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A PR drag origin for the Fomalhaut disk's pervasive inner dust: constraints on collisional strengths, icy composition, and embedded planets by Sommer, Max; Wyatt, Mark; Han, Yinuo is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

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Recent JWST observations of the Fomalhaut debris disk have revealed a significant abundance of dust interior to the outer planetesimal belt, raising questions about its origin and maintenance. In this study, we apply an analytical model to the Fomalhaut system, that simulates the dust distribution interior to a planetesimal belt, as collisional fragments across a range of sizes are dragged inward under Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag. We generate spectral energy distributions and synthetic JWST/MIRI images of the model disks, and perform an extensive grid search for particle parameters -- pertaining to composition and collisional strength -- that best match the observations. We find that a sound fit can be found for particle properties that involve a substantial water ice component, around 50--80% by total volume, and a catastrophic disruption threshold, $Q_D^\star$, at a particle size of $D\!\approx\!30\,$um of 2--4$\,\times\,10^6\,$erg/g. Based on the expected dynamical depletion of migrating dust by an intervening planet we discount planets with masses $>1\,M_\mathrm{Saturn}$ beyond $\sim50\,$au in the extended disk, though a planet shepherding the inner edge of the outer belt of u

Author

Sommer, Max; Wyatt, Mark; Han, Yinuo

Published

2025

Language

EN