ABSTRACT Observations of protoplanetary disks suggest that the gas and dust follow significantly different radial distributions. This finding can be theoretically explained by a combination of radial ...drift and gas drag of intermediate-sized dust grains. Using a simple parametric model to approximate the different distributions of the gas and dust components, we calculate and examine the impact of radial drift on the global dust temperature structure. We find that the removal of large grains beyond the "truncation radius" allows this region to become significantly warmer from reprocessed stellar radiation shining down from the disk upper layers, increasing the outer disk temperature by ∼10%-30%. This change is sufficient to raise the local temperature to a value exceeding the CO desorption temperature. These findings imply that the disk density structures induced by radial drift are able to create multiple CO snow lines. The inner disk CO is in the gas phase, freezing out near the classical snow line at . Moving outward, the CO sublimates once again beyond the truncation radius (80 AU in our models) and subsequently re-freezes out at sufficiently large stellar distances beyond . We find that thermal desorption of CO in the outer disk becomes competitive with external UV photodesorption and that this additional transition from solid state CO to the gas phase has significant implications for the C/O ratio in the outer disk.
Given the central role of carbon in the chemistry of life, it is a fundamental question as to how carbon is supplied to the Earth, in what form and when. We provide an accounting of carbon found in ...solar system bodies, and in particular a comparison between the organic content of meteorites and that in identified organics in the dense interstellar medium (ISM). Based on this accounting, identified organics created by the chemistry of star formation could contain at most ∼15% of the organic carbon content in primitive meteorites and significantly less for cometary organics, which represent the putative contributors to starting materials for the Earth. In the ISM ∼30% of the elemental carbon exists as CO, either in gaseous form or in ices, with a typical abundance of ∼10
−4
(relative to H
2
). Recent observations of the TW Hya disk find that the gas phase abundance of CO is reduced by an order of magnitude compared to this value. We explore an explanation for this observation whereby the volatile CO is destroyed
via
gas phase processes, providing an additional source of carbon for organic material to be incorporated into planetesimals and cometesimals. This chemical processing mechanism requires warm grains (>20 K), partially ionized gas, and sufficiently small (
a
grain
< 10μm) grains,
i.e.
a larger
total
grain surface area, such that freeze-out is efficient. Under these conditions, static (non-turbulent) chemical models predict that a large fraction of the carbon nominally sequestered in CO can be the source of carbon for a wide variety of organics that are present as ice coatings on the surfaces of warm pre-planetesimal dust grains.
Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to provide an important source of ionization in the outermost and densest regions of protoplanetary disks; however, it is unknown to what degree they are physically ...present. In this work, we explore the hitherto neglected effects of CR modulation by both stellar winds and magnetic field structures and study how these processes act to reduce disk ionization rates. We construct a two-dimensional protoplanetary disk model of a T-Tauri star system, focusing on ionization from stellar and interstellar FUV, stellar X-ray photons, and CRs. We show that stellar winds can power a heliosphere-like analog, i.e., a "T-Tauriosphere," diminishing CR ionization rates by several orders of magnitude at low to moderate CR energies (E sub(CR) < 1 GeV). We discuss the implications of a diminished CR ionization rate on the gas physics by estimating the size of the resulting magnetorotational instability dead zones.
We present new constraints on gas-phase C, N, and O abundances in the molecular layer of the IM Lup protoplanetary disk. Building on previous physical and chemical modeling of this disk, we use new ...ALMA observations of C2H to constrain the C/O ratio in the molecular layer to be ∼0.8, i.e., higher than the solar value of ∼0.54. We use archival ALMA observations of HCN and H13CN to show that no depletion of N is required (assuming an interstellar abundance of 7.5 × 10−5 per H). These results suggest that an appreciable fraction of O is sequestered in water ice in large grains settled to the disk midplane. Similarly, a fraction of the available C is locked up in less volatile molecules. By contrast, N remains largely unprocessed, likely as N2. This pattern of depletion suggests the presence of true abundance variations in this disk, and not a simple overall depletion of gas mass. If these results hold more generally, then combined CO, C2H, and HCN observations of disks may provide a promising path for constraining gas-phase C/O and N/O during planet-formation. Together, these tracers offer the opportunity to link the volatile compositions of disks to the atmospheres of planets formed from them.
ABSTRACT The spatial distribution of gas and solids in protoplanetary disks determines the composition and formation efficiency of planetary systems. A number of disks show starkly different ...distributions for the gas and small grains compared to millimeter-centimeter-sized dust. We present new Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array observations of the dust continuum, CO, 13CO, and C18O in the IM Lup protoplanetary disk, one of the first systems where this dust-gas dichotomy was clearly seen. The 12CO is detected out to a radius of 970 au, while the millimeter continuum emission is truncated at just 313 au. Based upon these data, we have built a comprehensive physical and chemical model for the disk structure, which takes into account the complex, coupled nature of the gas and dust and the interplay between the local and external environment. We constrain the distributions of gas and dust, the gas temperatures, the CO abundances, the CO optical depths, and the incident external radiation field. We find that the reduction/removal of dust from the outer disk exposes this region to higher stellar and external radiation and decreases the rate of freeze-out, allowing CO to remain in the gas out to large radial distances. We estimate a gas-phase CO abundance of 5% of the interstellar medium value and a low external radiation field (G0 4). The latter is consistent with that expected from the local stellar population. We additionally find tentative evidence for ring-like continuum substructure, suggestions of isotope-selective photodissociation, and a diffuse gas halo.
ABSTRACT We report observations of resolved C2H emission rings within the gas-rich protoplanetary disks of TW Hya and DM Tau using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. In each case the emission ring ...is found to arise at the edge of the observable disk of millimeter-sized grains (pebbles) traced by submillimeter-wave continuum emission. In addition, we detect a C3H2 emission ring with an identical spatial distribution to C2H in the TW Hya disk. This suggests that these are hydrocarbon rings (i.e., not limited to C2H). Using a detailed thermo-chemical model we show that reproducing the emission from C2H requires a strong UV field and C/O > 1 in the upper disk atmosphere and outer disk, beyond the edge of the pebble disk. This naturally arises in a disk where the ice-coated dust mass is spatially stratified due to the combined effects of coagulation, gravitational settling and drift. This stratification causes the disk surface and outer disk to have a greater permeability to UV photons. Furthermore the concentration of ices that transport key volatile carriers of oxygen and carbon in the midplane, along with photochemical erosion of CO, leads to an elemental C/O ratio that exceeds unity in the UV-dominated disk. Thus the motions of the grains, and not the gas, lead to a rich hydrocarbon chemistry in disk surface layers and in the outer disk midplane.
In this Letter we report the CO abundance relative to H sub(2) derived toward the circumstellar disk of the T-Tauri star TW Hya from the HD (1 - 0) and C super(18)O (2 - 1) emission lines. The HD (1 ...- 0) line was observed by the Herschel Space Observatory Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer whereas C super(18)O (2 - 1) observations were carried out with the Submillimeter Array at a spatial resolution of 2''.8 x 1''.9 (corresponding to ~151 x 103 AU). In the disk's warm molecular layer (T > 20 K) we measure a disk-averaged gas-phase CO abundance relative to H sub(2) of chi (CO) = (0.1-3) x 10 super(-5), substantially lower than the canonical value of chi (CO) = 10 super(-4). We infer that the best explanation of this low chi (CO) is the chemical destruction of CO followed by rapid formation of carbon chains, or perhaps CO sub(2), that can subsequently freeze-out, resulting in the bulk mass of carbon locked up in ice grain mantles and oxygen in water. As a consequence of this likely time-dependent carbon sink mechanism, CO may be an unreliable tracer of H sub(2) gas mass.
Simulating Observations of Ices in Protoplanetary Disks Ballering, Nicholas P.; Cleeves, L. Ilsedore; Anderson, Dana E.
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
10/2021, Letnik:
920, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
Ices are an important constituent of protoplanetary disks. New observational facilities, notably the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will greatly enhance our view of disk ices by ...measuring their infrared spectral features. We present a suite of models to complement these upcoming observations. Our models use a kinetics-based gas–grain chemical evolution code to simulate the distribution of ices in a disk, followed by a radiative transfer code using a subset of key ice species to simulate the observations. We present models reflecting both molecular inheritance and chemical reset initial conditions. We find that near-to-mid-IR absorption features of H
2
O, CO
2
, and CH
3
OH are readily observable in disk-integrated spectra of highly inclined disks while CO, NH
3
, and CH
4
ice do not show prominent features. CH
3
OH ice has low abundance and is not observable in the reset model, making this species an excellent diagnostic of initial chemical conditions. CO
2
ice features exhibit the greatest change over disk lifetime, decreasing and increasing for the inheritance and reset models, respectively. Spatially resolved spectra of edge-on disks, possible with JWST's integral field unit observing modes, are ideal for constraining the vertical distribution of ices and may be able to isolate features from ices closer to the midplane (e.g., CO) given sufficient sensitivity. Spatially resolved spectra of face-on disks can trace scattered-light features from H
2
O, CO
2
, and CH
3
OH, plus CO and CH
4
from the outermost regions. We additionally simulate far-IR H
2
O ice emission features and find they are strongest for disks viewed face-on.
CO is commonly used as a tracer of the total gas mass in both the interstellar medium and in protoplanetary disks. Recently, there has been much debate about the utility of CO as a mass tracer in ...disks. Observations of CO in protoplanetary disks reveal a range of CO abundances, with measurements of low CO to dust mass ratios in numerous systems. One possibility is that carbon is removed from CO via chemistry. However, the full range of physical conditions conducive to this chemical reprocessing is not well understood. We perform a systematic survey of the time dependent chemistry in protoplanetary disks for 198 models with a range of physical conditions. We vary dust grain size distribution, temperature, comic-ray and X-ray ionization rates, disk mass, and initial water abundance, detailing what physical conditions are necessary to activate the various CO depletion mechanisms in the warm molecular layer. We focus our analysis on the warm molecular layer in two regions: the outer disk (100 au) well outside the CO snowline and the inner disk (19 au) just inside the midplane CO snowline. After 1 Myr, we find that the majority of models have a CO abundance relative to H2 less than 10−4 in the outer disk, while an abundance less than 10−5 requires the presence of cosmic-rays. Inside the CO snowline, significant depletion of CO only occurs in models with a high cosmic-ray rate. If cosmic-rays are not present in young disks, it is difficult to chemically remove carbon from CO. Additionally, removing water prior to CO depletion impedes the chemical processing of CO. Chemical processing alone cannot explain current observations of low CO abundances. Other mechanisms must also be involved.
We analyze high angular resolution ALMA observations of the TW Hya disk to place constraints on the CO and dust properties. We present new, sensitive observations of the 12CO J = 3 − 2 line at a ...spatial resolution of 8 au (0 14). The CO emission exhibits a bright inner core, a shoulder at r 70 au, and a prominent break in slope at r 90 au. Radiative transfer modeling is used to demonstrate that the emission morphology can be reasonably reproduced with a 12CO column density profile featuring a steep decrease at r 15 au and a secondary bump peaking at r 70 au. Similar features have been identified in observations of rarer CO isotopologues, which trace heights closer to the midplane. Substructure in the underlying gas distribution or radially varying CO depletion that affects much of the disk's vertical extent may explain the shared emission features of the main CO isotopologues. We also combine archival 1.3 mm and 870 m continuum observations to produce a spectral index map at a spatial resolution of 2 au. The spectral index rises sharply at the continuum emission gaps at radii of 25, 41, and 47 au. This behavior suggests that the grains within the gaps are no larger than a few millimeters. Outside the continuum gaps, the low spectral index values of 2 indicate either that grains up to centimeter size are present or that the bright continuum rings are marginally optically thick at millimeter wavelengths.