Time-Evolution of Viscous Circumstellar Disks due to Photoevaporation by FUV, EUV and X-ray Radiation from the Central Star

TL;DR

This study models the evolution of viscous circumstellar disks under stellar UV and X-ray irradiation, revealing how photoevaporation and viscosity influence disk dispersal, gap formation, and survival times across different stellar masses.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid 1D viscous and vertical structure model to simulate disk evolution under combined photoevaporative effects, highlighting the roles of FUV, EUV, and X-ray radiation.

Findings

Disks of 0.1 solar masses around 1 solar mass stars last about 4 million years.

FUV/X-ray photoevaporation and viscosity jointly deplete disk mass.

FUV photons can create gaps in the 1-10 AU planet-forming region early in evolution.

Abstract

We present the time evolution of viscously accreting circumstellar disks as they are irradiated by ultraviolet and X-ray photons from a low-mass central star. Our model is a hybrid of a 1D time-dependent viscous disk model coupled to a 1+1D disk vertical structure model used for calculating the disk structure and photoevaporation rates. We find that disks of initial mass 0.1M_o around 1M_o stars survive for 4x10^6 years, assuming a viscosity parameter $\alpha=0.01$, a time-dependent FUV luminosity $L_{FUV}~10^{-2}-10^{-3}$ L_o and with X-ray and EUV luminosities $L_X \sim L_{EUV} ~ 10^{-3}$L_o. We find that FUV/X-ray-induced photoevaporation and viscous accretion are both important in depleting disk mass. Photoevaporation rates are most significant at ~ 1-10 AU and at >~ 30 AU. Viscosity spreads the disk which causes mass loss by accretion onto the central star and feeds mass loss by photoevaporation in the outer disk. We find that FUV photons can create gaps in the inner, planet-forming regions of the disk (~ 1-10 AU) at relatively early epochs in disk evolution while disk masses are still substantial. EUV and X-ray photons are also capable of driving gaps, but EUV can only do so at late, low accretion-rate epochs after the disk mass has already declined substantially. Disks around stars with predominantly soft X-ray fields experience enhanced photoevaporative mass loss. We follow disk evolution around stars of different masses, and find that disk survival time is relatively independent of mass for stars with M <~ 3M_o; for M >~ 3M_o the disks are short-lived(~10^5 years).