On the theory of disc photoevaporation
By J. Owen, C. Clarke, Barbara Ercolano. 2011
224 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We discuss a hydrodynamical model for the dispersal of protoplanetary discs around young, low-mass (<1.5 M⊙) stars by photoevaporation from the central object’s energetic radiation, which considers the far-ultraviolet (FUV) as well as the X-ray component of the radiation field. We present analytical scaling relations and derive estimates for the total mass-loss rates, as well as discussing the existence of similarity solutions for flows from primordial discs and discs with inner holes. Furthermore, we perform numerical calculations which span a wide range of parameter space and allow us to provide accurate scalings of the mass-loss rates with the physical parameters of the systems (X-ray and FUV luminosity, stellar mass, disc mass, disc temperature and inner hole radius). The model suggests that the X-ray component dominates the photoevaporative mass-loss rates from the inner disc. The mass-loss rates have values in the range from 10−11 to 10−7 M⊙ yr−1 and scale linearly with X-ray luminosity, with only a weak dependence on the other parameters explored. However, in the case of high FUV-to-X-ray luminosity ratios (LFUV/LX > 100), the FUV constricts the X-ray flow and may dominate the mass loss. Simulations of low-mass discs with inner holes demonstrate a further stage of disc clearing, which we call ‘thermal sweeping’. This process occurs when the mid-plane pressure drops to sufficiently low values. At this stage, a bound, warm, X-ray heated region becomes sufficiently large and unstable, such that the remaining disc material is cleared on approximately dynamical time-scales. This process significantly reduces the time taken to clear the outer regions of the disc, resulting in an expected transition disc population that will be dominated by accreting objects, as indicated by recent observations.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spectroscopy
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/db8480b9a763f319f6200dd4323e714919cf008a
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Citations in the corpus
- Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Gaps Opened by Single and Multiple Young Planets in Disks (2014, background): “…the observations, including grain growth (Dullemond & Dominik 2005; Birnstiel et al. 2012), photoevaporation (Alexander & Armitage 2007, 2009; Owen et al. 2012; Rosotti et al. 2013), infall from counterrotating external environments (Vorobyov et al. 2014), and of particular interest,…”
- Accretion onto Pre-Main-Sequence Stars (2016, background): “Instead, either photoevaporation (e.g., Gorti & Hollenbach 2009, Owen et al. 2012) or gap opening by planets is more plausible.”
- WIND-DRIVEN ACCRETION IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS. I. SUPPRESSION OF THE MAGNETOROTATIONAL INSTABILITY AND LAUNCHING OF THE MAGNETOCENTRIFUGAL WIND (2013, background): “In the meantime, the FUV photons are also important driver of photoevaporation (Gorti & Hollenbach 2009; Owen et al. 2012), which is not considered in this work.”
- BREEDING SUPER-EARTHS AND BIRTHING SUPER-PUFFS IN TRANSITIONAL DISKS (2015, background): “An alternate, less dramatic way to generate inner disk holes containing accreting gas is through “photoevaporation-starved accretion” (Clarke et al. 2001; Drake et al. 2009; Owen et al. 2011, 2012; Alexander et al. 2014).”
- Planetary evaporation by UV and X‐ray radiation: basic hydrodynamics (2012, background): “Interpreting their calculated scaling of the mass-loss rate with metallicity (Ṁw ∝ Z−0.77) within the theoretical framework presented in Owen et al. (2012), it is easy to show that the ionization parameter scales with metallicity as ξ ∝ Z−0.77.”