In young circumstellar disks, accretion-the inspiral of disk material onto the central star-is important for both the buildup of stellar masses and the outcome of planet formation. Although the ...existence of accretion is well documented, understanding the angular momentum transport mechanism that enables disk accretion has proven to be an enduring challenge. The leading theory to date, the magnetorotational instability, which redistributes angular momentum within the disk, is increasingly questioned, and magnetothermal disk winds, which remove angular momentum from the disk, have emerged as an alternative theoretical solution. Here we investigate whether measurements of disk radii can provide useful insights into which, if either, of these mechanisms drives disk accretion, by searching for evidence of viscous spreading in gaseous disks, a potential signature of "in-disk" angular momentum transport. We find that the large sizes of most Class II (T Tauri) gas disks compared to those of their earlier evolutionary counterparts, Class I gas disks, are consistent with expectations for viscous spreading in the Class II phase. There is, however, a large spread in the sizes of Class II gas disks at any age, including a population of very small Class II gas disks. Their small sizes may result from processes such as photoevaporation, disk winds, or truncation by orbiting low-mass companions.
Spiral arm structures seen in scattered-light observations of protoplanetary disks can potentially serve as signposts of planetary companions. They can also lend unique insights into disk masses, ...which are critical in setting the mass budget for planet formation but are difficult to determine directly. A surprisingly high fraction of disks that have been well studied in scattered light have spiral arms of some kind (8/29), as do a high fraction (6/11) of well-studied Herbig intermediate-mass stars (i.e., Herbig stars >1.5 M ). Here we explore the origin of spiral arms in Herbig systems by studying their occurrence rates, disk properties, and stellar accretion rates. We find that two-arm spirals are more common in disks surrounding Herbig intermediate-mass stars than are directly imaged giant planet companions to mature A and B stars. If two-arm spirals are produced by such giant planets, this discrepancy suggests that giant planets are much fainter than predicted by hot-start models. In addition, the high stellar accretion rates of Herbig stars, if sustained over a reasonable fraction of their lifetimes, suggest that disk masses are much larger than inferred from their submillimeter continuum emission. As a result, gravitational instability is a possible explanation for multiarm spirals. Future observations can lend insights into the issues raised here.
Although stars accrete mass throughout the first few million years of their lives, the physical mechanism that drives disk accretion in the T Tauri phase is uncertain, and diagnostics that probe the ...nature of disk accretion have been elusive, particularly in the planet formation region of the disk. Here we explore whether an accretion process such as the magnetorotational instability (MRI) could be detected through its "heat signature," the energy it deposits in the disk atmosphere. To examine this possibility, we investigate the impact of accretion-related mechanical heating and energetic stellar irradiation (FUV and X-rays) on the thermal-chemical properties of disk atmospheres at planet formation distances. We find that stellar FUV irradiation ( and continuum), through its role in heating and photodissociation, affects much of the upper warm (400-2000 K) molecular layer of the atmosphere, and the properties of the layer are generally in good agreement with the observed molecular emission features of disks at UV, near-infrared, and mid-infrared wavelengths. At the same time, the effect of FUV irradiation is restricted to the upper molecular layer of the disk, even when irradiation by is included. The region immediately below the FUV-heated layer is potentially dominated by accretion-related mechanical heating. As cooler (90-400 K) CO, water, and other molecules are potential diagnostics of the mechanically heated layer, emission line studies of these diagnostics might be used to search for evidence of the MRI in action.
The high occurrence rates of spiral arms and large central clearings in protoplanetary disks, if interpreted as signposts of giant planets, indicate that gas giants commonly form as companions to ...young stars (<few Myr) at orbital separations of 10-300 au. However, attempts to directly image this giant planet population as companions to more mature stars (>10 Myr) have yielded few successes. This discrepancy could be explained if most giant planets form by "cold start," i.e., by radiating away much of their formation energy as they assemble their mass, rendering them faint enough to elude detection at later times. In that case, giant planets should be bright at early times, during their accretion phase, and yet forming planets are detected only rarely through direct imaging techniques. Here we explore the possibility that the low detection rate of accreting planets is the result of episodic accretion through a circumplanetary disk. We also explore the possibility that the companion orbiting the Herbig Ae star HD 142527 may be a giant planet undergoing such an accretion outburst.
Abstract
The formation of planets like Earth is expected to conclude with a series of late-stage giant impacts that generate warm dusty debris, the most anticipated visible signpost of terrestrial ...planet formation in progress. While there is now evidence that Earth-sized terrestrial planets orbit a significant fraction of solar-type stars, the anticipated dusty debris signature of their formation is rarely detected. Here we discuss several ways in which our current ideas about terrestrial planet formation imply transport mechanisms capable of erasing the anticipated debris signature. A tenuous gas disk may be regenerated via
takeout
(i.e., the liberation of planetary atmospheres in giant impacts) or
delivery
(i.e., by asteroids and comets flung into the terrestrial planet region) at a level sufficient to remove the warm debris. The powerful stellar wind from a young star can also act, its delivered wind momentum producing a drag that removes warm debris. If such processes are efficient, terrestrial planets may assemble inconspicuously, with little publicity and hoopla accompanying their birth. Alternatively, the rarity of warm excesses may imply that terrestrial planets typically form very early, emerging fully formed from the nebular phase without undergoing late-stage giant impacts. In either case, the observable signposts of terrestrial planet formation appear more challenging to detect than previously assumed. We discuss observational tests of these ideas.
The chemical composition of protoplanetary disks is expected to hold clues to the physical and chemical processes that influence the formation of planetary systems. However, characterizing the gas ...composition in the planet formation region of disks has been a challenge to date. We report here that the protoplanetary disk within 3 astronomical units of AA Tauri possesses a rich molecular emission spectrum in the mid-infrared, indicating a high abundance of simple organic molecules (HCN, C₂H₂, and CO₂), water vapor, and OH. These results suggest that water is abundant throughout the inner disk and that the disk supports an active organic chemistry.
Abstract
The similar orbital distances and detection rates of debris disks and the prominent rings observed in protoplanetary disks suggest a potential connection between these structures. We explore ...this connection with new calculations that follow the evolution of rings of pebbles and planetesimals as they grow into planets and generate dusty debris. Depending on the initial solid mass and planetesimal formation efficiency, the calculations predict diverse outcomes for the resulting planet masses and accompanying debris signature. When compared with debris disk incidence rates as a function of luminosity and time, the model results indicate that the known population of bright cold debris disks can be explained by rings of solids with the (high) initial masses inferred for protoplanetary disk rings and modest planetesimal formation efficiencies that are consistent with current theories of planetesimal formation. These results support the possibility that large protoplanetary disk rings evolve into the known cold debris disks. The inferred strong evolutionary connection between protoplanetary disks with large rings and mature stars with cold debris disks implies that the remaining majority population of low-mass stars with compact protoplanetary disks leaves behind only modest masses of residual solids at large radii and evolves primarily into mature stars without detectable debris beyond 30 au. The approach outlined here illustrates how combining observations with detailed evolutionary models of solids strongly constrains the global evolution of disk solids and underlying physical parameters such as the efficiency of planetesimal formation and the possible existence of invisible reservoirs of solids in protoplanetary disks.
HD 100546 is a Herbig Ae/Be star surrounded by a disk with a large central region that is cleared of gas and dust (i.e., an inner hole). High-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy reveals a rich ...emission spectrum of fundamental rovibrational CO emission lines whose time variable properties point to the presence of an orbiting companion within the hole. The Doppler shift and spectroastrometric signal of the CO v = 1−0 P26 line, observed from 2003 to 2013, are consistent with a source of excess CO emission that orbits the star near the inner rim of the disk. The properties of the excess emission are consistent with those of a circumplanetary disk. In this paper, we report follow-up observations that confirm our earlier prediction that the orbiting source of excess emission would disappear behind the near side of the inner rim of the outer disk in 2017. We find that while the hot band CO lines remained unchanged in 2017, the v = 1−0 P26 line and its spectroastrometric signal returned to the profile observed in 2003. With these new observations, we further constrain the origin of the emission and discuss possible ways of confirming the presence of an orbiting planetary companion in the inner disk.
ROCKY PLANET FORMATION: QUICK AND NEAT Kenyon, Scott J.; Najita, Joan R.; Bromley, Benjamin C.
The Astrophysical journal,
11/2016, Volume:
831, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
ABSTRACT We reconsider the commonly held assumption that warm debris disks are tracers of terrestrial planet formation. The high occurrence rate inferred for Earth-mass planets around mature ...solar-type stars based on exoplanet surveys (∼20%) stands in stark contrast to the low incidence rate (≤2%-3%) of warm dusty debris around solar-type stars during the expected epoch of terrestrial planet assembly (∼10 Myr). If Earth-mass planets at au distances are a common outcome of the planet formation process, this discrepancy suggests that rocky planet formation occurs more quickly and/or is much neater than traditionally believed, leaving behind little in the way of a dust signature. Alternatively, the incidence rate of terrestrial planets has been overestimated, or some previously unrecognized physical mechanism removes warm dust efficiently from the terrestrial planet region. A promising removal mechanism is gas drag in a residual gaseous disk with a surface density 10−5 of the minimum-mass solar nebula.
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