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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

How Eccentric is the Debris Disk of ϵ Eridani? ALMA Reveals a Near-circular Belt

  • Oto Ulrich1,2
  • Joshua B. Lovell2
  • David J. Wilner2
  • Antranik A. Sefilian3
  • Mark Booth4
4 affiliations
  1. 1Trinity College Dublin
  2. 2Center for Astrophysics
  3. 3University of Arizona
  4. 4UK Astronomy Technology Centre
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Abstract

The nearby (3.2 pc) K2V star ϵ Eridani hosts the closest detected debris disk and an exo-Jupiter analog ( ϵ Eridani b). In this work, we reanalyse Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 6 (1.29 mm) observations of ϵ Eridani to assess whether its outer debris belt exhibits a nonzero eccentricity, potentially induced by planet–disk interactions. Considering two models, one that accounts for the disk’s forced eccentricity ( e f ) and another that accounts for a proper eccentricity ( e p ), we place stringent (99.7th-percentile) upper limits of e f < 2.6% and e p < 6.8%, respectively, and find tentative evidence for a nonzero forced eccentricity of e f = 1.6 2 − 0.40 + 0.39 % at the 4 σ level. This corresponds to the lowest millimeter-derived upper limit on the forced eccentricity of any debris disk to date, which, together with the low upper limit on the proper eccentricity, suggests that the outer belt is nearly circular and dynamically cold. We further explore planetary system architectures that are consistent with these ALMA-based results in combination with Spitzer/IRAC, JWST/NIRCam F444W, and JWST/MIRI F2550W data. Together, these analyses provide insight into potential planet–disk interactions in this nearby system, constraining any additional planet beyond ϵ Eridani b to masses ranging from ∼2 × 10 ⁻⁴ to 0.3 M Jup at orbital separations of ∼6–60 au.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{ulrich2026eccentric,
  title = {{How Eccentric is the Debris Disk of ϵ Eridani? ALMA Reveals a Near-circular Belt}},
  author = {Oto Ulrich and Joshua B. Lovell and David J. Wilner and Antranik A. Sefilian and Mark Booth},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aeaedf},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaedf},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - How Eccentric is the Debris Disk of ϵ Eridani? ALMA Reveals a Near-circular Belt
AU  - Oto Ulrich
AU  - Joshua B. Lovell
AU  - David J. Wilner
AU  - Antranik A. Sefilian
AU  - Mark Booth
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aeaedf
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaedf
AB  - The nearby (3.2 pc) K2V star ϵ Eridani hosts the closest detected debris disk and an exo-Jupiter analog ( ϵ Eridani b). In this work, we reanalyse Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band 6 (1.29 mm) observations of ϵ Eridani to assess whether its outer debris belt exhibits a nonzero eccentricity, potentially induced by planet–disk interactions. Considering two models, one that accounts for the disk’s forced eccentricity ( e f ) and another that accounts for a proper eccentricity ( e p ), we place stringent (99.7th-percentile) upper limits of e f < 2.6% and e p < 6.8%, respectively, and find tentative evidence for a nonzero forced eccentricity of e f = 1.6 2 − 0.40 + 0.39 % at the 4 σ level. This corresponds to the lowest millimeter-derived upper limit on the forced eccentricity of any debris disk to date, which, together with the low upper limit on the proper eccentricity, suggests that the outer belt is nearly circular and dynamically cold. We further explore planetary system architectures that are consistent with these ALMA-based results in combination with Spitzer/IRAC, JWST/NIRCam F444W, and JWST/MIRI F2550W data. Together, these analyses provide insight into potential planet–disk interactions in this nearby system, constraining any additional planet beyond ϵ Eridani b to masses ranging from ∼2 × 10 ⁻⁴ to 0.3 M Jup at orbital separations of ∼6–60 au.
SN  - 1538-4357
SN  - 0004-637X
ER  -