Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userLong-Lived Eccentricities in Accretion Disks
89
0
0.0
(
0
)
Authors
Wing-Kit Lee
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
Accretion disks can be eccentric: they support $m=1$ modes that are global and slowly precessing. But whether the modes remain trapped in the disk---and hence are long-lived---depends on conditions at the outer edge of the disk. Here we show that in disks with realistic boundaries, in which the surface density drops rapidly beyond a given radius, eccentric modes are trapped and hence long-lived. We focus on pressure-only disks around a central mass, and show how this result can be understood with the help of a simple second-order WKB theory. We show that the longest lived mode is the zero-node mode in which all of the disks elliptical streamlines are aligned, and that this mode decays coherently on the viscous timescale of the disk. Hence such a mode, once excited, will live for the lifetime of the disk. It may be responsible for asymmetries seen in recent images of protoplanetary disks.
rate research
Read More
WISEA J080822.18-644357.3, an M star in the Carina association, exhibits extreme infrared excess and accretion activity at an age greater than the expected accretion disk lifetime. We consider J0808 as the prototypical example of a class of M star accretion disks at ages $gtrsim 20$ Myr, which we call ``Peter Pan disks, since they apparently refuse to grow up. We present four new Peter Pan disk candidates identified via the Disk Detective citizen science project, coupled with textit{Gaia} astrometry. We find that WISEA J044634.16-262756.1 and WISEA J094900.65-713803.1 both exhibit significant infrared excess after accounting for nearby stars within the 2MASS beams. The J0446 system has $>95%$ likelihood of Columba membership. The J0949 system shows $>95%$ likelihood of Carina membership. We present new GMOS optical spectra of all four objects, showing possible accretion signatures on all four stars. We present ground-based and textit{TESS} lightcurves of J0808 and 2MASS J0501-4337, including a large flare and aperiodic dipping activity on J0808, and strong periodicity on J0501. We find Pa$beta$ and Br$gamma$ emission indicating ongoing accretion in near-IR spectroscopy of J0808. Using observed characteristics of these systems, we discuss mechanisms that lead to accretion disks at ages $gtrsim20$ Myr, and find that these objects most plausibly represent long-lived CO-poor primordial disks, or ``hybrid disks, exhibiting both debris- and primordial-disk features. The question remains: why have gas-rich disks persisted so long around these particular stars?
Planet migration originally refers to protoplanetary disks, which are more massive and dense than typical accretion disks in binary systems. We study planet migration in an accretion disk in a binary system consisting of a solar-like star hosting a planet and a red giant donor star. The accretion disk is fed by a stellar wind. %, disk self-gravity is neglected. We use the $alpha$-disk model and consider that the stellar wind is time-dependent. Assuming the disk is quasi-stationary we calculate its temperature and surface density profiles. In addition to the standard disk model, when matter is captured by the disk at its outer edge, we study the situation when the stellar wind delivers matter on the whole disc surface inside the accretion radius with the rate depending on distance from the central star. Implying that a planet experiences classical type I/II migration we calculate migration time for a planet on a circular orbit coplanar with the disk. Potentially, rapid inward planet migration can result in a planet-star merger which can be accompanied by an optical or/and UV/X-ray transient. We calculate timescale of migration for different parameters of planets and binaries. Our results demonstrate that planets can fall on their host stars within the lifetime of the late-type donor for realistic sets of parameters.
It has recently been shown that the inner region of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) is governed by wind-driven accretion, and the resulting accretion flow showing complex vertical profiles. Such complex flow structures are further enhanced due to the Hall effect, especially when the background magnetic field is aligned with disk rotation. We investigate how such flow structures impact global dust transport via Monte-Carlo simulations, focusing on two scenarios. In the first scenario, the toroidal magnetic field is maximized in the miplane, leading to accretion and decretion flows above and below. In the second scenario, the toroidal field changes sign across the midplane, leading to an accretion flow at the disk midplane, with decretion flows above and below. We find that in both cases, the contribution from additional gas flows can still be accurately incorporated into the advection-diffusion framework for vertically-integrated dust transport, with enhanced dust radial diffusion up to an effective $alpha^{rm eff}sim10^{-2}$ for strongly coupled dust, even when background turbulence is weak $alpha<10^{-4}$. Dust radial drift is also modestly enhanced in the second scenario. We provide a general analytical theory that accurately reproduces our simulation results, thus establishing a framework to model global dust transport that realistically incorporates vertical gas flow structures. We also note that the theory is equally applicable to the transport of chemical species.
Radioactive nuclei play an important role in planetary evolution by providing an internal heat source, which affects planetary structure and helps facilitate plate tectonics. A minimum level of nuclear activity is thought to be necessary --- but not sufficient --- for planets to be habitable. Extending previous work that focused on short-lived nuclei, this paper considers the delivery of long-lived radioactive nuclei to circumstellar disks in star forming regions. Although the long-lived nuclear species are always present, their abundances can be enhanced through multiple mechanisms. Most stars form in embedded cluster environments, so that disks can be enriched directly by intercepting ejecta from supernovae within the birth clusters. In addition, molecular clouds often provide multiple episodes of star formation, so that nuclear abundances can accumulate within the cloud; subsequent generations of stars can thus receive elevated levels of radioactive nuclei through this distributed enrichment scenario. This paper calculates the distribution of additional enrichment for $^{40}$K, the most abundant of the long-lived radioactive nuclei. We find that distributed enrichment is more effective than direct enrichment. For the latter mechanism, ideal conditions lead to about 1 in 200 solar systems being directly enriched in $^{40}$K at the level inferred for the early solar nebula (thereby doubling the abundance). For distributed enrichment from adjacent clusters, about 1 in 80 solar systems are enriched at the same level. Distributed enrichment over the entire molecular cloud is more uncertain, but can be even more effective.
(Abridged) The birth environment of the Sun will have influenced the conditions in the pre-solar nebula, including the attainable chemical complexity, important for prebiotic chemistry. The formation and distribution of complex organic molecules (COMs) in a disk around a T Tauri star is investigated for two scenarios: (i) an isolated disk, and (ii) a disk irradiated externally by a nearby massive star. The chemistry is calculated along the accretion flow from the outer disk inwards using a comprehensive network. Two simulations are performed, one beginning with complex ices and one with simple ices only. For the isolated disk, COMs are transported without major alteration into the inner disk where they thermally desorb into the gas reaching an abundance representative of the initial assumed ice abundance. For simple ices, COMs efficiently form on grain surfaces under the conditions in the outer disk. Gas-phase COMs are released into the molecular layer via photodesorption. For the irradiated disk, complex ices are also transported inwards; however, they undergo thermal processing caused by the warmer conditions in the irradiated disk which tends to reduce their abundance along the accretion flow. For simple ices, grain-surface chemistry cannot synthesise COMs in the outer disk because the necessary grain-surface radicals, which tend to be particularly volatile, are not sufficiently abundant on the grain surfaces. Gas-phase COMs are formed in the inner region of the irradiated disk via gas-phase chemistry induced by the desorption of strongly bound molecules such as methanol; hence, the abundances are not representative of the initial molecular abundances injected into the outer disk. These results suggest that the composition of comets formed in isolated disks may differ from those formed in externally irradiated disks with the latter composed of more simple ices.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
