Distribution of solids in the rings of the HD 163296 disk: a multiwavelength study

Context. Observations at millimeter wavelengths of bright protoplanetary disks have shown the ubiquitous presence of structures such as rings and spirals in the continuum emission. The derivation of the underlying properties of the emitting material is nontrivial because of the complex radiative processes involved. Aims. In this paper we analyze new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at high angular resolution corresponding to 5 – 8 au to determine the dust spatial distribution and grain properties in the ringed disk of HD 163296. Methods. We fit the spectral energy distribution as a function of the radius at five wavelengths from 0.9 to 9 mm, using a simple power law and a physical model based on an analytic description of radiative transfer that includes isothermal scattering. We considered eight dust populations and compared the models' performance using Bayesian evidence. Results. Our analysis shows that the moderately high optical depth ( τ >1) at λ ≤ 1.3 mm in the dust rings artificially lower the millimeter spectral index, which should therefore not be considered as a reliable direct proxy of the dust properties and especially the grain size. We find that the outer disk is composed of small grains on the order of 200 µm with no significant difference between rings at 66 and 100 au and the adjacent gaps, while in the innermost ~30 au, larger grains (≥mm) could be present. We show that the assumptions on the dust composition have a strong impact on the derived surface densities and grain size. In particular, increasing the porosity of the grains to 80% results in a total dust mass about five times higher with respect to grains with 25% porosity. Finally, we find that the derived opacities as a function of frequency deviate from a simple power law and that grains with a lower porosity seem to better reproduce the observations of HD 163296. Conclusions. While we do not find evidence of differential trapping in the rings of HD 163296, our overall results are consistent with the postulated presence of giant planets affecting the dust temperature structure and surface density, and possibly originating a second-generation dust population of small grains.