The impact of pre-main sequence stellar evolution on midplane snowline locations and C/O in planet forming discs

TL;DR

This study models how pre-main sequence stellar evolution influences the thermal and chemical structure of planet-forming discs, affecting snowline locations and potential planet compositions.

Contribution

It provides detailed 2D physical and 1D chemical models of protoplanetary discs across various stellar masses and ages, highlighting the impact of stellar evolution on snowlines and C/O ratios.

Findings

Discs around >1.5 Msun stars become warmer over time.

CO snowline location varies significantly with stellar mass and age.

High C/O gas giants likely form in specific stellar mass and age ranges.

Abstract

We investigate the impact of pre-main sequence stellar luminosity evolution on the thermal and chemical properties of disc midplanes. We create template disc models exemplifying initial conditions for giant planet formation for a variety of stellar masses and ages. These models include the 2D physical structure of gas as well as 1D chemical structure in the disc midplane. The disc temperature profiles are calculated using fully physically consistent radiative transfer models for stars between 0.5 and 3 Msun and ages up to 10 Myr. The resulting temperature profiles are used to determine how the chemical conditions in the mid-plane change over time. We therefore obtain gas and ice-phase abundances of the main carbon and oxygen carrier species. While the temperature profiles produced are not markedly different for the stars of different masses at early stages (<1 Myr), they start to diverge significantly beyond 2 Myr. Discs around stars with mass >1.5 Msun become warmer over time as the stellar luminosity increases, whereas low-mass stars decrease in luminosity leading to cooler discs. This has an observable effect on the location of the CO snowline, which is located >200 au in most models for a 3 Msun star, but is always within 80 au for 0.5 Msun star. The chemical compositions calculated show that a well defined stellar mass and age range exists in which high C/O gas giants can form. In the case of the exoplanet HR8799b, our models show it must have formed before the star was 1 Myr old.