Investigating the Disk-Planet Interaction in the HD 163296 System with JWST

We propose funding to analyze the data from the approved JWST/NIRCam observations of the planet-forming disk orbiting the young Herbig Ae star HD 163296. Recent high resolution ALMA observations have unveiled concentric annular gaps in the distribution of mm-sized pebbles at angular distances of 0.1, 0.5, 0.9, 1.5 arcsec from the central star. The two outer dust gaps show depletion also in CO gas, suggesting the possible presence of Jupiter-mass giant planets to gravitationally clear material out of their orbit. If so, also micron-sized grains should be severely depleted at the location of the two outer gaps. Moreover, the analysis of high angular and spectral resolution observations with ALMA of the CO molecular line emission have found significant discrepancies from the Keplerian rotation of the disk. Also these kinematical features have been attributed to the interaction with giant planets that would affect the 3D velocity of gas in the disk, but this scenario still lacks emipirical confirmation. This hypothesis can be directly tested via the approved NIRCam coronagraphic observations, which have the potential to detect the emission from these young giant planets. Given the angular separations and characteristics of the multiple substructures detected in both the density and kinematics of this disk, HD 163296 represents an ideal testbed system to demonstrate the potential of JWST, in synergy with ALMA, to test models of the disk-planet interaction and planet formation.