No Arabic abstract
The dispersal of protoplanetary disks sets the timescale available for planets to assemble, and thus it is one of the fundamental parameters in theories of planetary formation. Disk dispersal is determined by several properties of the central star, the disk itself, and the surrounding environment. In particular, the metallicity of disks may impact their evolution, even if to date controversial results exist: in low-metallicity clusters disks seem to rapidly disperse, while in the Magellanic Clouds some evidence supports the existence of accreting disks few tens of Myrs old. In this paper we study the dispersal timescale of disks in Dolidze~25, the young cluster in proximity of the Sun with lowest metallicity, with the aim of understanding whether disk evolution is impacted by the low-metallicity of the cluster. We have analyzed Chandra/ACIS-I observations of the cluster and combined the resulting source catalog with existing optical and infrared catalogs of the region. We selected the disk-bearing population and the disk-less population of Dolidze 25. We have derived stellar parameters from isochrones fitted to color-magnitude diagrams. We derived a disk fraction of about 34% and a median age of 1.2 Myrs. By comparing this estimate with existing estimates of the disk fraction of clusters younger than 10 Myrs, our study suggests that the disk fraction of Dolidze 25 is lower than what is expected from its age alone. Even if our results are not conclusive given the intrinsic uncertainty on stellar ages estimated from isochrones fitting to color-magnitude diagrams, we suggest that disk evolution in Dolidze 25 may be impacted by the environment. Given the poor O star population and low stellar density of the cluster, it is more likely that disks dispersal timescale is dictated more by the low metallicity of the cluster rather than external photoevaporation or dynamical encounters.
Protoplanetary disks are likely to be threaded by a weak net flux of vertical magnetic field that is a remnant of the much larger fluxes present in molecular cloud cores. If this flux is approximately conserved its dynamical importance will increase as mass is accreted, initially by stimulating magnetorotational disk turbulence and subsequently by enabling wind angular momentum loss. We use fits to numerical simulations of ambipolar dominated disk turbulence to construct simplified one dimensional evolution models for weakly magnetized protoplanetary disks. We show that the late onset of significant angular momentum loss in a wind can give rise to two timescale disk evolution in which a long phase of viscous evolution precedes rapid dispersal as the wind becomes dominant. The wide dispersion in disk lifetimes could therefore be due to varying initial levels of net flux. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wind triggered dispersal differs from photoevaporative dispersal in predicting mass loss from small (less that 1 AU) scales, where thermal winds are suppressed. Our specific models are based on a limited set of simulations that remain uncertain, but qualitatively similar evolution appears likely if mass is lost from disks more quickly than flux, and if MHD winds become important as the plasma beta decreases.
Although the Orion Nebula Cluster is one of the most studied clusters in the solar neighborhood, the evolution of the very low-mass members ($M_* < 0.25 , M_odot$) has not been fully addressed due to their faintness. Our goal is to verify if some young and very low-mass objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster show evidence of ongoing accretion using broadband VLT/X-Shooter spectra. For each target, we determined the corresponding stellar parameters, veiling, observed Balmer jump, and accretion rates. Additionally, we searched for the existence of circumstellar disks through available on-line photometry. We detected accretion activity in three young stellar objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster, two of them being in the very low-mass range. We also detected the presence of young transition disks with ages between 1 and 3.5 Myr.
The early evolution of protostellar disks with metallicities in the $Z=1.0-0.01~Z_odot$ range was studied with a particular emphasis on the strength of gravitational instability and the nature of protostellar accretion in low-metallicity systems. Numerical hydrodynamics simulations in the thin-disk limit were employed that feature separate gas and dust temperatures, and disk mass-loading from the infalling parental cloud cores. Models with cloud cores of similar initial mass and rotation pattern, but distinct metallicity were considered to distinguish the effect of metallicity from that of initial conditions. The early stages of disk evolution in low-metallicity models are characterized by vigorous gravitational instability and fragmentation. Disk instability is sustained by continual mass-loading from the collapsing core. The time period that is covered by this unstable stage is much shorter in the $Z=0.01~Z_odot$ models as compared to their higher metallicity counterparts thanks to the higher mass infall rates caused by higher gas temperatures (that decouple from lower dust temperatures) in the inner parts of collapsing cores. Protostellar accretion rates are highly variable in the low-metallicity models reflecting a highly dynamical nature of the corresponding protostellar disks. The low-metallicity systems feature short, but energetic episodes of mass accretion caused by infall of inward-migrating gaseous clumps that form via gravitational fragmentation of protostellar disks. These bursts seem to be more numerous and last longer in the $Z=0.1~Z_odot$ models in comparison to the $Z=0.01~Z_odot$ case. Variable protostellar accretion with episodic bursts is not a particular feature of solar metallicity disks. It is also inherent to gravitationally unstable disks with metallicities up to 100 times lower than solar.
We report FUV, optical, and NIR observations of three T Tauri stars in the Orion OB1b subassociation with H$alpha$ equivalent widths consistent with low or absent accretion and various degrees of excess flux in the mid-infrared. We aim to search for evidence of gas in the inner disk in HST ACS/SBC spectra, and to probe the accretion flows onto the star using H$alpha$ and He I $lambda$10830 in spectra obtained at the Magellan and SOAR telescopes. At the critical age of 5 Myr, the targets are at different stages of disk evolution. One of our targets is clearly accreting, as shown by redshifted absorption at free-fall velocities in the He I line and wide wings in H$alpha$; however, a marginal detection of FUV H$_2$ suggests that little gas is present in the inner disk, although the spectral energy distribution indicates that small dust still remains close to the star. Another target is surrounded by a transitional disk, with an inner cavity in which little sub-micron dust remains. Still, the inner disk shows substantial amounts of gas, accreting onto the star at a probably low, but uncertain rate. The third target lacks both a He I line or FUV emission, consistent with no accretion or inner gas disk; its very weak IR excess is consistent with a debris disk. Different processes occurring in targets with ages close to the disk dispersal time suggest that the end of accretion phase is reached in diverse ways.
We present a study of the evolution of the inner few astronomical units of protoplanetary disks around low-mass stars. We consider nearby stellar groups with ages spanning from 1 to 11 Myr, distributed into four age bins. Combining PANSTARSS photometry with spectral types, we derive the reddening consistently for each star, which we use (1) to measure the excess emission above the photosphere with a new indicator of IR excess and (2) to estimate the mass accretion rate ($dot{M}$) from the equivalent width of the H$alpha$ line. Using the observed decay of $dot{M}$ as a constrain to fix the initial conditions and the viscosity parameter of viscous evolutionary models, we use approximate Bayesian modeling to infer the dust properties that produce the observed decrease of the IR excess with age, in the range between 4.5 and $24,mu$m. We calculate an extensive grid of irradiated disk models with a two-layered wall to emulate a curved dust inner edge and obtain the vertical structure consistent with the surface density predicted by viscous evolution. We find that the median dust depletion in the disk upper layers is $epsilon sim 3 times 10^{-3}$ at 1.5 Myr, consistent with previous studies, and it decreases to $epsilon sim 3 times 10^{-4}$ by 7.5 Myr. We include photoevaporation in a simple model of the disk evolution and find that a photoevaporative wind mass-loss rate of $sim 1 -3 times 10 ^{-9} , M_{odot}yr^{-1}$ agrees with the decrease of the disk fraction with age reasonably well. The models show the inward evolution of the H$_2$O and CO snowlines.