Anatomy of Photoevaporation Base: Linking the Property of the Launched Wind to Irradiation Flux

Abstract

Ultraviolet and X-rays from radiation sources disperse nearby gas clumps by driving winds due to heating associated with the photochemical processes. This dispersal process, photoevaporation, constrains the lifetimes of the parental bodies of stars and planets. To understand this process in a universal picture, we develop an analytical model that describes the fundamental physics in the vicinity of the wind-launching region. The model explicitly links the density and velocity of photoevaporative winds at the launch points to the radiation flux reaching the wind-launching base, using a jump condition. The model gives a natural boundary condition for the wind-emanating points. We compare the analytical model with the results of radiation hydrodynamic simulations, where a protoplanetary disk is irradiated by the stellar extreme-ultraviolet, and confirm good agreement of the base density and velocity, and radial profiles of mass-loss rates. We expect that our analytical model is applicable to other objects subject to photoevaporation not only by extreme-ultraviolet but by far-ultraviolet/X-rays with suitable modifications. Future self-consistent numerical studies can test the applicability.