Inner dusty regions of protoplanetary discs - I. High resolution temperature structure

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution radiative transfer calculations to analyze the temperature structure and dust grain coexistence in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs, revealing complex temperature gradients and the impact of dust sublimation.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed high-resolution model that captures temperature inversion effects and dust grain interactions in the inner disc regions, advancing previous simpler models.

Findings

Big grains dominate near IR flux due to hot inner rim.

Small grains exist throughout the inner disc but are surface-concentrated.

Temperature inversion allows big grains to survive closer to the star than previously thought.

Abstract

Our current understanding of the physical conditions in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs is becoming increasingly challenged by the more detailed observational and theoretical explorations. Calculation of dust temperature is one of the key features we strive to understand and a necessary step in image and flux reconstruction. We explore coexistence of small (0.1mic radius) and big (2mic radius) dust grains can coexist at distances from the star where small grains would not survive without big grains shielding them from the direct starlight. The study required a high resolution radiative transfer calculation capable of resolving large temperature gradients and disc surface curvatures caused by dust sublimation. The calculation was also capable of resolving temperature inversion effect in big grains, where the maximum dust temperature is at visual optical depth of tau_V~1.5. We also show disc images and spectra, with disentangled contributions from small and big grains. Big grains dominate the near IR flux, mainly because of the bright hot inner disc rim. Small grains populate almost the entire inner disc interior, but appear in the disc surface at distances 2.2 times larger than the closest distance of big grains from the star. Nevertheless, small grains can contribute to the image surface brightness at smaller radii because they are visible below the optically thin surface defined by stellar heating. Our calculations demonstrate that the sublimation temperature does not provide a unique boundary condition for radiative transfer models of optically thick discs. The source of this problem is the temperature inversion effect, which allows survival of optically thin configurations of big grains closer to the star than the inner radius of optically thick disc. Future attempts to derive more realistic multigrain inner disc models will require the numerical resolution ...