Dust traps and the formation of cavities in transition discs: a millimetre to sub-millimetre comparison survey

The origin of the inner dust cavities observed in transition discs remains unknown. The segregation of dust and size of the cavity is expected to vary depending on which clearing mechanism dominates grain evolution. We present the results from the Discs Down Under program, an 8.8-mm continuum Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) survey targeting 15 transition discs with large (greater than or similar to 20 au) cavities and compare the resulting dust emission to Atacama Large millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) observations. Our ATCA observations resolve the inner cavity for 8 of the 14 detected discs. We fit the visibilities and reconstruct 1D radial brightness models for 10 sources with a S/N > 5 sigma. We find that, for sources with a resolved cavity in both wavebands, the 8.8 mm and sub-mm brightness distributions peak at the same radius from the star. We suggest that a similar cavity size for 8.8 mm and sub-mm dust grains is due to a dust trap induced by the presence of a companion.

Automated summary

The origin of inner dust cavities in transition discs remains unclear, with differences expected based on the clearing mechanism. Observations with ATCA and ALMA show that the brightness distributions of 8.8mm and sub-mm dust grains in transition discs peak at the same radius, suggesting a common cavity size possibly induced by a dust trap.