Resonance trapping of circumstellar dust particles by an alleged planet

The dynamical evolution of dust particles forming a circumstellar disk around Pictoris is followed by numerical simulations on a Connection Machine. The disk appears to be cleared inside a radius of about 20 AU. We integrate simultaneously the orbits of 8,000 dust particles subjected to Poynting-Robertson drag and perturbed by one alleged planet. The simulations show that a planet revolving about Pictoris at a mean distance of 20 AU with a mass of at least 2 * 10^–5 central stellar mass can confine the disk by outer resonance trapping. The azimuthal density distribution of particles which shows very strong variations. appears to be stationary in a frame rotating with the planet.