Water transport in protoplanetary disks and the hydrogen isotopic composition of chondrites

TL;DR

This study models the isotopic evolution of water in protoplanetary disks to explain the D/H ratios in carbonaceous chondrites and comets, revealing the role of turbulent diffusion and disk conditions in shaping isotopic compositions.

Contribution

It provides an analytical model linking disk turbulence parameters to the D/H ratio distribution in planetesimal water, explaining observed variations in chondrites and comets.

Findings

Low radial Schmidt number (Sc_R 0.1-0.3) indicates hydrodynamical turbulence.

Efficient outward diffusion accounts for high-temperature minerals in comets.

Model matches observed D/H ratio distribution in chondrites.

Abstract

The D/H ratios of carbonaceous chondrites, believed to reflect that of water in the inner early solar system, are intermediate between the protosolar value and that of most comets. The isotopic composition of cometary water has been accounted for by several models where the isotopic composition of water vapor evolved by isotopic exchange with hydrogen gas in the protoplanetary disk. However, the position and the wide variations of the distribution of D/H ratios in carbonaceous chondrites have yet to be explained. In this paper, we assume that the D/H composition of cometary ice was achieved in the disk building phase and model the further isotopic evolution of water in the inner disk in the classical T Tauri stage. Reaction kinetics compel isotopic exchange between water and hydrogen gas to stop at $\sim$500 K, but equilibrated water can be transported to the snow line (and beyond) via turbulent diffusion and consequently mix with isotopically comet-like water. Under certain simplifying assumptions, we calculate analytically this mixing and the resulting probability distribution function of the D/H ratio of ice accreted in planetesimals and compare it with observational data. The distribution essentially depends on two parameters: the radial Schmidt number Sc$_R$, which ratios the efficiencies of angular momentum transport and turbulent diffusion, and the range of heliocentric distances of accretion sampled by chondrites. The minimum D/H ratio of the distribution corresponds to the composition of water condensed at the snow line, which is primarily set by Sc$_R$. Observations constrain the latter to low values (0.1-0.3), which suggests that turbulence in the planet-forming region was hydrodynamical in nature, as would be expected in a dead zone. Such efficient outward diffusion would also account for the presence of high-temperature minerals in comets.