No Arabic abstract
We aim to understand the effect of stellar evolution on the evolution of protoplanetary disks. We focus in particular on the disk evolution around intermediate-mass (IM) stars, which evolve more rapidly than low-mass ones. We numerically solve the long-term evolution of disks around 0.5-5 solar-mass stars considering viscous accretion and photoevaporation (PE) driven by stellar far-ultraviolet (FUV), extreme-ultraviolet (EUV), and X-ray emission. We also take stellar evolution into account and consider the time evolution of the PE rate. We find that the FUV, EUV, and X-ray luminosities of IM stars evolve by orders of magnitude within a few Myr along with the time evolution of stellar structure, stellar effective temperature, or accretion rate. Therefore, the PE rate also evolves with time by orders of magnitude, and we conclude that stellar evolution is crucial for the disk evolution around IM stars.
We investigate the roles of magnetically driven disk wind (MDW) and thermally driven photoevaporative wind (PEW) in the long-time evolution of protoplanetary disks. We start simulations from the early phase in which the disk mass is $0.118,{mathrm{M}_{odot}}$ around a $1,{mathrm{M}_{odot}}$ star and track the evolution until the disk is completely dispersed. We incorporate the mass loss by PEW and the mass loss and magnetic braking (wind torque) by MDW, in addition to the viscous accretion, viscous heating, and stellar irradiation. We find that MDW and PEW respectively have different roles: magnetically driven wind ejects materials from an inner disk in the early phase, whereas photoevaporation has a dominant role in the late phase in the outer ($gtrsim1,$au) disk. The disk lifetime, which depends on the combination of MDW, PEW, and viscous accretion, shows a large variation of $sim1$-$20,$Myr; the gas is dispersed mainly by the MDW and the PEW in the cases with a low viscosity and the lifetime is sensitive to the mass-loss rate and torque of the MDW, whereas the lifetime is insensitive to these parameters when the viscosity is high. Even in disks with very weak turbulence, the cooperation of MDW and PEW enables the disk dispersal within a few Myr.
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.
We present a model for the dispersal of protoplanetary disks by winds from either the central star or the inner disk. These winds obliquely strike the flaring disk surface and strip away disk material by entraining it in an outward radial-moving flow at the wind-disk interface which lies several disk scale heights above the mid-plane. The disk dispersal time depends on the entrainment velocity at which disk material flows into this turbulent shear layer interface. If the entrainment efficiency is ~10% of the local sound speed, a likely upper limit, the dispersal time at 1 AU is ~6 Myr for a disk with a surface density of 10^3 g cm^{-2}, a solar mass central star, and a wind with an outflow rate 10^{-8} Msun/yr and terminal velocity 200 km/s. When compared to photoevaporation and viscous evolution, wind stripping can be a dominant mechanism only for the combination of low accretion rates (< 10^{-8} Msun/yr) and wind outflow rates approaching these accretion rates. This case is unusual since generally outflow rates are < 0.1 of of accretion rates.
Debris disks are classically considered to be gas-less systems, but recent (sub)millimeter observations have detected tens of those with rich gas content. The origin of the gas component remains unclear; namely, it can be protoplanetary remnants and/or secondary products deriving from large bodies. In order to be protoplanetary in origin, the gas component of the parental protoplanetary disk is required to survive for $gtrsim10{,rm Myr}$. However, previous models predict $lesssim 10{,rm Myr}$ lifetimes because of efficient photoevaporation at the late stage of disk evolution. In the present study, we investigate photoevaporation of gas-rich, optically-thin disks around intermediate-mass stars at a late stage of the disk evolution. The evolved system is modeled as those where radiation force is sufficiently strong to continuously blow out small grains ($lesssim 4 {,rm mu m}$), which are an essential component for driving photoevaporation via photoelectric heating induced by stellar far-ultraviolet (FUV). We find that the grain depletion reduces photoelectric heating, so that FUV photoevaporation is not excited. Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) photoevaporation is dominant and yields a mass-loss rate of $2$--$5times10^{-10}(Phi_{rm EUV}/10^{41}{,rm s}^{-1})^{1/2},M_odot,{rm yr}^{-1}$, where $Phi_{rm EUV}$ is the EUV emission rate. The estimated lifetimes of the gas component are $sim 50 (M_{rm disk}/10^{-2},M_odot)(Phi_{rm EUV}/10^{41},{rm s}^{-1})^{1/2},{rm Myr}$ and depend on the ``initial disk mass at the point small grains have been depleted in the system. With an order estimation, we show that the gas component can survive for a much longer time around A-type stars than lower-mass stars. This trend is consistent with the higher frequency of gas-rich debris disks around A-type stars, implying the possibility of the gas component being protoplanetary remnants.
It is usually thought that viscous torque works to align a circumbinary disk with the binarys orbital plane. However, recent numerical simulations suggest that the disk may evolve to a configuration perpendicular to the binary orbit (polar alignment) if the binary is eccentric and the initial disk-binary inclination is sufficiently large. We carry out a theoretical study on the long-term evolution of inclined disks around eccentric binaries, calculating the disk warp profile and dissipative torque acting on the disk. For disks with aspect ratio $H/r$ larger than the viscosity parameter $alpha$, bending wave propagation effectively makes the disk precess as a quasi-rigid body, while viscosity acts on the disk warp and twist to drive secular evolution of the disk-binary inclination. We derive a simple analytic criterion (in terms of the binary eccentricity and initial disk orientation) for the disk to evolve toward polar alignment with the eccentric binary. When the disk has a non-negligible angular momentum compared to the binary, the final polar alignment inclination angle is reduced from $90^circ$. For typical protoplanetary disk parameters, the timescale of the inclination evolution is shorter than the disk lifetime, suggesting that highly-inclined disks and planets may exist orbiting eccentric binaries.