High-angular-resolution Imaging of the V892 Tau Binary System: A New Circumprimary Disk Detection and Updated Orbital Constraints

Abstract

We present a direct imaging study of V892 Tau, a young Herbig Ae/Be star with a close-in stellar companion and circumbinary disk. Our observations consist of images acquired via Keck II/NIRC2 with nonredundant masking and the pyramid wavefront sensor at $K^{\prime} $ band (2.12 μ m) and $L^{\prime} $ band (3.78 μ m). Sensitivity to low-mass accreting companions and cool disk material is high at $L^{\prime} $ band, while complimentary observations at $K^{\prime} $ band probe hotter material with higher angular resolution. These multiwavelength, multiepoch data allow us to differentiate the secondary stellar emission from disk emission and deeply probe the structure of the circumbinary disk at small angular separations. We constrain architectural properties of the system by fitting geometric disk and companion models to the $K^{\prime} $ - and $L^{\prime} $ -band data. From these models, we constrain the astrometric and photometric properties of the stellar binary and update the orbit, placing the tightest estimates to date on the V892 Tau orbital parameters. We also constrain the geometric structure of the circumbinary disk, and resolve a circumprimary disk for the first time.

Keywords

• Protoplanetary disks
• Interferometry
• Near infrared astronomy