Forming the Dusty Ring in HR 4796A
Wood, Kenneth; Wolff, Michael J.; Kenyon, Scott J.; Whitney, Barbara A.
United States
Abstract
We describe planetesimal accretion calculations for the dusty ring observed in the nearby A0 star HR 4796A. Models with initial masses of 10-20 times the minimum-mass solar nebula produce a ring with a width of 7-15 AU and a height of 0.3-0.6 AU at 70 AU in ~10 Myr. The ring has a radial optical depth of ~1. These results agree with limits derived from infrared images and from the excess infrared luminosity.