The Circumbinary Ring of KH 15D

Eugene I. Chiang (UC Berkeley); Ruth A. Murray-Clay (UC Berkeley)

RECORD

The Circumbinary Ring of KH 15D

Eugene I. Chiang (UC Berkeley), Ruth A. Murray-Clay (UC Berkeley)

Astrophysics · Submitted 19 Dec 2003

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim The light curves of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D from the years 1913--2003 can be understood if the star is a member of an eccentric binary that is encircled by a vertically thin, inclined ring of dusty gas.

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arXiv IDastro-ph/0312515 (version 3)

Pith IDBC4WJECH, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationEugene I. Chiang (UC Berkeley), Ruth A. Murray-Clay (UC Berkeley). "The Circumbinary Ring of KH 15D." arXiv:astro-ph/0312515 (2003). https://pith.science/paper/BC4WJECH

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The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

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Compiled by classifier-1.13.0 via TypeSafe API, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 7,094 input tokens.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.02 · states limitation 0.32 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.02 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.98 · compares with prior results 0.11 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v3. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

The light curves of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D from the years 1913--2003 can be understood if the star is a member of an eccentric binary that is encircled by a vertically thin, inclined ring of dusty gas. Eclipses occur whenever the reflex motion of a star carries it behind the circumbinary ring; the eclipses occur with period equal to the binary orbital period of 48.4 days. Features of the light curve--including the amplitude of central reversals during mid-eclipse, the phase of eclipse with respect to the binary orbit phase, the level of brightness out-of-eclipse, the depth of eclipse, and the eclipse duty cycle--are all modulated on the timescale of nodal regression of the obscuring ring, in accord with the historical data. The ring has a mean radius near 3 AU and a radial width that is likely less than this value. While the inner boundary could be shepherded by the central binary, the outer boundary may require an exterior planet to confine it against viscous spreading. The ring must be vertically warped to maintain a non-zero inclination. Thermal pressure gradients and/or ring self-gravity can readily enforce rigid precession. In coming years, as the node of the ring regresses out of our line-of-sight toward the binary, the light curve from the system should cycle approximately back through its previous behavior. Near-term observations should seek to detect a mid-infrared excess from this system; we estimate the flux densities from the ring to be 3 mJy at wavelengths of 10--100 microns.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	The light curves of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D from the years 1913--2003 can be understood if the star is a member of an eccentric binary that is encircled by a vertically thin, inclined ring of dusty gas.	interpretation 0.50	0.51	0.85	asserted 0.75
s1	Eclipses occur whenever the reflex motion of a star carries it behind the circumbinary ring; the eclipses occur with period equal to the binary orbital period of 48.4 days.	result 0.58	0.44	0.13	asserted 1.00
s2	Features of the light curve--including the amplitude of central reversals during mid-eclipse, the phase of eclipse with respect to the binary orbit phase, the level of brightness out-of-eclipse, the depth of eclipse, and the eclipse duty cycle--are all modulated on the timescale of nodal regression of the obscuring ring, in accord with the historical data.	result 0.70	0.54	0.16	asserted 0.96
s3	The ring has a mean radius near 3 AU and a radial width that is likely less than this value.	result 0.99	0.75	0.06	hedged possibility 0.65
s4	While the inner boundary could be shepherded by the central binary, the outer boundary may require an exterior planet to confine it against viscous spreading.	interpretation 0.97	0.38	0.05	hedged possibility 1.00
s5	The ring must be vertically warped to maintain a non-zero inclination.	interpretation 0.71	0.49	0.06	asserted 1.00
s6	Thermal pressure gradients and/or ring self-gravity can readily enforce rigid precession.	interpretation 0.95	0.25	0.04	hedged possibility 0.81
s7	In coming years, as the node of the ring regresses out of our line-of-sight toward the binary, the light curve from the system should cycle approximately back through its previous behavior.	interpretation 0.49	0.40	0.10	hedged possibility 0.50
s8	Near-term observations should seek to detect a mid-infrared excess from this system; we estimate the flux densities from the ring to be 3 mJy at wavelengths of 10--100 microns.	future work 0.97	0.79	0.04	asserted 0.41

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 0.91 · evidence from analysis of existing data 0.95.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read

arXiv listing abstract v3

not examined

full text
figures and tables
references and citing sentences
relations to other papers

levels run

P abstract

not run

S sections
T body sentences
C citations
R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

The light curves of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D from the years 1913--2003 can be understood if the star is a member of an eccentric binary that is encircled by a vertically thin, inclined ring of dusty gas. Eclipses occur whenever the reflex motion of a star carries it behind the circumbinary ring; the eclipses occur with period equal to the binary orbital period of 48.4 days. Features of the light curve--including the amplitude of central reversals during mid-eclipse, the phase of eclipse with respect to the binary orbit phase, the level of brightness out-of-eclipse, the depth of eclipse, and the eclipse duty cycle--are all modulated on the timescale of nodal regression of the obscuring ring, in accord with the historical data. The ring has a mean radius near 3 AU and a radial width that is likely less than this value. While the inner boundary could be shepherded by the central binary, the outer boundary may require an exterior planet to confine it against viscous spreading. The ring must be vertically warped to maintain a non-zero inclination. Thermal pressure gradients and/or ring self-gravity can readily enforce rigid precession. In coming years, as the node of the ring regresses out of our line-of-sight toward the binary, the light curve from the system should cycle approximately back through its previous behavior. Near-term observations should seek to detect a mid-infrared excess from this system; we estimate the flux densities from the ring to be 3 mJy at wavelengths of 10--100 microns.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

Stability of circumbinary planets: the role of binary properties and migration scenarios
astro-ph.EP 2026-09 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

Binary eccentricity and mass ratio, along with migration timing, determine whether two 10-Earth-mass circumbinary planets can survive in stable orbits.
Circumstellar and circumbinary discs in multiple stellar systems
astro-ph.EP 2025-01 conditional novelty 1.0 of 10

This review consolidates current knowledge on how stellar multiplicity shapes protoplanetary disc structure, dust evolution, and planet formation outcomes.

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46 later papers cite it

Evidence: some. 45 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 8 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

Pith read 5 of the 70 citing sentences, choosing only those whose citation markers point at this paper alone, and wrote the paraphrases from them. The summary, the counts, the evidence level, the links and the quotes come from code; the summary counts the papers listed below. A later paper is listed under a label when Pith's citation classifier gives one of its sentences that label at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), Pith's reading finds that the citing paper itself did it, and a second check confirms the paraphrase against the sentence. This section lists uses only. It does not list criticism or disagreement, so their absence here says nothing about how the paper has been received. Papers that share an author with this one are listed apart, under "By the same authors". A quote is the citing authors' own sentence, shown when their paper's licence is CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0. JSON

1 later paper by other authors is listed below: 1 used its method or tool.

Uses its method or tool 1 paper

For a circumbinary disk, we use the approximation from [ref] that gives [equation] where $a_b$ and $a_d$ are the semimajor axes of the binary and the disk, respectively.

ASASSN-24fw: An 8-month long, 4.1 mag, optically achromatic and polarized dimming event (2025) · System geometry · 0.98

How the literature uses it

3 arXiv papers cite this in 4 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 2 sentences without a confident label

Cites it as background 2 papers

In this configuration, a misaligned circumbinary disk periodically occults the central binary, producing characteristic flux variations [ref] .

Bernhard-1: An Eccentric Binary Periodically Obscured by its Misaligned Circumbinary Disk · Introduction · 0.95
Circumbinary objects and disks are observed on a wide range of scales in the universe from the moons around the Pluto-Charon binary in the solar system [ref] , to circumbinary planets [ref] and disks [ref] , to stars and disks around supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries in the centers of AGN [ref] .

Relativistic Effects on Circumbinary Orbit Stability · Introduction · 0.94

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