Dynamical Processes in Debris Disks

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, BP. 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

Abstract

Debris disks are dusty and/or gasous disk that are viewed in scattered light and thermal emission around stars around 10⁷–10⁸ yr. It is well known that the dust in these system is not primodial. It is short lived and must be continuously replenished by colliding planetesimals. Most of them appear distorted by the gravitational pertubations by inner planets or stellar companions. This is why these systems are viewed today as young planetary systems. 
Debris disks are collisional systems. Thanks to collisional cascade towards smaller size, the dust particles are transported outwards by radiation or stellar wind pressure. Below a given blow-off size they escape the system. This model explains the radial density profiles observed.
The various asymmetries, clumps and other dynamical structures such as spiral arms are though to originate in gravitational perturbations by planets and/or companions. Planets usually create gaps in disks, but they also sculpt disks via their mean-motion resonances. Clumpy structures are often invoked as resulting from such an interaction. Stellar companions usually truncate the disk, sometimes confining them to thin annular structures. They also help creating spiral patterns, either tidally or by secular interaction. In this context, the situation is different whether the perturbing companions are bound or just passing stars. In any case, dynamical studies (often specific to each system) can greatly help constraining the configuration and the past history of these systems.