Interferometric evidence for resolved warm dust in the DQ TAU system

Abstract

We report on near-infrared (IR) interferometric observations of the double-lined pre-main sequence binary system DQ Tau. We model these data with a visual orbit for DQ Tau supported by the spectroscopic orbit and analysis of Mathieu et al. Further, DQ Tau exhibits significant near-IR excess; modeling our data requires inclusion of near-IR light from an "excess" source. Remarkably, the excess source is resolved in our data, similar in scale to the binary itself (0.2 AU at apastron), rather than the larger circumbinary disk (0.4 AU radius). Our observations support the Mathieu et al. and Carr et al. inference of significant warm material near the DQ Tau binary. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.