The formation and evolution of planetary systems: Grain growth and chemical processing of dust in T Tauri systems

TL;DR

This study investigates dust grain growth, crystallization, and chemical processing in protoplanetary disks, revealing larger grains, crystalline species variations, and PAH molecules, advancing understanding of planetary system formation.

Contribution

It provides new observational evidence of dust growth, crystalline composition changes, and PAH presence in T Tauri disks, highlighting localized crystallization processes.

Findings

Silicate grains are at least 10 times larger than interstellar medium grains.

Crystalline species show a higher enstatite abundance in inner regions.

PAH molecules are detected in five of seven disks.

Abstract

This paper is one in a series presenting results obtained within the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS) Legacy Science Program on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Here we present a study of dust processing and growth in seven protoplanetary disks. Our spectra indicate that the circumstellar silicate dust grains have grown to sizes at least 10 times larger than observed in the interstellar medium, and show evidence for a non-negligible (~5 % in mass fractions) contribution from crystalline species. These results are similar to those of other studies of protoplanetary disks. In addition, we find a correlation between the strength of the amorphous silicate feature and the shape of the spectral energy distribution. This latter result is consistent with the growth and subsequent gravitational settling of dust grains towards the disk mid-plane. Further, we find a change in the relative abundance of the different crystalline species: more enstatite relative to forsterite is observed in the inner warm dust population at ~1 AU, while forsterite dominates in the colder outer regions at ~5 to 15 AU. This change in the relative abundances argues for a localized crystallization process rather than a radial mixing scenario where crystalline silicates are being transported outwards from a single formation region in the hot inner parts of the disk. Last, we report the detection of emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules in five out of seven sources. We find a tentative PAH band at 8.2 micron, previously undetected in the spectra of disks around low-mass pre-main-sequence stars.