_version_ 1866917211373830144
author Han, Yinuo
Mansell, Elias
Jennings, Jeff
Marino, Sebastian
Hughes, A. Meredith
Zawadzki, Brianna
Fehr, Anna
Kittling, Jamar
Hou, Catherine
Nurmohamed, Aliya
Lee, Junu
Cheruiyot, Allan
Mpofu, Yamani
Booth, Mark
Booth, Richard
Bonduelle, Myriam
Brennan, Aoife
del Burgo, Carlos
Carpenter, John M.
Cataldi, Gianni
Chiang, Eugene
Ertel, Steve
Henning, Thomas
Jankovic, Marija R.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Krivov, Alexander V.
Lovell, Joshua B.
Luppe, Patricia
MacGregor, Meredith A.
Mac Manamon, Sorcha
Marshall, Jonathan P.
Matrà, Luca
Milli, Julien
Moór, Attila
Olofsson, Johan
Pearce, Tim
Pérez, Sebastián
Sefilian, Antranik A.
Weber, Philipp
Wilner, David J.
Wyatt, Mark C.
author_facet Han, Yinuo
Mansell, Elias
Jennings, Jeff
Marino, Sebastian
Hughes, A. Meredith
Zawadzki, Brianna
Fehr, Anna
Kittling, Jamar
Hou, Catherine
Nurmohamed, Aliya
Lee, Junu
Cheruiyot, Allan
Mpofu, Yamani
Booth, Mark
Booth, Richard
Bonduelle, Myriam
Brennan, Aoife
del Burgo, Carlos
Carpenter, John M.
Cataldi, Gianni
Chiang, Eugene
Ertel, Steve
Henning, Thomas
Jankovic, Marija R.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Krivov, Alexander V.
Lovell, Joshua B.
Luppe, Patricia
MacGregor, Meredith A.
Mac Manamon, Sorcha
Marshall, Jonathan P.
Matrà, Luca
Milli, Julien
Moór, Attila
Olofsson, Johan
Pearce, Tim
Pérez, Sebastián
Sefilian, Antranik A.
Weber, Philipp
Wilner, David J.
Wyatt, Mark C.
contents The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) was recently completed to cover the lack of high-resolution observations of debris discs and to investigate the prevalence of substructures such as radial gaps and rings in a sample of 24 discs. This study characterises the radial structure of debris discs in the ARKS programme. To identify and quantify the disc substructures, we modelled all discs with a range of non-parametric and parametric approaches. We find that of the 24 discs in the sample, 5 host multiple rings, 7 are single rings that display halos or additional low-amplitude rings, and 12 are single rings with at most tentative evidence of additional substructures. The fractional ring widths that we measured are significantly narrower than previously derived values, and they follow a distribution similar to the fractional widths of individual rings resolved in protoplanetary discs. However, there exists a population of rings in debris discs that are significantly wider than those in protoplanetary discs. We also find that discs with steep inner edges consistent with planet sculpting tend to be found at smaller (<100 au) radii, while more radially extended discs tend to have shallower edges more consistent with collisional evolution. An overwhelming majority of discs have radial profiles well-described by either a double power law or double-Gaussian parametrisation. While our findings suggest that it may be possible for some debris discs to inherit their structures directly from protoplanetary discs, there exists a sizeable population of broad debris discs that cannot be explained in this way. Assuming that the distribution of millimetre dust reflects the distribution of planetesimals, mechanisms that cause rings in protoplanetary discs to migrate or debris discs to broaden soon after formation may be at play, possibly mediated by planetary migration or scattering.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13670
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) II. The radial structure of debris discs
Han, Yinuo
Mansell, Elias
Jennings, Jeff
Marino, Sebastian
Hughes, A. Meredith
Zawadzki, Brianna
Fehr, Anna
Kittling, Jamar
Hou, Catherine
Nurmohamed, Aliya
Lee, Junu
Cheruiyot, Allan
Mpofu, Yamani
Booth, Mark
Booth, Richard
Bonduelle, Myriam
Brennan, Aoife
del Burgo, Carlos
Carpenter, John M.
Cataldi, Gianni
Chiang, Eugene
Ertel, Steve
Henning, Thomas
Jankovic, Marija R.
Kóspál, Ágnes
Krivov, Alexander V.
Lovell, Joshua B.
Luppe, Patricia
MacGregor, Meredith A.
Mac Manamon, Sorcha
Marshall, Jonathan P.
Matrà, Luca
Milli, Julien
Moór, Attila
Olofsson, Johan
Pearce, Tim
Pérez, Sebastián
Sefilian, Antranik A.
Weber, Philipp
Wilner, David J.
Wyatt, Mark C.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) was recently completed to cover the lack of high-resolution observations of debris discs and to investigate the prevalence of substructures such as radial gaps and rings in a sample of 24 discs. This study characterises the radial structure of debris discs in the ARKS programme. To identify and quantify the disc substructures, we modelled all discs with a range of non-parametric and parametric approaches. We find that of the 24 discs in the sample, 5 host multiple rings, 7 are single rings that display halos or additional low-amplitude rings, and 12 are single rings with at most tentative evidence of additional substructures. The fractional ring widths that we measured are significantly narrower than previously derived values, and they follow a distribution similar to the fractional widths of individual rings resolved in protoplanetary discs. However, there exists a population of rings in debris discs that are significantly wider than those in protoplanetary discs. We also find that discs with steep inner edges consistent with planet sculpting tend to be found at smaller (<100 au) radii, while more radially extended discs tend to have shallower edges more consistent with collisional evolution. An overwhelming majority of discs have radial profiles well-described by either a double power law or double-Gaussian parametrisation. While our findings suggest that it may be possible for some debris discs to inherit their structures directly from protoplanetary discs, there exists a sizeable population of broad debris discs that cannot be explained in this way. Assuming that the distribution of millimetre dust reflects the distribution of planetesimals, mechanisms that cause rings in protoplanetary discs to migrate or debris discs to broaden soon after formation may be at play, possibly mediated by planetary migration or scattering.
title The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS) II. The radial structure of debris discs
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13670