Hot Circumstellar Material around Vega

Using the FLUOR beam-combiner at the CHARA Array, we have obtained highprecision visibility measurements of Vega, a prototypic debris-disk star. The combination of long and short baselines has allowed us to separately resolve the stellar photosphere and the close environment of the star (< 8 AU). Our observations show a significant deficit in square visibility at short baselines with respect to the expected visibility of a simple uniform disk stellar model, suggesting the presence of an extended source around Vega. We propose that the excess emission is most likely due to the presence of hot circumstellar dust in the inner part of Vega's debris disk, with a flux ratio of 1.29 ± 0.19% between the integrated dust emission and the stellar photosphere. Using this information together with archival photometric measurements in the nearand mid-infrared, we derive the expected physical properties of the circumstellar dust by modelling its infrared Spectral Energy Distribution. The inferred properties suggest that the Vega system could be currently undergoing major dynamical perturbations.