An ALMA Constraint on the GSC 6214-210 B Circum-substellar Accretion Disk Mass

Brendan P. Bowler, Sean M. Andrews, Adam L. Kraus, Michael J. Ireland, Gregory Herczeg, Luca Ricci, John Carpenter, Michael E. Brown

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    Abstract

    We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of GSC 6214-210 A and B, a solar-mass member of the 5-10 Myr Upper Scorpius association with a 15 ± 2 MJup companion orbiting at ≈330 AU (2.″2). Previous photometry and spectroscopy spanning 0.3-5 μm revealed optical and thermal excess as well as strong H and Pa β emission originating from a circum-substellar accretion disk around GSC 6214-210 B, making it the lowest-mass companion with unambiguous evidence of a subdisk. Despite ALMA's unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution, neither component was detected in our 880 μm (341 GHz) continuum observations down to a 3σ limit of 0.22 mJy/beam. The corresponding constraints on the dust mass and total mass are <0.15 M and <0.05 MJup, respectively, or <0.003% and <0.3% of the mass of GSC 6214-210 B itself assuming a 100:1 gas-to-dust ratio and characteristic dust temperature of 10-20 K. If the host star possesses a putative circum-stellar disk then at most it is a meager 0.0015% of the primary mass, implying that giant planet formation has certainly ceased in this system. Considering these limits and its current accretion rate, GSC 6214-210 B appears to be at the end stages of assembly and is not expected to gain any appreciable mass over the next few megayears.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numberL17
    JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
    Volume805
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2015

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