The lifetime of isolated protoplanetary disks is thought to be set by the combination of viscous accretion and photoevaporation driven by stellar high-energy photons. Observational evidence for magnetospheric accretion in young sun-like stars is robust. Here we report the first observational evidence for disk photoevaporation driven by the central star. We acquired high-resolution (R~30,000) spectra of the [NeII] 12.81 micron line from 7 circumstellar disks using VISIR on Melipal/VLT. We show that the 3 transition disks in the sample all have [NeII] line profiles consistent with those predicted by a photoevaporative flow driven by stellar extreme UV photons. The ~6 km/s blue-shift of the line from the almost face-on disk of TW Hya is clearly inconsistent with emission from a static disk atmosphere and convincingly points to the presence of a photoevaporative wind. We do not detect any [NeII] line close to the stellar velocity from the sample of classical optically thick (non-transition) disks. We conclude that most of the spectrally unresolved [NeII] emission in these less evolved systems arises from jets/outflows rather than from the disk. The pattern of the [NeII] detections and non-detections suggests that extreme UV-driven photoevaporation starts only at a later stage in the disk evolution.
Recent multi-wavelength observations suggest that inner parts of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) have shorter lifetimes for heavier host stars. Since PPDs around high-mass stars are irradiated by strong ultra-violet radiation, photoevaporation may provide an explanation for the observed trend. We perform radiation hydrodynamics simulations of photoevaporation of PPDs for a wide range of host star mass of $M_* =0.5$-$7.0 M_{\odot}$. We derive disk mass-loss rate $\dot{M}$, which has strong stellar dependence as $\dot{M} \approx 7.30\times10^{-9}(M_{*}/M_{\odot})^{2}M_{\odot}\rm{yr}^{-1}$. The absol…
We present theoretical predictions for the free-free emission at cm wavelengths obtained from photoevaporation and MHD wind disk models adjusted to the case of the TW Hydrae young stellar object. For this system, disk photoevaporation with heating due to the high-energy photons from the star has been proposed as a possible mechanism to open the gap observed in the dust emission with ALMA. We show that the photoevaporation disk model predicts a radial profile for the free-free emission that is made of two main spatial components, one originated from the bound disk atmosphere at 0.5-1 au from th…
Debris disks are classically considered to be gas-less systems, but recent (sub)millimeter observations have detected tens of those with rich gas content. The origin of the gas component remains unclear; namely, it can be protoplanetary remnants and/or secondary products deriving from large bodies. In order to be protoplanetary in origin, the gas component of the parental protoplanetary disk is required to survive for $\gtrsim10{\,\rm Myr}$. However, previous models predict $\lesssim 10{\,\rm Myr}$ lifetimes because of efficient photoevaporation at the late stage of disk evolution. In the pres…
Photoevaporation and magnetically driven winds are two independent mechanisms to remove mass from protoplanetary disks. In addition to accretion, the effect of these two principles acting concurrently could be significant and the transition between those two has not been extensively studied and quantified in the literature yet. In order to contribute to the understanding of disk winds, we present the phenomena emerging in the framework of two-dimensional axisymmetric, non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations including EUV-/ X-ray driven photoevaporation. Of particular interest are the examina…
The ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks (AGE-PRO): VIII. The impact of external photoevaporation on disk masses and radii in Upper Scorpius
This paper explores the effects of FUV radiation fields from external stars on circumstellar disk evolution. Disks residing in young clusters can be exposed to extreme levels of FUV flux from nearby OB stars, and observations show that disks in such environments are being actively photoevaporated. Typical FUV flux levels can be factors of \sim 10^{2} - 10^{4} higher than the interstellar value. These fields are effective in driving mass loss from circumstellar disks because they act at large radial distance from the host star, i.e., where most of the disk mass is located, and where the gravita…
We perform a suite of radiation hydrodynamics simulations of photoevaporating disks with varying the metallicity in a wide range of $10^{-3} \, Z_\odot \leq Z \leq 10^{0.5} \, Z_\odot $. We follow the disk evolution for over $\sim 5000$ years by solving hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, and non-equilibrium chemistry. Our chemistry model is updated from the first paper of this series by adding X-ray ionization and heating. We study the metallicity dependence of the disk photoevaporation rate and examine the importance of X-ray radiation. In the fiducial case with solar metallicity, including t…
Protoplanetary disks are found around young stars, and represent the embryonic stage of planetary systems. At different phases of their evolution, disks may undergo substantial mass-loss by photoevaporation: energetic photons from the central or a nearby star heat the disk, hence particles can escape the gravitational potential and the disk loses mass. However, this mechanism, and the underlying physics regulating photoevaporation, have not been well constrained by observations so far. The aims of this thesis are to study photoevaporation, in the specific case when it is driven by far-UV photo…
Context: The Galilean satellites are thought to have formed from a circumplanetary disk (CPD) surrounding Jupiter. When it reached a critical mass, Jupiter opened an annular gap in the solar protoplanetary disk (PPD) that might have exposed the CPD to radiation from the young Sun or from the stellar cluster in which the Solar System formed. Aims: We investigate the radiation field to which the Jovian CPD was exposed during the process of satellite formation. The resulting photoevaporation of the CPD is studied in this context to constrain possible formation scenarios for the Galilean satellite…
Photoevaporation due to high-energy stellar photons is thought to be one of the main drivers of protoplanetary disk dispersal. The fully or partially ionized disk surface is expected to produce free-free continuum emission at centimeter (cm) wavelengths that can be routinely detected with interferometers such as the upgraded Very Large Array (VLA). We use deep (rms noise down to 8 $μ$Jy beam$^{-1}$ in the field of view center) 3.5 cm maps of the nearby (130 pc) Corona Australis (CrA) star formation (SF) region to constrain disk photoevaporation models. We find that the radio emission from disk…
The semimajor axis distribution of giant exoplanets appears to have a pileup near 1 AU. Photoevaporation opens a gap in the inner few AU of gaseous disks before dissipating them. Here we investigate whether photoevaporation can significantly affect the final distribution of giant planets by modifying gas surface density and hence Type II migration rates near the photoevaporation gap. We first use an analytic disk model to demonstrate that newly-formed giant planets have a long migration epoch before photoevaporation can significantly alter their migration rates. Next we present new 2-D hydrody…
Protoplanetary disks are dispersed by viscous evolution and photoevaporation in a few million years; in the interim small, sub-micron sized dust grains must grow and form planets. The time-varying abundance of small grains in an evolving disk directly affects gas heating by far-ultraviolet photons, while dust evolution affects photoevaporation by changing the disk opacity and resulting penetration of FUV photons in the disk. Photoevaporative flows, in turn, selectively carry small dust grains leaving the larger particles---which decouple from the gas---behind in the disk. We study these effect…
We present a model explaining elemental enrichments in Jupiter's atmosphere, particularly the noble gases Ar, Kr, and Xe. While He, Ne and O are depleted, seven other elements show similar enrichments ($\sim$3 times solar, relative to H). Being volatile, Ar is difficult to fractionate from ${\rm H}_{2}$. We argue that external photoevaporation by far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby massive stars removed ${\rm H}_{2}$, He, and Ne from the solar nebula, but Ar and other species were retained because photoevaporation occurred at large heliocentric distances where temperatures were cold en…
The structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks, especially the radial flows of gas through them, are sensitive to a number of factors. One that has been considered only occasionally in the literature is external photoevaporation by far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby, massive stars, despite the fact that nearly half of all disks will experience photoevaporation. Another effect apparently not considered in the literature is a spatially and temporally varying value of $α$ in the disk [where the turbulent viscosity $ν$ is $α$ times the sound speed C times the disk scale height H]. He…
Protoplanetary disks are thought to have lifetimes of several million years in the solar neighborhood, but recent observations suggest that the disk lifetimes are shorter in a low metallicity environment. We perform a suite of radiation hydrodynamics simulations of photoevaporation of protoplanetary disks to study the disk structure and its long-term evolution of $\sim 10000$ years, and the metallicity dependence of mass-loss rate. Our simulations follow hydrodynamics, extreme and far ultra-violet radiative transfer, and non-equilibrium chemistry in a self-consistent manner. Dust grain tempera…
We perform calculations of our one-dimensional, two-zone disk model to study the long-term evolution of the circumstellar disk. In particular, we adopt published photoevaporation prescriptions and examine whether the photoevaporative loss alone, coupled with a range of initial angular momenta of the protostellar cloud, can explain the observed decline of the frequency of optically-thick dusty disks with increasing age. In the parameter space we explore, disks have accreting and/or non-accreting transitional phases lasting of $\lesssim20 %$ of their lifetime, which is in reasonable agreement wi…
Massive stars are strong sources of far-ultraviolet radiation that can be hostile to the evolution of protoplanetary disks, driving mass loss by external photoevaporation and shortening disk-dissipation timescales. Their effect may also reduce the timescale of angular momentum exchanges between the disk and host star during the early pre-main-sequence phase. To improve our understanding of the environmental influence on the rotational history of stars, we developed a model that considers the influence of the local far-ultraviolet radiation on the spin evolution of low mass stars. Our model inc…
We use published optical spectral and IR excess data from nine young clusters and associations to study the stellar mass dependent dispersal of circumstellar disks. All clusters older than ~3 Myr show a decrease in disk fraction with increasing stellar mass for Solar to higher mass stars. This result is significant at about the 1 $σ$ level in each cluster. For the complete set of clusters we reject the null hypothesis--that Solar and intermediate-mass stars lose their disks at the same rate--with 95-99.9% confidence. To interpret this behaviour, we investigate the impact of grain growth, binar…
The Effect of External Photoevaporation on the Disk Fraction in M17
Rice University（莱斯大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Queen Mary University of London（伦敦大学玛丽女王学院）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）；The University of Sheffield（谢菲尔德大学）
Photoevaporation is an important dispersal mechanism for protoplanetary disks. We conduct hydrodynamic simulations coupled with ray-tracing radiative transfer and consistent thermochemistry to study photoevaporative winds driven by ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the host star. Most models have a three-layer structure: a cold midplane, warm intermediate layer, and hot wind, the last having typical speeds $\sim 30~\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ and mass-loss rates $\sim 10^{-9}~M_\odot~\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ when driven primarily by ionizing UV radiation. Observable molecules including CO, OH and H2O re-…
Super-Earths possess low-mass H$_2$/He atmospheres (typically less than 10% by mass). However, the origins of super-Earth atmospheres have not yet been ascertained. We investigate the role of rapid disk clearing by photoevaporation during the formation of super-Earths and their atmospheres. We perform unified simulations of super-Earth formation and atmospheric evolution in evolving disks that consider both photoevaporative winds and magnetically driven disk winds. For the growth mode of planetary cores, we consider two cases in which planetary embryos grow with and without pebble accretion. O…
We herein develop a new simple model for giant planet formation, which predicts the final mass of a giant planet born in a given disk, by adding the disk mass loss due to photoevaporation and a new type II migration formula to our previous model. The proposed model provides some interesting results. First, it gives universal evolution tracks in the diagram of planetary mass and orbital radius, which clarifies how giant planets migrate at growth in the runaway gas accretion stage. Giant planets with a few Jupiter masses or less suffer only a slight radial migration in the runaway gas accretion …
We investigate the conditions under which the regular satellites of Jupiter and Saturn formed. The final stage of giant planet accretion is thought to occur slowly over a relatively long, 10 Myr, timescale. Gas accretion during this stage, through a completely or partially opened gap in the solar nebula, occurs slowly allowing for the condensation of ices, and incomplete differentiation, seen in the regular satellites of the giant planets. Furthermore, the dichotomy seen in the Jovian and Saturnian systems may be explained as this infall wanes or is completely shutoff as a result of gap openin…
A tension between dust and gas radii: the role of substructures and external photoevaporation in protoplanetary disks
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿切特里天文台）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）
Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Universitäts-Sternwarte, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität（慕尼黑大学大学天文台）；Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学斯图尔德天文台）；School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin（都柏林三一学院物理学院）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste（意大利国家天体物理研究所的里雅斯特天文台）；Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学）；Università degli Studi di Palermo（巴勒莫大学）
Effects of Stellar X-ray Photoevaporation on Planetesimal Formation via the Streaming Instability
Zhejiang University（浙江大学）；Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research（马克斯·普朗克太阳系研究所）；Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；American Museum of Natural History（美国自然历史博物馆）；Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海天文台）
The evolution of a circumstellar disk from its gas-rich protoplanetary stage to its gas-poor debris stage is not understood well. It is apparent that disk clearing progresses from the inside-out on a short time scale and models of photoevaporation are frequently used to explain this. However, the photoevaporation rates predicted by models differ by up to two orders of magnitude, resulting in uncertain time scales for the final stages of disk clearing. Photoevaporation theories predict that the final stages of disk-clearing progress in objects that have ceased accretion but still posses conside…
The recent development of a new minimum mass solar nebula, under the assumption that the giant planets formed in the compact configuration of the Nice model, has shed new light on planet formation in the solar system. Desch previously found that a steady state protoplanetary disk with an outer boundary truncated by photoevaporation by an external massive star would have a steep surface density profile. In a completely novel way, we have adapted numerical methods for solving propagating phase change problems to astrophysical disks. We find that a one-dimensional time-dependent disk model that s…
Photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs by high energy radiation from the central young stellar object is currently the favourite model to explain the sudden dispersal of discs from the inside out. While several theoretical works have provided a detailed pictured of this process, the direct observational validation is still lacking. Emission lines produced in these slow moving protoplanetary disc winds may bear the imprint of the wind structure and thus provide a potential diagnostic of the underlying dispersal process. In this paper we primarily focus on the collisionally excited neutral oxy…
I present models of disk evolution around young binary stars. I show that the primary factor in determining circumbinary disk lifetimes is the rate of disk photoevaporation. I also find that photoevaporative clearing leaves a signature on the distribution of circumbinary disk lifetimes, with a sharp increase in disk lifetimes for binary separations a<~0.3-1AU. Observations of young binary stars can therefore be used to test models of disk evolution, and I show that current data set a strong upper limit to the rate of on-going photoevaporation (<1e-9 M_sun/yr). Finally I discuss the implication…
Protoplanetary disks undergo substantial mass-loss by photoevaporation, a mechanism which is crucial to their dynamical evolution. However, the processes regulating the gas energetics have not been well constrained by observations so far. We aim at studying the processes involved in disk photoevaporation when it is driven by far-UV photons. We present a unique Herschel survey and new ALMA observations of four externally-illuminated photoevaporating disks (a.k.a. proplyds). For the analysis of these data, we developed a 1D model of the photodissociation region (PDR) of a proplyd, based on the M…
We propose a new hypothesis for the origin of protoplanetary discs with large inner holes (or gaps), so-called transition discs. Our gas disc model takes into account layered accretion, in which poorly-ionized low-viscosity dead zones are sandwiched by high-viscosity surface layers, and photoevaporative winds induced by X-rays from the central stars. We find that a gap opens at a radius outside a dead zone, if the mass loss rate due to photoevaporative winds exceeds the mass accretion rate in the dead zone region. Since the dead zone survives even after the gap opens, mass accretion onto the c…
Protoplanetary disks in dense, massive star-forming regions are strongly affected by their environment. How this environmental impact changes over time is an important constraint on disk evolution and external photoevaporation models. We characterize the dust emission from 179 disks in the core of the young (0.5 Myr) NGC 2024 cluster. By studying how the disk mass varies within the cluster, and comparing these disks to those in other regions, we aim to determine how external photoevaporation influences disk properties over time. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a 2.9' x …
Determining the mechanisms that drive the evolution of protoplanetary disks is a necessary step to understand how planets form. Here we measured the mass accretion rate for young stellar objects at age >5 Myr, a critical test for the current models of disk evolution. We present the analysis of the spectra of 36 targets in the ~5-10 Myr old Upper Scorpius region for which disk masses were measured with ALMA. We find that the mass accretion rates in this sample of old but still survived disks are similarly high as those of the younger (<3 Myr old) star-forming regions of Lupus and Cha I, when co…
Protoplanetary discs are the site of star and planet formation, and their evolution and consequent dispersal deeply affect the formation of planetary systems. In the standard scenario they evolve on timescales ~Myr due to the viscous transport of angular momentum. The analytical self-similar solution for their evolution predicts also specific disc isochrones in the accretion rate - disc mass plane. However, photoevaporation by radiation emitted by the central star is likely to dominate the gas disc dispersal of the innermost region, introducing another (shorter) timescale for this process. In …
Magnetically and thermally driven disk winds have gained popularity in the light of the current paradigm of low viscosities in protoplanetary disks that nevertheless present large accretion rates even in the presence of inner cavities. The possibility of dust entrainment in these winds may explain recent scattered light observations and constitutes a way of dust transport towards outer regions of the disk. We aim to study the dust dynamics in these winds and explore the differences between photoevaporation and magnetically driven disk winds in this regard. We quantify maximum entrainable grain…
We present models of giant planet migration in evolving protoplanetary disks. Our disks evolve subject to viscous transport of angular momentum and photoevaporation, while planets undergo Type II migration. We use a Monte Carlo approach, running large numbers of models with a range in initial conditions. We find that relatively simple models can reproduce both the observed radial distribution of extra-solar giant planets, and the lifetimes and accretion histories of protoplanetary disks. The use of state-of-the-art photoevaporation models results in a degree of coupling between planet formatio…
We investigate the chemical composition of the solar system's giant planets atmospheres using a physical formation model with chemistry. The model incorporate disk evolution, pebbles and gas accretion, type I and II migration, simplified disk photoevaporation and solar system chemical measurements. We track the chemical compositions of the formed giant planets and compare them to the observed values. Two categories of models are studied: with and without disk chemical enrichment via photoevaporation. Predictions for the Oxygen and Nitrogen abundances, core masses, and total amount of heavy ele…
We compare line emission calculated from theoretical disk models with optical to sub-millimeter wavelength observational data of the gas disk surrounding TW Hya and infer the spatial distribution of mass in the gas disk. The model disk that best matches observations has a gas mass ranging from $\sim10^{-4}-10^{-5}$\ms\ for $0.06{\rm AU} <r<3.5$AU and $\sim 0.06$\ms\ for $ 3.5 {\rm AU} <r<200$AU. We find that the inner dust hole ($r<3.5$AU) in the disk must be depleted of gas by $\sim 1-2$ orders of magnitude compared to the extrapolated surface density distribution of the outer disk. Grain gro…
Young solar-type stars are known to be strong X-ray emitters and their X-ray spectra have been widely studied. X-rays from the central star may play a crucial role in the thermodynamics and chemistry of the circumstellar material as well as in the atmospheric evolution of young planets. In this paper we present model spectra based on spectral parameters derived from the observations of young stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP). The spectra are then used to calculate new photoevaporation prescriptions that can be used in disc and planet population s…
