Growth and migration of solids in evolving protostellar disks I: Methods and Analytical tests

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified model for the growth and migration of grains in evolving protostellar disks, focusing on the evolution of solids and their implications for planet formation.

Contribution

It presents a new set of equations modeling grain growth and migration, assuming a power-law size distribution, and derives an empirical evolution equation for solid mass.

Findings

Global evolution of solids is governed by a reservoir of small grains at large radii.

Derived an upper limit on initial grain size distribution and turbulence parameter.

Proposed an empirical equation for total solid mass evolution.

Abstract

This series of papers investigates the early stages of planet formation by modeling the evolution of the gas and solid content of protostellar disks from the early T Tauri phase until complete dispersal of the gas. In this first paper, I present a new set of simplified equations modeling the growth and migration of various species of grains in a gaseous protostellar disk evolving as a result of the combined effects of viscous accretion and photo-evaporation from the central star. Using the assumption that the grain size distribution function always maintains a power-law structure approximating the average outcome of the exact coagulation/shattering equation, the model focuses on the calculation of the growth rate of the largest grains only. The coupled evolution equations for the maximum grain size, the surface density of the gas and the surface density of solids are then presented and solved self-consistently using a standard 1+1 dimensional formalism. I show that the global evolution of solids is controlled by a leaky reservoir of small grains at large radii, and propose an empirically derived evolution equation for the total mass of solids, which can be used to estimate the total heavy element retention efficiency in the planet formation paradigm. Consistency with observation of the total mass of solids in the Minimum Solar Nebula augmented with the mass of the Oort cloud sets strong upper limit on the initial grain size distribution, as well as on the turbulent parameter $\alphat$. Detailed comparisons with SED observations are presented in a following paper.