The Snow Border

TL;DR

This paper investigates the coexistence zone of icy and bare dust grains beyond the snow line in protostellar environments using simulations and analytical models, revealing its size, formation timescales, and implications for planet formation and observations.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a snow border zone where icy and bare grains coexist, providing quantitative estimates and modeling approaches for protostellar disks and massive protostars.

Findings

Extended coexistence zone of icy and bare grains identified

Size of the zone is about 0.4 AU in disks and 5400 AU in protostars

Steady-state times range from 10^2 to 10^5 years

Abstract

Context. The study of the snow line is an important topic in several domains of astrophysics, and particularly for the evolution of proto-stellar environments and the formation of planets. Aims. The formation of the first layer of ice on carbon grains requires low temperatures compared to the temperature of evaporation (T > 100 K). This asymmetry generates a zone in which bare and icy dust grains coexist. Methods. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to describe the formation time scales of ice mantles on bare grains in protostellar disks and massive protostars environments. Then we analytically describe these two systems in terms of grain populations subject to infall and turbulence, and assume steady-state. Results. Our results show that there is an extended region beyond the snow line where icy and bare grains can coexist, in both proto-planetary disks and massive protostars. This zone is not negligible compared to the total size of the objects: on the order of 0.4 AU for proto-planetary disks and 5400 AU for high-mass protostars. Times to reach the steady-state are respectively es- timated from 10^2 to 10^5 yr. Conclusions. The presence of a zone, a so-called snow border, in which bare and icy grains co- exist can have a major impact on our knowledge of protostellar environments. From a theoretical point of view, the progression of icy grains to bare grains as the temperature increases, could be a realistic way to model hot cores and hot corinos. Also, in this zone, the formation of planetesimals will require the coagulation of bare and icy grains. Observationally, this zone allows high abundances of gas phase species at large scales, for massive protostars particularly, even at low temperatures (down to 50 K).