The Invisible Monster Returns: Further Investigations of the Epsilon Aurigae Disk
Abstract
Epsilon Aurigae is a long-period eclipsing binary consisting of an F0Ia primary star and a secondary object - likely a main-sequence B star - enshrouded by a circumstellar, dusty disk. This circumstellar material gets heated from both the interior and exterior stars. Further information about the system has long been marred due to high uncertainty in its parallax. In response to this uncertainty, we constructed models corresponding to parallaxes observed by Gaia Data Release 2 and 3, which produced two predicted distances of 415 pc and 1033 pc, respectively. We also built a test model distance of 794 pc in which the distance corresponds to a stellar mass ratio of 1. Spectral energy distributions and temperature maps are used as analytic comparative tools to determine dust disk composition. Preliminary testing has indicated the composition of the secondary star disk does not match that of the interstellar medium - small silicates and carbon particles - and more work is underway to better constrain the disk composition. The models are built within the Hyperion package, a Fortran-based Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. From this investigation, we hope to better constrain the parameters of the F star, B star, and disk itself.
The Invisible Monster Returns: Further Investigations of the Epsilon Aurigae Disk
Epsilon Aurigae is a long-period eclipsing binary consisting of an F0Ia primary star and a secondary object - likely a main-sequence B star - enshrouded by a circumstellar, dusty disk. This circumstellar material gets heated from both the interior and exterior stars. Further information about the system has long been marred due to high uncertainty in its parallax. In response to this uncertainty, we constructed models corresponding to parallaxes observed by Gaia Data Release 2 and 3, which produced two predicted distances of 415 pc and 1033 pc, respectively. We also built a test model distance of 794 pc in which the distance corresponds to a stellar mass ratio of 1. Spectral energy distributions and temperature maps are used as analytic comparative tools to determine dust disk composition. Preliminary testing has indicated the composition of the secondary star disk does not match that of the interstellar medium - small silicates and carbon particles - and more work is underway to better constrain the disk composition. The models are built within the Hyperion package, a Fortran-based Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. From this investigation, we hope to better constrain the parameters of the F star, B star, and disk itself.