radial velocity observations indicate it hosts a Jupiter-sized planet with an orbital period of approximately 9 days. In this work, we analyze time series of CIﾠTau's photometric variability as seen byﾠK2. The light curve reveals the stellar rotation period to be ~6.6 days. Although there is no evidence that CIﾠTau b transits the host star, a ~9 day signature is also present in the light curve. We believe this is most likely caused by planetﾖdisk interactions that perturb the accretion flow onto the star, resulting in a periodic modulation of the brightness with the ~9 day period of the planet's orbit.
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    Sites of Planet Formation in Binary Systems. I. Evidence for Disk−Orbit Alignment in the Close Binary FO Tau
    (IOP Publishing, 2024) Tofflemire, Benjamin M.; Prato, Lisa; Kraus, Adam L.; Segura-Cox, Dominique; Schaefer, G. H.; Akeson, Rachel; Andrews, Sean; Jensen, Eric L. N.; Johns-Krull, Christopher M.; Zanazzi, J. J.; Simon, M.
    Close binary systems present challenges to planet formation. As binary separations decrease, so do the occurrence rates of protoplanetary disks in young systems and planets in mature systems. For systems that do retain disks, their disk masses and sizes are altered by the presence of the binary companion. Through the study of protoplanetary disks in binary systems with known orbital parameters, we seek to determine the properties that promote disk retention and therefore planet formation. In this work, we characterize the young binary−disk system FO Tau. We determine the first full orbital solution for the system, finding masses of and 0.34 ± 0.05 M ⊙ for the stellar components, a semimajor axis of au, and an eccentricity of . With long-baseline Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array interferometry, we detect 1.3 mm continuum and 12CO (J = 2–1) line emission toward each of the binary components; no circumbinary emission is detected. The protoplanetary disks are compact, consistent with being truncated by the binary orbit. The dust disks are unresolved in the image plane, and the more extended gas disks are only marginally resolved. Fitting the continuum and CO visibilities, we determine the inclination of each disk, finding evidence for alignment of the disk and binary orbital planes. This study is the first of its kind linking the properties of circumstellar protoplanetary disks to a precisely known binary orbit. In the case of FO Tau, we find a dynamically placid environment (coplanar, low eccentricity), which may foster its potential for planet formation.