4.7 Article

TIME EVOLUTION OF VISCOUS CIRCUMSTELLAR DISKS DUE TO PHOTOEVAPORATION BY FAR-ULTRAVIOLET, EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET, AND X-RAY RADIATION FROM THE CENTRAL STAR

Journal

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 705, Issue 2, Pages 1237-1251

Publisher

IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/705/2/1237

Keywords

accretion, accretion disks; planetary systems: protoplanetary disks; stars: formation; stars: pre-main-sequence; ultraviolet: stars; X-rays: stars

Funding

  1. NASA Astrophysics Theory Program [ATP04-0054-0083]
  2. NASA Astrobiology Institute
  3. NSF [AST0606831]

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We present the time evolution of viscously accreting circumstellar disks as they are irradiated by ultraviolet and X-ray photons from a low-mass central star. Our model is a hybrid of a one-dimensional (1D) time-dependent viscous disk model coupled to a 1+1D disk vertical structure model used for calculating the disk structure and photoevaporation rates. We find that disks of initial mass 0.1 M-circle dot around similar to 1M(circle dot) stars survive for similar to 4 x 10(6) yr, assuming a viscosity parameter alpha = 0.01, a time-dependent FUV luminosity L-FUV similar to 10(-2)-10(-3) L-circle dot and with X-ray and EUV luminosities L-X similar to L-EUV similar to 10(-3) L-circle dot. We find that FUV/X-ray-induced photoevaporation and viscous accretion are both important in depleting disk mass. Photoevaporation rates are most significant at similar to 1-10 AU and at greater than or similar to 30 AU. Viscosity spreads the disk which causes mass loss by accretion onto the central star and feeds mass loss by photoevaporation in the outer disk. We find that FUV photons can create gaps in the inner, planet-forming regions of the disk (similar to 1-10 AU) at relatively early epochs in disk evolution while disk masses are still substantial. EUV and X-ray photons are also capable of driving gaps, but EUV can only do so at late, low accretion-rate epochs after the disk mass has already declined substantially. Disks around stars with predominantly soft X-ray fields experience enhanced photoevaporative mass loss. We follow disk evolution around stars of different masses, and find that disk survival time is relatively independent of mass for stars with M-* less than or similar to 3 M-circle dot; for M-* greater than or similar to 3 M-circle dot the disks are short-lived (similar to 10(5) yr).

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