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Register a new userX-ray photodesorption from water ice in protoplanetary disks and X-ray dominated regions
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Water is the main constituent of interstellar ices, and it plays a key role in the evolution of many regions of the interstellar medium, from molecular clouds to planet-forming disks. In cold regions of the ISM, water is expected to be completely frozen out onto the dust grains. Nonetheless, observations indicate the presence of cold water vapor, implying that non-thermal desorption mechanisms are at play. Photodesorption by UV photons has been proposed to explain these observations, with the support of extensive experimental and theoretical work on ice analogues. In contrast, photodesorption by X-rays, another viable mechanism, has been little studied. The potential of this process to desorb key molecules, such as water, intact rather than fragmented or ionised, remains unexplored. We experimentally investigated X-ray photodesorption from water ice, monitoring all desorbing species. We find that desorption of neutral water is efficient, while ion desorption is minor. We derive for the first time yields that can be implemented in astrochemical models. These results open up the possibility of taking into account the X-ray photodesorption process in the modelling of protoplanetary disks or X-ray dominated regions.
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The organic compounds HCN and C2H2, present in protoplanetary disks, may react to form precursor molecules of the nucleobases, such as the pyrimidine molecule, C4H4N2. Depending on the temperature in a given region of the disk, molecules are in the gas phase or condensed onto grain surfaces. The action of X-ray photons and MeV protons, emitted by the young central star, may lead to several physical and chemical processes in such prestellar environments. In this work we have experimentally investigated the ionization, dissociation and desorption processes of pyrimidine in the condensed and the gas phase stimulated by soft X-rays and protons, respectively. Pyrimidine was frozen at temperatures below 130 K and irradiated with X-rays at energies from 394 to 427 eV. In the gas phase experiment, a pyrimidine effusive jet at room temperature was bombarded with protons of 2.5 MeV. In both experiments, the time-of-flight mass-spectrometry technique was employed. Partial photodesorption ion yields as a function of the X-ray photon energy for ions such as C3H2+, HC3NH+ and C4H+ were determined. The experimental results were applied to conditions of the protoplanetary disk of TW Hydra star. Assuming three density profiles of molecular hydrogen, 1 x 10^6, 1 x 10^7 and 1 x 10^8 cm^-3, we determined HC3NH+ ion-production rates of the order of 10^-31 up to 10^-8 ions cm^-3 s^-1. Integrating over 1 x 10^6 yr, HC3NH^+ column density values, ranging from 3.47 x 10^9 to 1.29 x 10^13 cm^-2, were obtained as a function of the distance from central star. The optical depth is the main variable that affects ions production. In addition, computational simulations were used to determine the kinetic energies of ions desorbed from pyrimidine ice distributed between ~ 7 and 15 eV.
We study the PAH emission from protoplanetary disks. First, we discuss the dependence of the PAH band ratios on the hardness of the absorbed photons and the temperature of the stars. We show that the photon energy together with a varying degree of the PAH hydrogenation accounts for most of the observed PAH band ratios without the need to change the ionization degree of the molecules. We present an accurate treatment of stochastic heated grains in a vectorized three dimensional Monte Carlo dust radiative transfer code. The program is verified against results using ray tracing techniques. Disk models are presented for T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars. Particular attention is given to the photo-dissociation of the molecules. We consider beside PAH destruction also the survival of the molecules by vertical mixing within the disk. By applying typical X-ray luminosities the model accounts for the low PAH detection probability observed in T Tauri and the high PAH detection statistics found in Herbig Ae disks. Spherical halos above the disks are considered. We show that halos reduce the observed PAH band-to-continuum ratios when observed at high inclination. Finally, mid-IR images of disks around Herbig Ae disks are presented. We show that they are easier to resolve when PAH emission dominate.
We study atomic line diagnostics of the inner regions of protoplanetary disks with our model of X-ray irradiated disk atmospheres which was previously used to predict observable levels of the NeII and NeIII fine-structure transitions at 12.81 and 15.55mum. We extend the X-ray ionization theory to sulfur and calculate the fraction of sulfur in S, S+, S2+ and sulfur molecules. For the DAlessio generic T Tauri star disk, we find that the SI fine-structure line at 25.55mum is below the detection level of the Spitzer Infrared Spectrometer (IRS), in large part due to X-ray ionization of atomic S at the top of the atmosphere and to its incorporation into molecules close to the mid-plane. We predict that observable fluxes of the SII 6718/6732AA forbidden transitions are produced in the upper atmosphere at somewhat shallower depths and smaller radii than the neon fine-structure lines. This and other forbidden line transitions, such as the OI 6300/6363AA and the CI 9826/9852AA lines, serve as complementary diagnostics of X-ray irradiated disk atmospheres. We have also analyzed the potential role of the low-excitation fine-structure lines of CI, CII, and OI, which should be observable by SOFIA and Herschel.
Context: T Tauri stars have X-ray luminosities ranging from L_X = 10^28-10^32 erg/s. These luminosities are similar to UV luminosities (L_UV 10^30-10^31 erg/s) and therefore X-rays are expected to affect the physics and chemistry of the upper layers of their surrounding protoplanetary disks. Aim: The effects and importance of X-rays on the chemical and hydrostatic structure of protoplanetary disks are investigated, species tracing X-ray irradiation (for L_X >= 10^29 erg/s) are identified and predictions for [OI], [CII] and [NII] fine structure line fluxes are provided. Methods: We have implemented X-ray physics and chemistry into the chemo-physical disk code ProDiMo. We include Coulomb heating and H2 ionization as heating processes and primary and secondary ionization due to X-rays in the chemistry. Results: X-rays heat up the gas causing it to expand in the optically thin surface layers. Neutral molecular species are not much affected in their abundance and spatial distribution, but charged species such as N+, OH+, H2O+ and H3O+ show enhanced abundances in the disk surface. Conclusions: Coulomb heating by X-rays changes the vertical structure of the disk, yielding temperatures of ~ 8000 K out to distances of 50 AU. The chemical structure is altered by the high electron abundance in the gas in the disk surface, causing an efficient ion-molecule chemistry. The products of this, OH+, H2O+ and H3O+, are of great interest for observations of low-mass young stellar objects with the Herschel Space Observatory. [OI] (at 63 and 145 mic) and [CII] (at 158 mic) fine structure emission are only affected for L_X > 10^30 erg/s.
X-ray and UV line emission in X-ray binaries can be accounted for by a hot corona. Such a corona forms through irradiation of the outer disk by radiation produced in the inner accretion flow. The same irradiation can produce a strong outflow from the disk at sufficiently large radii. Outflowing gas has been recently detected in several X-ray binaries via blue-shifted absorption lines. However, the causal connection between winds produced by irradiation and the blue-shifted absorption lines is problematic, particularly in the case of GRO J1655-40. Observations of this source imply wind densities about two orders of magnitude higher than theoretically predicted. This discrepancy does not mean that these `thermal disk-winds cannot explain blue-shifted absorption in other systems, nor that they are unimportant as a sink of matter. Motivated by the inevitability of thermal disk-winds and wealth of data taken with current observatories such as Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku, as well as the future AstroH mission, we decided to investigate the requirements to produce very dense winds. Using physical arguments, hydrodynamical simulations and absorption line calculations, we found that modification of the heating and cooling rates by a factor of a few results in an increase of the wind density of up to an order of magnitude and the wind velocity by a factor of about two. Therefore, the mass loss rate from the disk can be one, if not even two orders of magnitude higher than the accretion rate onto the central object. Such a high mass loss rate is expected to destabilize the disk and perhaps provides a mechanism for state change.
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