Giant Impacts and Debris Disk Morphology

Abstract

Certain debris disks have nonaxisymmetric shapes in scattered light which are unexplained. The appearance of a disk depends on how its constituent Keplerian ellipses are arranged. The more the ellipses align apsidally, the more nonaxisymmetric the disk. Apsidal alignment is automatic for fragments released from a catastrophic collision between solid bodies. We synthesize scattered light images, and thermal emission images, of such giant impact debris. Depending on the viewing geometry, and if and how the initial apsidal alignment is perturbed, the remains of a giant impact can appear in scattered light as a one-sided or two-sided “fork,” a lopsided “needle,” or a set of “double wings.” The last shape is difficult to reproduce in other scenarios involving gravitational forcing or gas drag, which do not align orbits as well. We compare our images with observations and offer a scorecard assessing whether the scattered light asymmetries in HD 15115, HD 32297, HD 61005, HD 111520, HD 106906, β Pic, and AU Mic are best explained by giant impacts, gravitational perturbations, or sculpting by the interstellar medium.