Photoevaporation as a Truncation Mechanism for Circumplanetary Disks

TL;DR

This paper models how ultraviolet photoevaporation can truncate circumplanetary disks, explaining satellite formation and clearing timescales around giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn.

Contribution

It introduces one-dimensional simulations coupling viscous transport with photoevaporative mass loss to explain satellite system locations and disk clearing timescales.

Findings

Disks are truncated at about 0.16 Hill radii due to photoevaporation.

Photoevaporation can clear circumplanetary disks within 100-10,000 years.

Truncation radii align with current satellite system positions.

Abstract

We investigate the conditions under which the regular satellites of Jupiter and Saturn formed. The final stage of giant planet accretion is thought to occur slowly over a relatively long, 10 Myr, timescale. Gas accretion during this stage, through a completely or partially opened gap in the solar nebula, occurs slowly allowing for the condensation of ices, and incomplete differentiation, seen in the regular satellites of the giant planets. Furthermore, the dichotomy seen in the Jovian and Saturnian systems may be explained as this infall wanes or is completely shutoff as a result of gap opening or global depletion of gas in the solar nebula. We present one-dimensional simulations of circumplanetary disks that couple the viscous transport of material with the loss of mass at the disk outer edge by ultraviolet photoevaporation as well as the infall of material from the solar nebula. We find that the circumplanetary disks of these protoplanets are truncated, as a result of photoevaporation, at a range of values with the mean corresponding to $\approx$ 0.16 Hill radii. These truncation radii are broadly consistent with the current locations of the regular satellite systems of Jupiter and Saturn. We also find that photoevaporation can successfully act as a clearing mechanism for circumplanetary nebulae on the potentially short timescales, 100-10,000 yr, over which mass accretion from the solar nebula wanes as a result of gap opening. Such a rapid clearing of the circum-Jovian disk may be required to explain the survival of the Galilean satellites.