Disk Lifetime Research Articles

PLANETARY POPULATIONS IN THE MASS-PERIOD DIAGRAM: A STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF EXOPLANET FORMATION AND THE ROLE OF PLANET TRAPS

The rapid growth in the number of known exoplanets has revealed the existence of several distinct planetary populations in the observed mass-period diagram. Two of the most surprising are, (1) the concentration of gas giants around 1AU and (2) the accumulation of a large number of low-mass planets with tight orbits, also known as super-Earths and hot Neptunes. We have recently shown that protoplanetary disks have multiple planet traps that are characterized by orbital radii in the disks and halt rapid type I planetary migration. By coupling planet traps with the standard core accretion scenario, we showed that one can account for the positions of planets in the mass-period diagram. In this paper, we demonstrate quantitatively that most gas giants formed at planet traps tend to end up around 1 AU with most of these being contributed by dead zones and ice lines. In addition, we show that a large fraction of super-Earths and hot Neptunes are formed as "failed" cores of gas giants - this population being constituted by comparable contributions from dead zone and heat transition traps. Our results are based on the evolution of forming planets in an ensemble of disks where we vary only the lifetimes of disks as well as their mass accretion rates onto the host star. We show that a statistical treatment of the evolution of a large population of planetary cores initially caught in planet traps accounts for the existence of three distinct exoplantary populations - the hot Jupiters, the more massive planets at roughly orbital radii around 1 AU orbital, and the short period SuperEarths and hot Neptunes. There are very few evolutionary tracks that feed into the large orbital radii characteristic of the imaged Jovian planet, which agrees with recent surveys. Finally, we find that low-mass planets in tight orbits become the dominant planetary population for low mass stars ($M_* \le 0.7 M_{\odot}$).

TWO TIMESCALE DISPERSAL OF MAGNETIZED PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

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.

DO GIANT PLANETS SURVIVE TYPE II MIGRATION?

Planetary migration is one of the most serious problems to systematically understand the observations of exoplanets. We clarify that the theoretically predicted type II migration is too fast, as well as type I migration, by developing detailed analytical arguments in which the timescale of type II migration is compared with the disk lifetime. In the disk-dominated regime, the type II migration timescale is characterized by a {\it local} viscous diffusion timescale, while the disk lifetime characterized by a {\it global} diffusion timescale that is much longer than the local one. Even in the planet-dominated regime where the inertia of the planet mass reduces the migration speed, the timescale is still shorter than the disk lifetime except in the final disk evolution stage where the total disk mass decays below the planet mass. This suggests that most giant planets plunge into the central stars within the disk lifetime, and it contradicts the exoplanet observations that gas giants are piled up at $r \ga 1$AU. We examine additional processes that may arise in protoplanetary disks: dead zones, photoevaporation of gas, and gas flow across a gap formed by a type II migrator. Although they make the type II migration timescale closer to the disk lifetime, we show that none of them can act as an effective barrier for rapid type II migration with the current knowledge of these processes. We point out that gas flow across a gap and the fraction of the flow accreted onto the planets are uncertain and they may have a potential to solve the problem. Much more detailed investigation for each process may be needed to explain the observed distribution of gas giants in extrasolar planetary systems.

VISCOUS EVOLUTION AND PHOTOEVAPORATION OF CIRCUMSTELLAR DISKS DUE TO EXTERNAL FAR ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION FIELDS

This paper explores the effects of FUV radiation fields from external stars on circumstellar disk evolution. Disks residing in young clusters can be exposed to extreme levels of FUV flux from nearby OB stars, and observations show that disks in such environments are being actively photoevaporated. Typical FUV flux levels can be factors of \sim 10^{2} - 10^{4} higher than the interstellar value. These fields are effective in driving mass loss from circumstellar disks because they act at large radial distance from the host star, i.e., where most of the disk mass is located, and where the gravitational potential well is shallow. We combine viscous evolution (an \alpha-disk model) with an existing FUV photoevaporation model to derive constraints on disk lifetimes, and to determine disk properties as functions of time, including mass loss rates, disk masses, and radii. We also consider the effects of X-ray photoevaporation from the host star using an existing model, and show that for disks around solar-mass stars, externally-generated FUV fields are often the dominant mechanism in depleting disk material. For sufficiently large viscosities, FUV fields can efficiently photoevaporate disks over the entire range of parameter space. Disks with viscosity parameter \alpha = 10^{-3} are effectively dispersed within 1-3 Myr; for higher viscosities (\alpha = 10^{-2}) disks are dispersed within \sim 0.25 - 0.5 Myr. Furthermore, disk radii are truncated to less than \sim100 AU, which can possibly affect the formation of planets. Our model predictions are consistent with the range of observed masses and radii of proplyds in the Orion Nebula Cluster.

Improved angular momentum evolution model for solar-like stars

We present new models for the rotational evolution of solar-like stars between 1 Myr and 10 Gyr with the aim to reproduce the distributions of rotational periods observed for star forming regions and young open clusters within this age range. The models include a new wind braking law based on recent numerical simulations of magnetized stellar winds and specific dynamo and mass-loss prescriptions are adopted to tie angular momentum loss to angular velocity. The model additionally assume constant angular velocity during the disk accretion phase and allow for decoupling between the radiative core and the convective envelope as soon as the former develops. We have developed rotational evolution models for slow, median and fast rotators with initial periods of 10, 7, and 1.4d, respectively. The models reproduce reasonably well the rotational behaviour of solar-type stars between 1 Myr and 4.5 Gyr, including PMS to ZAMS spin up, prompt ZAMS spin down, and the early-MS convergence of surface rotation rates. We find the model parameters accounting for the slow and median rotators are very similar to each other, with a disk lifetime of 5 Myr and a core-envelope coupling timescale of 28-30 Myr. In contrast, fast rotators have both shorter disk lifetime (2.5 Myr) and core-envelope coupling timescale (12 Myr). We emphasize that these results are highly dependent on the adopted braking law. We also report a tentative correlation between initial rotational period and disk lifetime, which suggests that protostellar spin-down by massive disks in the embedded phase is at the origin of the initial dispersion of rotation rates in young stars. We conclude that this class of semi-empirical models successfully grasp the main trends of the rotational behaviour of solar-type stars as they evolve and make specific predictions that may serve as a guide for further development.

Astrometry in the Service of Planet Formation Studies: Disk Lifetimes in Nearby Star Forming Regions and a Planet Candidate around a Mature Brown Dwarf

AbstractWe present preliminary astrometric results aimed at understanding the lifetime of circumstellar disks and potential for planet formation. We have obtained parallaxes to stars in the TW Hydrae, Upper Scorpius, and Chamaeleon I stellar associations. These enable new estimates for the ages of the stars. We are also performing the Carnegie Astrometric Planet Search of nearby low mass stars for gas giant planets on wide orbits. We have our first candidate around a mature brown dwarf.

Protoplanetary disk evolution and stellar parameters of T Tauri binaries in Chamaeleon I

This study aims to determine the impact of stellar binary companions on the lifetime and evolution of circumstellar disks in the Chamaeleon I (Cha I) star-forming region by measuring the frequency and strength of accretion and circumstellar dust signatures around the individual components of T Tauri binary stars. We used high-angular resolution adaptive optics JHKL'-band photometry and 1.5-2.5mu spectroscopy of 19 visual binary and 7 triple stars in Cha I - including one newly discovered tertiary component - with separations between ~25 and ~1000au. The data allowed us to infer stellar component masses and ages and, from the detection of near-infrared excess emission and the strength of Brackett-gamma emission, the presence of ongoing accretion and hot circumstellar dust of the individual stellar component of each binary. Of all the stellar components in close binaries with separations of 25-100au, 10(+15-5)% show signs of accretion. This is less than half of the accretor fraction found in wider binaries, which itself appears significantly reduced (~44%) compared with previous measurements of single stars in Cha I. Hot dust was found around 50(+30-15)% of the target components, a value that is indistinguishable from that of Cha I single stars. Only the closest binaries (<25au) were inferred to have a significantly reduced fraction (<~25%) of components that harbor hot dust. Accretors were exclusively found in binary systems with unequal component masses M_secondary/M_primary < 0.8, implying that the detected accelerated disk dispersal is a function of mass-ratio. This agrees with the finding that only one accreting secondary star was found, which is also the weakest accretor in the sample. The results imply that disk dispersal is more accelerated the stronger the dynamical disk truncation, i.e., the smaller the inferred radius of the disk. (abridged)

On Lifetimes of Dusty Debris Disks around A-type Stars

AbstractUsing a collection of 40 debris disks (DD) around dwarf A-type stars (from which 17 are spatially resolved) having well determined stellar ages (Vican 2012), we found that for a collisional self-stirring model of flux distributions (Kenyon &amp; Bromley, 2008, 2010) dusty DD occupy for a large part the terminal age positions corresponding the end of the MS phase. This situation does not necessarily mean that the dust generation in these DD is finished at this stage. Dusty DD can continue their lives in the next Post-MS stages, as is the case of the recent first resolved dusty DD with planets around the K-type subgiant star κ CrB. This star is considered a “retired” A star (Bonsor et al. 2013). In order to explain the apparent lack of dusty DD in the giant phase, we propose here that this could be due, in part, to a dilution of any planetesimal belt existing around these stars, with the corresponding diminishing of collisions and subsequent dust generation. This dilution is provoked by the dynamical expansion of this belt produced by the important stellar mass loss during the RGB phase. This scenario is being studied by means of numerical simulations by de la Reza, Roig &amp; Chavero 2013 (in preparation).

Circumstellar Disks in Very Young Embedded Clusters

AbstractWe used FLAMINGOS near-IR photometry and spectroscopy and Spitzer mid-IR photometry to study disk fractions in the 1 to 2 Myr old NGC2264 clusters. We find that stars with masses &lt; 0.3 solar masses have lower disk fractions than stars of solar mass or higher at these early ages. We also find that most disks disappear within the first 4 Myr, which is consistent with previous studies of disk lifetimes. Our study suggests that either some very low mass stars form without disks or that their disks are less massive and/or colder than predicted from models and not detected with Spitzer/Flamingos sensitivities.

Planet formation in evolving protoplanetary discs

AbstractI attempt to summarize our knowledge of planet formation in evolving protoplanetary discs. I first review the physics of disc evolution and dispersal. For most of the disc lifetime evolution is driven by accretion and photoevaporation, and I discuss how the interplay between these processes shapes protoplanetary discs. I also discuss the observations that we use to test these models, and the major uncertainties that remain. I will then move on to consider planet formation and migration in evolving discs, and discuss how observations of both discs and planets can be used to inform our understanding of protoplanetary disc evolution.

Optimal Fuzzy Control of Automated Mechanical Transmission Clutch Engagement during Start-Up Process

Engagement control of the clutch in the starting process is the core part and difficulty of the Automated Mechanical Transmission (AMT) control strategy, which was directly related to the clutch disc lifetime and riding. Engine speed, clutch speed and throttle angle are the only signals to develop clutch control strategy in the entire start-up process made by Transmission Control Unit (TCU) in a vehicle equip with AMT. The TCU even need to determine the driver's intention to select different control schemes. In this paper, fuzzy logic control was adopted in order to eliminate the impact of subtle change during driver operation, thus the start quality was optimized.

Early dynamical instabilities in the giant planet systems

The observed wide eccentricity distribution of extrasolar giant planets is thought to be the result of dynamical instabilities and gravitational scattering among planets. Previously, it has been assumed that the orbits in giant planet systems become gravitationally unstable after the gas nebula dispersal. It was not well understood, however, how these unstable conditions were established in the first place. In this work we numerically simulate the evolution of systems of three planets as the planets sequentially grow to Jupiter's mass, and dynamically interact among themselves and with the gas disk. We use the hydro-dynamical code FARGO that we modified by implementing the $N$-body integrator SyMBA. The new code can handle close encounters and collisions between planets. To test their stability, the planetary systems were followed with SyMBA for up to $10^8$ yr after the gas disk dispersal. We find that dynamics of the growing planets is complex, because migration and resonances raise their orbital eccentricities, and cause dynamical instabilities when gas is still around. If the dynamical instabilities occur early, planets can be removed by collisions and ejections, and the system rearranges into a new, more stable configuration. In this case, the planetary systems emerging from the gas disks are expected to be stable, and would need to be destabilized by other means (low-mass planets, planetesimal disks, etc.). Alternatively, for the giant planet system to be intrinsically unstable upon the gas disk dispersal, a special timing would be required with the growth of (at least some of) the giant planets having to occur near the end of the gas disk lifetime.

Formation of giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits

Context: We studied numerically the formation of giant planet (GP) and brown dwarf (BD) embryos in gravitationally unstable protostellar disks and compared our findings with directly-imaged, wide-orbit (>= 50 AU) companions known to-date. The viability of the disk fragmentation scenario for the formation of wide-orbit companions in protostellar disks around (sub-)solar mass stars was investigated. Methods: We used numerical hydrodynamics simulations of disk formation and evolution with an accurate treatment of disk thermodynamics. The use of the thin-disk limit allowed us to probe the long-term evolution of protostellar disks. We focused on models that produced wide-orbit GP/BD embryos, which opened a gap in the disk and showed radial migration timescales similar to or longer than the typical disk lifetime. Results: While disk fragmentation was seen in the majority of our models, only 6 models out of 60 revealed the formation of quasi-stable, wide-orbit GP/BD embryos. Disk fragmentation produced GP/BD embryos with masses in the 3.5-43 M_J range, covering the whole mass spectrum of directly-imaged, wide-orbit companions to (sub-)solar mass stars. On the other hand, our modelling failed to produce embryos on orbital distances <= 170 AU, whereas several directly-imaged companions were found at smaller orbits down to a few AU. Disk fragmentation also failed to produce wide-orbit companions around stars with mass <= 0.7 Msun, in disagreement with observations. Conclusions: Disk fragmentation is unlikely to explain the whole observed spectrum of wide-orbit companions to (sub-)solar-mass stars and other formation mechanisms, e.g., dynamical scattering of closely-packed companions onto wide orbits, should be invoked to account for companions at orbital distance from a few tens to \approx 150 AU and wide-orbit companions with masses of the host star <= 0.7 Msun. (abridged)

Protoplanetary disks and planet formation around brown dwarfs and very low‐mass stars

AbstractBrown dwarfs and very low‐mass stars are very common in the Galaxy, yet we know little about the planetary systems they may host. Here we review observational evidence emerging from comparative studies of disks around brown dwarfs and sun‐like stars. These studies show that very young brown dwarfs and very low mass stars have disks as frequently as sun‐like stars do, arguing for the same formation processes. There are indications, but no conclusive evidence yet, for a longer disk lifetime around the lowest‐mass stars and brown dwarfs. At the same time, evidence for faster dust processing and more strongly reduced disk scale heights is found, demonstrating that the first steps of planet formation also take place around brown dwarfs. With increasingly sensitive infrared instruments a new window is opening on gas‐phase chemistry in these disks and the first surveys indicate a different gas‐phase chemistry and, perhaps, a suppressed nitrogen chemistry. Sub‐millimeter surveys reveal disk masses of a few Jupiter mass, which core accretion models show is enough to form few Earth‐mass and smaller planets, but not gas giant planets. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Circumstellar disks do erase the effects of stellar flybys on planetary systems

Most stars form in embedded clusters. Stellar flybys may affect the orbital architecture of the systems by exciting the eccentricity and causing dynamical instability. Since, incidentally, the timescale over which a cluster loses its gaseous component and begins to disperse is comparable to the circumstellar disk lifetime, we expect that closer, and more perturbing, stellar flybys occur when the planets are still embedded in their birth disk. We investigate the effects of the disk on the dynamics of planets after the stellar encounter to test whether it can damp the eccentricity and return the planetary system to a non-excited state. We use the hydrodynamical code FARGO to study the disk+planet(s) system during and after the stellar encounter in the context of evolved disk models whose superficial density is 10 times lower than that of the Minimum Mass Solar Nebula. The numerical simulations show that the planet eccentricity, excited during a close stellar flyby, is damped on a short timescale (~ 10 Kyr) in spite of the disk low initial density and subsequent tidal truncation. This damping is effective also for a system of 3 giant planets and the effects of the dynamical instability induced by the passing star are quickly absorbed. If the circumstellar disk is still present around the star during a stellar flyby, a planet (or a planetary system) is returned to a non-excited state on a short timescale. This does not mean that stellar encounters do not affect the evolution of planets, but they do it in a subtle way with a short period of agitated dynamical evolution. At the end of it, the system resumes a quiet evolution and the planetary orbits are circularized by the interaction with the disk.

Lifetime and QoS-aware energy-saving buffering schemes

The heterogeneous drive (HDrive), which combines solid-state disk (SSD) and HDD, brings opportunity for energy-saving and has received extensive attention recently. This paper focuses on the file buffering schemes and adaptive disk power management (DPM) scheme for HDrive. As for the first issue, we propose a frequency–energy based replacement (FEBR) scheme based on an energy-cost model; as for the second issue, we present a sliding-window based adaptive DPM scheme by taking the HDD's lifetime into account. To make the trade-off among performance, HDD's lifetime and energy-saving, we contrive a QoS-aware DPM scheme. With extensive experiments on four real-world traces, we have evaluated the effectiveness of existing replacement schemes on energy-efficiency, performance, and HDD's lifetime and compare with our proposed schemes. The experimental results have demonstrated that energy-saving in HDrive is feasible and can reach as high as 60–80%, and that FBR and its variant FEBR, and GDS are the best ones among all those online schemes evaluated while FEBR has some advantage over FBR and GDS on the whole. The results have also revealed that our proposed adaptive sliding-window-based DPM scheme can effectively control the disk's lifetime and the QoS-aware DPM scheme works well in making tradeoffs among performance, HDD's lifetime and energy-saving.

FROM PLANETESIMALS TO DUST: LOW-GRAVITY EXPERIMENTS ON RECYCLING SOLIDS AT THE INNER EDGES OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

Transporting solids of different sizes is an essential process in the evolution of protoplanetary disks and planet formation. Large solids are supposed to drift inward; high-temperature minerals found in comets are assumed to have been transported outward. From low-gravity experiments on parabolic flights we studied the light-induced erosion of dusty bodies caused by a solid-state greenhouse effect and photophoresis within a dust bed's upper layers. The gravity levels studied were 0.16g, 0.38g, 1g, and 1.7g. The light flux during the experiments was 12 +/- 2 kW/m^2 and the ambient pressure was 6 +/- 0.9 mbar. Light-induced erosion is strongly gravity dependent, which is in agreement with a developed model. In particular for small dusty bodies ((sub)-planetesimals), efficient erosion is possible at the optically thin inner edges of protoplanetary disks. Light-induced erosion prevents significant parts of a larger body from moving too close to the host star and be being subsequently accreted. The small dust produced continues to be subject to photophoresis and is partially transported upward and outward over the surface of the disk; the resulting small dust particles observed over the disk's lifetime. The fraction of eroded dust participates in subsequent cycles of growth during planetesimal formation. Another fraction of dust might be collected by a body of planetary size if this body is already present close to the disk edge. Either way, light induced erosion is an efficient recycling process in protoplanetary disks.

New brown dwarf discs in Upper Scorpius observed with WISE

We present a census of the disc population for UKIDSS selected brown dwarfs in the 5–10 Myr old Upper Scorpius OB association. For 116 objects originally identified in UKIDSS, the majority of them not studied in previous publications, we obtain photometry from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer data base. The resulting colour–magnitude and colour–colour plots clearly show two separate populations of objects, interpreted as brown dwarfs with discs (class II) and without discs (class III). We identify 27 class II brown dwarfs, 14 of them not previously known. This disc fraction (27 out of 116, or 23%) among brown dwarfs was found to be similar to results for K/M stars in Upper Scorpius, suggesting that the lifetimes of discs are independent of the mass of the central object for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. 5 out of 27 discs (19 per cent) lack excess at 3.4 and 4.6 μm and are potential transition discs (i.e. are in transition from class II to class III). The transition disc fraction is comparable to low-mass stars. We estimate that the time-scale for a typical transition from class II to class III is less than 0.4 Myr for brown dwarfs. These results suggest that the evolution of brown dwarf discs mirrors the behaviour of discs around low-mass stars, with disc lifetimes of the order of 5–10 Myr and a disc clearing time-scale significantly shorter than 1 Myr.

Astronomical evidence for the rapid growth of millimeter‐sized particles in protoplanetary disks

Abstract– I summarize recent surveys of protoplanetary disks at millimeter wavelengths and show that the distribution of luminosity, equivalent to the mass in small dust grains, declines rapidly. This contrasts with statistics on the lifetime of disks from infrared observations and the high occurrence of planets from radial velocity and transit surveys. I suggest that these disparate results can be reconciled if most of the dust in a disk is locked up in millimeter and larger‐sized particles within about 2 Myr. This statistical result on disk evolution agrees with detailed modeling of a small number of individual disks and with cosmochemical measurements of rapid planetesimal formation.

Disc clearing of young stellar objects: evidence for fast inside-out dispersal

The time-scale over which and the modality by which young stellar objects (YSOs) disperse their circumstellar discs dramatically influences the eventual formation and evolution of planetary systems. By means of extensive radiative transfer (RT) modelling, we have developed a new set of diagnostic diagrams in the infrared colour-colour plane (K-[24] vs. K-[8]), to aid with the classification of the evolutionary stage of YSOs from photometric observations. Our diagrams allow the differentiation of sources with unevolved (primordial) discs from those evolving according to different clearing scenarios (e.g. homologous depletion vs. inside-out dispersal), as well as from sources that have already lost their disc. Classification of over 1500 sources in 15 nearby star-forming regions reveals that approximately 39 % of the sources lie in the primordial disc region, whereas between 31 % and 32 % disperse from the inside-out and up to 22 % of the sources have already lost their disc. Less than 2 % of the objects in our sample lie in the homogeneous draining regime. Time-scales for the transition phase are estimated to be typically a few 10^5 years independent of stellar mass. Therefore, regardless of spectral type, we conclude that currently available infrared photometric surveys point to fast (of order 10 % of the global disc lifetime) inside-out clearing as the preferred mode of disc dispersal.