Transport of CO in Protoplanetary Disks: Consequences of Pebble Formation, Settling, and Radial Drift

TL;DR

This study models how pebble formation, settling, and migration in protoplanetary disks influence CO distribution, revealing observable signatures that can inform planet formation theories.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation framework linking pebble dynamics to CO distribution changes, highlighting observable signatures of pebble processes in disks.

Findings

Up to 80% of CO vapor removed outside the snowline after 1 Myr.

Radial pebble migration creates a CO vapor plume inside the snowline, increasing CO abundance by 2-6 times.

Absence of CO vapor plume suggests efficient CO conversion or reduced pebble flux.

Abstract

Current models of (exo)planet formation often rely on a large influx of so-called `pebbles' from the outer disk into the planet formation region. In this paper, we investigate how the formation of pebbles in the cold outer regions of protoplanetary disks and their subsequent migration to the inner disk can alter the gas-phase CO distribution both interior and exterior to the midplane CO snowline. By simulating the resulting CO abundances in the midplane as well as the warm surface layer, we identify observable signatures of large-scale pebble formation and migration that can be used as `smoking guns' for these important processes. Specifically, we find that after $1\mathrm{~Myr}$, the formation and settling of icy pebbles results in the removal of up to $80\%$ of the CO vapor in the warm ($T>22\mathrm{~K}$) disk layers outside the CO snowline, while the radial migration of pebbles results in the generation of a plume of CO vapor interior the snowline, increasing the CO abundance by a factor ${\sim}2{-}6$ depending on the strength of the turbulence and the sizes of the individual pebbles. The absence of this plume of CO vapor in young nearby disks could indicate efficient conversion of CO into a more refractory species, or a reduction in the radial mass flux of pebbles by, for example, disk inhomogeneities or early planetesimal formation.