Direct Imaging Detection of the Protoplanet AB Aurigae b at Wavelengths Covering Pa$β$: Rebuttal to Biddle et al. (2024)

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Main Author: Currie, Thayne
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Currie, Thayne
author_facet Currie, Thayne
contents Recently, Biddle et al. (2024) claimed a non-detection of the protoplanet AB Aurigae b in Keck/NIRC2 Pa$β$ imaging. I reprocess these newly-public data and compare them to data from the extreme AO platform (SCExAO/CHARIS) used to discover AB Aur b. AB Aur b is decisively imaged with SCExAO/CHARIS at wavelengths covering Pa$β$. The Biddle et al. non detection of AB Aur b results from a far poorer image quality that is non competitive with SCExAO/CHARIS. Their contrast limits and thus constraints on accretion are overestimated due to an inaccurate AB Aur b source model. Consequentially, the revised Pa$β$ 2-$σ$ upper limit from these data is about three times higher than previously reported. Irrespective of image quality, single-band Pa$β$ imaging is ill suited to conclusively identifying accretion onto AB Aur b. Instead, high-resolution H$α$ spectroscopy may provide accretion signatures. Aside from PDS 70, AB Aurigae remains the system with the strongest evidence for having a directly-imaged protoplanet.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_00107
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Direct Imaging Detection of the Protoplanet AB Aurigae b at Wavelengths Covering Pa$β$: Rebuttal to Biddle et al. (2024)
Currie, Thayne
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Recently, Biddle et al. (2024) claimed a non-detection of the protoplanet AB Aurigae b in Keck/NIRC2 Pa$β$ imaging. I reprocess these newly-public data and compare them to data from the extreme AO platform (SCExAO/CHARIS) used to discover AB Aur b. AB Aur b is decisively imaged with SCExAO/CHARIS at wavelengths covering Pa$β$. The Biddle et al. non detection of AB Aur b results from a far poorer image quality that is non competitive with SCExAO/CHARIS. Their contrast limits and thus constraints on accretion are overestimated due to an inaccurate AB Aur b source model. Consequentially, the revised Pa$β$ 2-$σ$ upper limit from these data is about three times higher than previously reported. Irrespective of image quality, single-band Pa$β$ imaging is ill suited to conclusively identifying accretion onto AB Aur b. Instead, high-resolution H$α$ spectroscopy may provide accretion signatures. Aside from PDS 70, AB Aurigae remains the system with the strongest evidence for having a directly-imaged protoplanet.
title Direct Imaging Detection of the Protoplanet AB Aurigae b at Wavelengths Covering Pa$β$: Rebuttal to Biddle et al. (2024)
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.00107