The Role of Ice Compositions for Snowlines and the C/N/O Ratios in Active Disks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ice compositions and disk dynamics influence snowline locations and C/N/O ratios in protoplanetary disks, providing insights into planetary formation environments and elemental distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of how ice compositions and disk processes affect snowline positions and elemental ratios, advancing understanding of planet formation zones.

Findings

N/O ratio enhancement exceeds C/O in outer disk regions.

Ice compositions and disk dynamics can shift N2 snowline by 2-3 times.

N2 snowline ranges from ~11 to ~79 AU in standard models.

Abstract

The elemental compositions of planets define their chemistry, and could potentially be used as beacons for their formation location if the elemental gas and grain ratios of planet birth environments, i.e. protoplanetary disks, are well understood. In disks, the ratios of volatile elements, such as C/O and N/O, are regulated by the abundance of the main C, N, O carriers, their ice binding environment, and the presence of snowlines of major volatiles at different distances from the central star. We explore the effects of disk dynamical processes, molecular compositions and abundances, and ice compositions on the snowline locations of the main C, O and N carriers, and the C/N/O ratios in gas and dust throughout the disk. The gas-phase N/O ratio enhancement in the outer disk (exterior to the H2O snowline) exceeds the C/O ratio enhancement for all reasonable volatile compositions. Ice compositions and disk dynamics individually change the snowline location of N2, the main nitrogen carrier, by a factor of 2-3, and when considered together the range of possible N2 snowline locations is ~11- ~79 AU in a standard disk model. Observations that anchor snowline locations at different stages of planet formation are therefore key to develop C/N/O ratios as a probe of planet formation zones.