Disk Lifetime Research Articles

Constraining X-ray-Induced Photoevaporation of Protoplanetary Disks Orbiting Low-Mass Stars

AbstractLow-mass, pre-main sequence stars possess intense high-energy radiation fields as a result of their strong stellar magnetic activity. This stellar UV and X-ray radiation may have a profound impact on the lifetimes of protoplanetary disks. We aim to constrain the X-ray-induced photoevaporation rates of protoplanetary disks orbiting low-mass stars by analyzing serendipitous XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray observations of candidate nearby (D < 100 pc), young (age < 100 Myr) M stars identified in the GALEX Nearby Young-Star Survey (GALNYSS).

The Structure and Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks: an Infrared and Submillimeter View

AbstractCircumstellar disks are the sites of planet formation, and the very high incidence of extrasolar planets implies that most of them actually form planetary systems. Studying the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks can thus place important constraints on the conditions, timescales, and mechanisms associated with the planet formation process. In this review, we discuss observational results from infrared and submillimeter wavelength studies. We review disk lifetimes, transition objects, disk demographics, and highlight a few remarkable results from ALMA Early Science observations. We finish with a brief discussion of ALMA's potential to transform the field in near future.

Protoplanetary Disk Evolution: Singles vs. Binaries

AbstractBased on a large number of observations carried out in the last decade it appears that the fraction of stars with protoplanetary disks declines steadily between ~1 Myr and ~10 Myr. We do, however, know that the multiplicity fraction of star-forming regions can be as high as >50% and that multiples have reduced disk lifetimes on average. As a consequence, the observed roughly exponential disk decay can be fully attributed neither to single nor binary stars and its functional form may need revision. Observational evidence for a non-exponential decay has been provided by Kraus et al. (2012), who statistically correct previous disk frequency measurements for the presence of binaries and find agreement with models that feature a constantly high disk fraction up to ~3 Myr, followed by a rapid (≲2 Myr) decline.We present results from our high angular resolution observational program to study the fraction of protoplanetary disks of single and binary stars separately. We find that disk evolution timescales of stars bound in close binaries (<100 AU) are significantly reduced compared to wider binaries. The frequencies of accretors among single stars and wide binaries appear indistinguishable, and are found to be lower than predicted from planet forming disk models governed by viscous evolution and photoevaporation.

MAPPING THE SHORES OF THE BROWN DWARF DESERT. IV. OPHIUCHUS

We conduct a multiplicity survey of members of the rho Ophiuchus cloud complex with high resolution imaging to characterize the multiple star population of this nearby star forming region and investigate the relation between stellar multiplicity and star and planet formation. Our aperture masking survey reveals the presence of 5 new stellar companions beyond the reach of previous studies, but does not result in the detection of any new substellar companions. We find that 43+/-6% of the 114 stars in our survey have stellar mass companions between 1.3-780AU, while 7 (+8 -5)% host brown dwarf companions in the same interval. By combining this information with knowledge of disk-hosting stars, we show that the presence of a close binary companion (separation < 40 AU) significantly influences the lifetime of protoplanetary disks, a phenomenon previously seen in older star forming regions. At the ~1-2Myr age of our Ophiuchus members ~2/3 of close binary systems have lost their disks, compared to only ~30% of single stars and wide binaries. This has significant impact on the formation of giant planets, which are expected to require much longer than 1 Myr to form via core accretion and thus planets formed via this pathway should be rare in close binary systems.

Impact of the initial disk mass function on the disk fraction

Abstract The disk fraction, the percentage of stars with a disk in a young cluster, is widely used to investigate the lifetime of the protoplanetary disk, which can impose an important constraint on the planet formation mechanism. The relationship between the decay timescale of the disk fraction and the mass dissipation timescale of individual disks, however, remains unclear. Here we investigate the effect of the disk mass function (DMF) on the evolution of the disk fraction. We show that the time variation in the disk fraction depends on the spread of the DMF and the detection threshold of the disk. In general, the disk fraction decreases more slowly than the disk mass if a typical initial DMF and a detection threshold are assumed. We find that, if the disk mass decreases exponentially, the mass dissipation timescale of the disk can be as short as 1 Myr even when the disk fraction decreases with a time constant of ∼2.5 Myr. The decay timescale of the disk fraction can be a useful parameter to investigate the disk lifetime, but the difference between the mass dissipation of individual disks and the decrease in the disk fraction should be properly appreciated to estimate the timescale of the disk mass dissipation.

MAGNETIC ORIGINS OF THE STELLAR MASS-OBLIQUITY CORRELATION IN PLANETARY SYSTEMS

Detailed observational characterization of transiting exoplanet systems has revealed that the spin-axes of massive (M > ~1.2 solar masses) stars often exhibit substantial misalignments with respect to the orbits of the planets they host. Conversely, lower-mass stars tend to only have limited obliquities. A similar trend has recently emerged within the observational dataset of young stars' magnetic field strengths: massive T-Tauri stars tend to have dipole fields that are ~10 times weaker than their less-massive counterparts. Here we show that the associated dependence of magnetic star-disk torques upon stellar mass naturally explains the observed spin-orbit misalignment trend, provided that misalignments are obtained within the disk-hosting phase. Magnetic torques act to realign the stellar spin-axes of lower-mass stars with the disk plane on a timescale significantly shorter than the typical disk lifetime, whereas the same effect operates on a much longer timescale for massive stars. Cumulatively, our results point to a primordial excitation of extrasolar spin-orbit misalignment, signalling consistency with disk-driven migration as the dominant transport mechanism for short-period planets. Furthermore, we predict that spin-orbit misalignments in systems where close-in planets show signatures of dynamical, post-nebular emplacement will not follow the observed correlation with stellar mass.

Real Time Scheduling for CPU and Hard Disk Requirements-Based Periodic Task with the Aim of Minimizing Energy Consumption

In recent years, with an increasing number of requests, energy, power and temperature have been important keys in embedded systems, which decrease the lifetime of both CPUs and hard disks. The energy consumption is an important issue in computer systems, particularly real-time embedded systems. The frequency and the Revolutions Per Minute are major factors in the reduction of energy consumption in both processors and hard disk drives. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to present a scheduling mechanism for a real time periodic task that can save more energy. This mechanism is based on increasing, as much as possible, the execution time of the CPU and/or the Read/Write time of the hard disk without passing the task deadline. This will be done by dynamically changing the CPU frequency and/or the RPM of hard disk. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm manages to lower energy consumption by an average of 25% and to reduce the number of missed tasks by 80%.

Lifetime of disks of variable thickness with anisotropy of fatigue properties taken into account

A generalization of well-known criteria for multiaxial fatigue fracture to the case of titanium alloys with anisotropic fatigue properties is proposed. The problem of determining the stress-strain state and estimating the fatigue life of a rotating disk of variable thickness under the action of centrifugal loads in the disk and blades is solved. The proposed criteria formultiaxial fatigue fracture are used to obtain spatial lifetime distributions over the disk in the isotropic and anisotropic cases. It was shown that the fatigue life of the titanium disk with the anisotropy of the fatigue properties taken into account can decrease to the critical values of N, 104 cycles near the outer rim of the disk in the region of contact with blades, which is inadmissible from the standpoint of safe operation.

A metallicity recipe for rocky planets

Planets with sizes between those of Earth and Neptune divide into two populations: purely rocky bodies whose atmospheres contribute negligibly to their sizes, and larger gas-enveloped planets possessing voluminous and optically thick atmospheres. We show that whether a planet forms rocky or gas-enveloped depends on the solid surface density of its parent disk. Assembly times for rocky cores are sensitive to disk solid surface density. Lower surface densities spawn smaller planetary embryos; to assemble a core of given mass, smaller embryos require more mergers between bodies farther apart and therefore exponentially longer formation times. Gas accretion simulations yield a rule of thumb that a rocky core must be at least 2$M_\oplus$ before it can acquire a volumetrically significant atmosphere from its parent nebula. In disks of low solid surface density, cores of such mass appear only after the gas disk has dissipated, and so remain purely rocky. Higher surface density disks breed massive cores more quickly, within the gas disk lifetime, and so produce gas-enveloped planets. We test model predictions against observations, using planet radius as an observational proxy for gas-to-rock content and host star metallicity as a proxy for disk solid surface density. Theory can explain the observation that metal-rich stars host predominantly gas-enveloped planets.

Evolution of the T Tauri star population in the Lupus association

Aims: In a recent study, we derived individual distances for 109 pre-main sequence stars that define the Lupus kinematic association of young stars. Here, we use these new distances to derive the masses and ages of Lupus T Tauri stars with the aim of better constraining the lifetime of their circumstellar disks. Methods: Using the photometric and spectroscopic information available in the literature, we computed the photospheric luminosity of 92 T Tauri stars in the Lupus association. Then, we estimated their masses and ages from theoretical evolutionary models. Based on Monte Carlo simulations and statistical tests, we compare the mass and age distribution of the classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) and weak-line T Tauri (WTTS) in our sample. Results: We show that the CTTSs are on average younger than the WTTSs and that the probability that both T~Tauri subclasses are drawn from the same mass and age parental distribution is very low. Our results favor the scenario proposed earlier for the Taurus-Auriga association, where the CTTSs evolve into WTTSs when their disks are fully accreted by the star. Based on an empirical disk model, we find that the average disk lifetime for the T Tauri stars in the Lupus association is $\tau_{d}=3\times10^{6}\,(M_*/M_{\odot})^{0.55}$ yr. Conclusions: We find evidence that the average lifetime of the circumstellar disks in the Lupus association is shorter than in the Taurus-Auriga association and discuss the implications of this result.

On the rotation periods of the components of the triple system TYC 9300-0891-1AB/TYC 9300-0529-1 in the Octans Association

Stellar rotation depends on different parameters such as age, mass, initial chemical composition, initial angular momentum, and environment characteristics. The range of values of these parameters causes the dispersion in the rotation period distributions observed in young stellar clusters/associations. We focus our investigation on the effects of different circumstellar environments on stellar rotation. More specifically, we consider the effects of a perturber stellar companion on the accretion-disc lifetime at early evolution stages.We are searching in stellar Associations for visual triple systems where all stellar parameters are similar, with the only exceptions of the unknown initial rotation period, and of the circum-stellar environment, in the sense that one of the two about equal-mass components has a close-by third ‘perturber’ component.In the present study we analyze the 35-Myr old visual triple system TYC 9300-0891-1AB + TYC 9300-0529-1 in the young Octans stellar association consisting of three equal-mass K0V components. We collected from the literature all information that allowed us to infer that the three components are actually physically bound forming a triple system and are members of the Octans Association. We collected broad-band photometric timeseries in two observation seasons. We discovered that all the components are variable, magnetically active, and from periodogram analysis we found the unresolved components TYC 9300-0891-1AB to have a rotation period P = 1.383 d and TYC9300-0529-1 a rotation period P = 1.634 d.TYC 9300-0891-1A, TYC 9300-0891-1B, and TYC 9300-0529-1 have same masses, ages, and initial chemical compositions. The relatively small 16% rotation period difference measured by us indicates that all components had similar initial rotation periods and disc lifetimes, and the separation of 157 AU between the component A and the ‘perturber’ component B (or vice-versa) has been sufficiently large to prevent any significant perturbation/shortening of the accretion-disc lifetime.

Pb-Pb dating of individual chondrules from the CBa chondrite Gujba: Assessment of the impact plume formation model.

The CB chondrites are metal-rich meteorites with characteristics that sharply distinguish them from other chondrite groups. Their unusual chemical and petrologic features and a young formation age of bulk chondrules dated from the CBa chondrite Gujba are interpreted to reflect a single-stage impact origin. Here, we report high-precision internal isochrons for four individual chondrules of the Gujba chondrite to probe the formation history of CB chondrites and evaluate the concordancy of relevant short-lived radionuclide chronometers. All four chondrules define a brief formation interval with a weighted mean age of 4562.49 ± 0.21 Myr, consistent with its origin from the vapor-melt impact plume generated by colliding planetesimals. Formation in a debris disk mostly devoid of nebular gas and dust sets an upper limit for the solar protoplanetary disk lifetime at 4.8 ± 0.3 Myr. Finally, given the well-behaved Pb-Pb systematics of all four chondrules, a precise formation age and the concordancy of the Mn-Cr, Hf-W, and I-Xe short-lived radionuclide relative chronometers, we propose that Gujba may serve as a suitable time anchor for these systems.

Investigating the rotational evolution of young, low-mass stars using Monte Carlo simulations

We investigate the rotational evolution of young stars through Monte Carlo simulations. We simulate 280,000 stars, each of which is assigned a mass, a rotational period, and a mass accretion rate. The mass accretion rate depends on mass and time, following power-laws indices 1.4 and -1.5, respectively. A mass-dependent accretion threshold is defined below which a star is considered as diskless, which results in a distribution of disk lifetimes that matches observations. Stars are evolved at constant angular spin rate while accreting and at constant angular momentum when they become diskless. We recover the bimodal period distribution seen in several young clusters. The short period peak consists mostly of diskless stars and the long period one is mainly populated by accreting stars. Both distributions present a long tail towards long periods and a population of slowly rotating diskless stars is observed at all ages. We reproduce the observed correlations between disk fraction and spin rate, as well as between IR excess and rotational period. The period-mass relation we derive from the simulations exhibits the same global trend as observed in young clusters only if we release the disk locking assumption for the lowest mass stars. We find that the time evolution of median specific angular momentum follows a power law index of -0.65 for accreting stars and of -0.53 for diskless stars, a shallower slope that results from a wide distribution of disk lifetimes. Using observationally-documented distributions of disk lifetimes, mass accretion rates, and initial rotation periods, and evolving an initial population from 1 to 12 Myr, we reproduce the main characteristics of pre-main sequence angular momentum evolution, which supports the disk locking hypothesis. (abridged)

DYNAMICAL STABILITY OF IMAGED PLANETARY SYSTEMS IN FORMATION: APPLICATION TO HL TAU

A recent ALMA image revealed several concentric gaps in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HL Tau. We consider the hypothesis that these gaps are carved by planets, and present a general framework for understanding the dynamical stability of such systems over typical disk lifetimes, providing estimates for the maximum planetary masses. We collect these easily evaluated constraints into a workflow that can help guide the design and interpretation of new observational campaigns and numerical simulations of gap opening in such systems. We argue that the locations of resonances should be significantly shifted in massive disks like HL Tau, and that theoretical uncertainties in the exact offset, together with observational errors, imply a large uncertainty in the dynamical state and stability in such disks. This presents an important barrier to using systems like HL Tau as a proxy for the initial conditions following planet formation. An important observational avenue to breaking this degeneracy is to search for eccentric gaps, which could implicate resonantly interacting planets. Unfortunately, massive disks like HL Tau should induce swift pericenter precession that would smear out any such eccentric features of planetary origin. This motivates pushing toward more typical, less massive disks. For a nominal non-resonant model of the HL Tau system with five planets, we find a maximum mass for the outer three bodies of approximately 2 Neptune masses. In a resonant configuration, these planets can reach at least the mass of Saturn. The inner two planets' masses are unconstrained by dynamical stability arguments.

Circumstellar discs in Galactic centre clusters: Disc-bearing B-type stars in the Quintuplet and Arches clusters

We investigate the circumstellar disc fraction as determined from L-band excess observations of the young, massive Arches and Quintuplet clusters residing in the central molecular zone of the Milky Way. The Quintuplet cluster was searched for L-band excess sources for the first time. We find a total of 26 excess sources in the Quintuplet cluster and 21 in the Arches cluster, of which 13 are new detections. With the aid of proper motion membership samples, the disc fraction of the Quintuplet cluster was derived for the first time to be 4.0 +/- 0.7%. There is no evidence for a radially varying disc fraction in this cluster. In the case of the Arches cluster, a disc fraction of 9.2 +/- 1.2% approximately out to the cluster's predicted tidal radius, r < 1.5 pc, is observed. This excess fraction is consistent with our previously found disc fraction in the cluster in the radial range 0.3 < r < 0.8 pc. In both clusters, the host star mass range covers late A- to early B-type stars, 2 < M < 15 Msun, as derived from J-band photospheric magnitudes. We discuss the unexpected finding of dusty circumstellar discs in these UV intense environments in the context of primordial disc survival and formation scenarios of secondary discs. We consider the possibility that the L-band excess sources in the Arches and Quintuplet clusters could be the high-mass counterparts to T Tauri pre-transitional discs. As such a scenario requires a long pre-transitional disc lifetime in a UV intense environment, we suggest that mass transfer discs in binary systems are a likely formation mechanism for the B-star discs observed in these starburst clusters.

Time evolution of snow regions and planet traps in an evolving protoplanetary disk

Aims. We track the time evolution of planet traps and snowlines in a viscously evolving protoplanetary disk using an opacity table that accounts for the composition of the dust material. Methods. We coupled a dynamical and thermodynamical disk model with a temperature-dependent opacity table (that accounts for the sublimation of the main dust components) to investigate the formation and evolution of snowlines and planet traps during the first million years of disk evolution. Results. Starting from a minimum mass solar nebula (MMSN), we find that the disk mid-plane temperature profile shows several plateaux (0.1-1 AU wide) at the different sublimation temperatures of the species that make up the dust. For water ice, the correspond- ing plateau can be larger than 1 AU, which means that this is a snow "region" rather than a snow "line". As a consequence, the surface density of solids in the snow region may increase gradually, not abruptly. Several planet traps and desert regions appear naturally as a result of abrupt local changes in the temperature and density profiles over the disk lifetime. These structures are mostly located at the edges of the temperature plateaux (surrounding the dust sublimation lines) and at the heat-transition barrier where the disk stellar heating and viscous heating are of the same magnitude (around 10 AU after 1 Myr). Conclusions. Several traps are identified: although a few appear to be transient, most of them slowly migrate along with the heat- transition barrier or the dust sublimation lines. These planet traps may temporarily favor the growth of planetary cores.

Improved angular momentum evolution model for solar-like stars

We developed angular momentum evolution models for 0.5 and 0.8 $M_{\odot}$ stars. The parametric models include a new wind braking law based on recent numerical simulations of magnetised stellar winds, specific dynamo and mass-loss rate prescriptions, as well as core/envelope decoupling. We compare model predictions to the distributions of rotational periods measured for low mass stars belonging to star forming regions and young open clusters. Furthermore, we explore the mass dependence of model parameters by comparing these new models to the solar-mass models we developed earlier. Rotational evolution models are computed for slow, median, and fast rotators at each stellar mass. The models reproduce reasonably well the rotational behaviour of low-mass stars between 1 Myr and 8-10 Gyr, including pre-main sequence to zero-age main sequence spin up, prompt zero-age main sequence spin down, and early-main sequence convergence of the surface rotation rates. Fast rotators are found to have systematically shorter disk lifetimes than moderate and slow rotators, thus enabling dramatic pre-main sequence spin up. They also have shorter core-envelope coupling timescales, i.e., more uniform internal rotation. As to the mass dependence, lower mass stars require significantly longer core-envelope coupling timescale than solar-type ones, which results in strong differential rotation developing in the stellar interior on the early main sequence. Lower mass stars also require a weaker braking torque to account for their longer spin down timescale on the early main sequence, while they ultimately converge towards lower rotational velocities than solar-type stars on the longer term due to their reduced moment of inertia. We also find evidence that the mass-dependence of the wind braking efficiency may be related to a change of the magnetic topology in lower mass stars.

THE IMPACT OF DUST EVOLUTION AND PHOTOEVAPORATION ON DISK DISPERSAL

Protoplanetary disks are dispersed by viscous evolution and photoevaporation in a few million years; in the interim small, sub-micron sized dust grains must grow and form planets. The time-varying abundance of small grains in an evolving disk directly affects gas heating by far-ultraviolet photons, while dust evolution affects photoevaporation by changing the disk opacity and resulting penetration of FUV photons in the disk. Photoevaporative flows, in turn, selectively carry small dust grains leaving the larger particles---which decouple from the gas---behind in the disk. We study these effects by investigating the evolution of a disk subject to viscosity, photoevaporation by EUV, FUV and X-rays, dust evolution, and radial drift using a 1-D multi-fluid approach (gas + different dust grain sizes) to solve for the evolving surface density distributions. The 1-D evolution is augmented by 1+1D models constructed at each epoch to obtain the instantaneous disk structure and determine photoevaporation rates. The implementation of a dust coagulation/fragmentation model results in a marginal decrease in disk lifetimes when compared to models with no dust evolution; the disk lifetime is thus found to be relatively insensitive to the evolving dust opacity. We find that photoevaporation can cause significant reductions in the gas/dust mass ratio in the planet-forming regions of the disk as it evolves, and may result in a corresponding increase in heavy element abundances relative to hydrogen. We discuss implications for theories of planetesimal formation and giant planet formation, including the formation of gas-poor giants. After gas disk dispersal, $\sim 3\times 10^{-4}$ \ms\ of mass in solids typically remain, comparable to the solids inventory of our solar system.

Lifetime of thermally fixed holograms and gratings in Zn:Fe:LiNbO3 crystals

Doped with various mole fractions of ZnO (2%, 4%, 7%, 8%) and 0.03wt.% Fe2O3 in LiNbO3, a series of Zn:Fe:LiNbO3 crystals were grown by Czochralski method and then the crystals were polarized and oxidized. Holograms were thermally fixed in Zn (2mol%):Fe (0.03wt.%):LiNbO3 crystal by heating the crystal to roughly 120°C for 40min. After the developing process, 200-h lossless readout data were obtained in the thermal fixing and developing experiments. The 200-h data are predicted to be read out around 72 million times, which is superior to the lifetime of hard disks. Furthermore, decays of thermally fixed holograms in Zn:Fe:LiNbO3 crystals with various mole fractions of ZnO (2%, 4%, 7%, 8%) were measured at 20°C. The results show that the ionic activation energies are 1.115eV, 1.128eV, 1.275eV, 1.278eV, respectively. Extrapolated hologram lifetimes as long as 20 times up to 30 times longer than that of Fe:LiNbO3 crystal (5.2 years) at 20°C were determined. Finally, the threshold value of Zn2+ concentration was identified by the location of OH− absorption peak of infrared spectra and the ionic activation energy relative to thermal fixing of grating suggests significant threshold effect along with the variation of Zn2+ concentrations.

Critical Zone Approach for Structural Integrity of Power Engineering Components

This study is concerned with assessing the integrity of cracked steam turbine rotors components which operate under cyclic loading conditions. Damage accumulation and growth have occurred on the inner surface of slot fillet of key and in a disk and blade rivet attachment. Full-size stress-strain state analysis of turbine disk was performed for different stage of lifetime under considering loading conditions. As a result accumulated damage in critical zones of turbine disks depending on time of loading is defined. The tensile tests were performed for determination the main mechanical properties of disk’s material after loading history. The smooth and notched specimens were cut out from critical zones of turbine disk with given operating time. The low-cycle fatigue tests were performed with the harmonic test-cycle. Additional tests were performed on special designed program test-cycle, which equivalent to start-stop cycle of turbine disk. An engineering approach to the prediction of residual lifetime of turbine disks which is sensitive to the loading history at maintenance is proposed. Approximate estimations of carrying capacity are presented for the different stress-strain state of steam turbine disks at the operation.