Discovery of a two-armed spiral structure in the gapped disk around herbig ae star HD 100453

We present Very Large Telescope (VLT)/SPHERE adaptive optics imaging in the Y-, J-, H-, and K-bands of the HD 100453 system and the discovery of a two-armed spiral structure in a disk extending to 0.″37 (∼42 AU) from the star, with highly symmetric arms to the northeast and southwest. Inside of the spiral arms, we resolve a ring of emission from 0.″18 to 0.″25 (∼21-29 AU). By assuming that the ring is intrinsically circular we estimate an inclination of ∼34° from face on. We detect dark crescents on opposite sides (NW and SE) that begin at 0.″18 and continue to radii smaller than our inner working angle of 0.″15, which we interpret as the signature of a gap at ≲21 AU that has likely been cleared by forming planets. We also detect the ∼120 AU companion HD 100453 B, and by comparing our data to 2003 Hubble Space Telescope and VLT/NACO images we estimate an orbital period of ∼850 year. We discuss what implications the discovery of the spiral arms and finer structures of the disk may have on our understanding of the possible planetary system in HD 100453 and how the morphology of this disk compares to other related objects.