Disk Frequencies and Lifetimes in Young Clusters

By Karl E. Haisch, Jr., E. Lada, C. Lada. 2001

1,458 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report the results of the first sensitive L-band survey of the intermediate-age (2.5-30 Myr) clusters NGC 2264, NGC 2362, and NGC 1960. We use JHKL colors to obtain a census of the circumstellar disk fractions in each cluster. We find disk fractions of 52% ± 10%, 12% ± 4%, and 3% ± 3% for the three clusters, respectively. Together with our previously published JHKL investigations of the younger NGC 2024, Trapezium, and IC 348 clusters, we have completed the first systematic and homogeneous survey for circumstellar disks in a sample of young clusters that both span a significant range in age (0.3-30 Myr) and contain statistically significant numbers of stars whose masses span nearly the entire stellar mass spectrum. Analysis of the combined survey indicates that the cluster disk fraction is initially very high (≥80%) and rapidly decreases with increasing cluster age, such that one-half the stars within the clusters lose their disks in ≲3 Myr. Moreover, these observations yield an overall disk lifetime of ~6 Myr in the surveyed cluster sample. This is the timescale for essentially all the stars in a cluster to lose their disks. This should set a meaningful constraint for the planet-building timescale in stellar clusters. The implications of these results for current theories of planet formation are briefly discussed.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ab19bd1eb8fb354c247c8182fa9f7160778f94a7

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Citations in the corpus

WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER OBSERVATIONS OF THE EVOLUTION OF MASSIVE STAR-FORMING REGIONS (2012, background): “At ages 1–2 Myr, 60%–70% of young stars possess optically thick disks which boost their near- and mid-IR emission above the photospheric level (Strom et al. 1989; Haisch et al. 2001).”
The formation of a star cluster: predicting the properties of stars and brown dwarfs (2002, background): “…discs around some objects in young clusters are undetectable or have already dispersed, while other objects with the same apparent age still have discs (e.g. Strom et al. 1989; Beckwith et al. 1990; Hillenbrand et al. 1998; Haisch et al. 2001a,b; Rebull et al. 2002; Armitage, Clarke & Palla 2002).”
The habitability of Proxima Centauri b. I. Irradiation, rotation and volatile inventory from formation to the present (2016, background): “The loss of hydrogen does not significantly change when considering different initial time of protoplanetary disk dispersion (3 or 10 Myr here).”
Protoplanetary disk lifetimes vs stellar mass and possible implications for giant planet populations (2015, result): “Their results, in good agreement with previous estimates (Haisch et al. 2001; Hernández et al. 2007b, 2008; Mamajek 2009; Fedele et al. 2010; Murphy et al. 2013) served as a benchmark to test the reliability and robustness of the sample and methods used in R14.”
A Spitzer Census of the IC 348 Nebula (2007, background): “…suggest that since the age spread in IC 348 is of order the disk dissipation timescale as derived from young clusters with a range of median ages (Haisch et al. 2001), the dispersion observed in such a correlation is probably real instead of a byproduct of uncertainties in age or disk excess…”
Extrasolar planet population synthesis - II. Statistical comparison with observations (2009, background): “Our population synthesis also shows that the formation timescales of giant planets (mean formation timescale of 3.5 Myr) are in agreement with observed disk lifetimes which is another important constraint coming from the formation environment itself (Haisch et al. 2001).”
Origin of the structure of the Kuiper belt during a dynamical instability in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune (2007, background): “example, Haisch, Lada & Lada 2001 ), or longer, because the planetesimals initially on orbits”
Spitzer Observations of NGC 1333: A Study of Structure and Evolution in a Nearby Embedded Cluster (2007, background): “…clusters are diskless pre-main sequence stars (Class III), the majority of the membership are sources with excess emission at mid-IR wavelengths (Haisch et al. 2001), made up of a mixture of protostars (Class I), still embedded and accreting from dense spherical envelopes, and the slightly more…”
The Spitzer c2d Survey of Weak-Line T Tauri Stars. II. New Constraints on the Timescale for Planet Building (2007, result): “However, similar disk lifetimes studies based on the disk frequency of clusters with different mean ages and extending to the 3.4 µm L-band (e.g. Haisch et al. 2001) have lead to results similar to those presented by Strom and collaborators (see Hillenbrand (2006) for a review on the frequency of…”