Speaker
Description
The transition from late-stage stellar evolution to circumbinary disk dynamics is nowhere more evident than in binary post-AGB systems. Far from being passive remnants of mass loss, these systems are active laboratories where gas rotation, dust growth, and outflows interact in a complex dance.
Our multiwavelength campaign, spanning IRAM-30m, GBT, NOEMA, MeerKAT, and ALMA, unveils the physical and chemical anatomy of these environments. We find a striking radial segregation of dust grains and chemical gradients driven by binary interaction. While MeerKAT observations identify free-free emission from fast disk winds, ALMA’s sub-AU resolution reveals the 'smoking gun' of second-generation planet formation: asymmetric, ring-like structures indicative of dust trapping.
A central finding of this work is the identification of a fundamental physical dichotomy. By analyzing the disk-to-total mass ratio, we distinguish between disk-dominated systems, characterized by settled dust and stable Keplerian dynamics, and outflow-dominated sources, where mass ejection prevail. This framework not only explains the observed diversity of post-AGB binaries but also positions these long-lived disks as the definitive cradles where new planets may emerge from the ashes of evolved stars.