2007A&A...466..389F

Observations have revealed a large variety of structures (global asymmetries, warps, belts, rings) and dynamical phenomena (``falling-evaporating bodies'' or FEBs, the ``β Pic dust stream'') in the disk of β Pictoris, most of which may indicate the presence of one or more planets orbiting the star. Because planets of β Pic have not been detected by observations yet, we use dynamical simulations to find ``numerical evidence'' for a planetary system. We show that one planet at 12AU with a mass of 2 to 5M_J and an eccentricity ≲0.1 can probably already account for three major features (main warp, two inner belts, FEBs) observed in the β Pic disk. The existence of at least two additional planets at about 25 AU and 45 AU from the star seems likely. We find rather strong upper limits of 0.6M_J and 0.2M_J on the masses of those planets. The same planets could, in principle, also account for the outer rings observed at 500-800AU.