Determining dispersal mechanisms of protoplanetary disks using accretion and wind mass loss rates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different wind-driven mechanisms in protoplanetary disks influence mass loss rates, proposing that observations of these rates can reveal the dominant processes governing disk evolution and planet formation.

Contribution

It introduces a physically motivated model linking wind mass loss rates to specific dispersal mechanisms, enabling observational differentiation among them.

Findings

Different mechanisms produce distinct mass loss rate signatures.

Wind mass loss rates vary with external UV flux for each mechanism.

Observations can identify the dominant disk dispersal process.

Abstract

Understanding the origin of accretion and dispersal of protoplanetary disks is fundamental for investigating planet formation. Recent numerical simulations show that launching winds are unavoidable when disks undergo magnetically driven accretion and/or are exposed to external UV radiation. Observations also hint that disk winds are common. We explore how the resulting wind mass loss rate can be used as a probe of both disk accretion and dispersal. As a proof-of-concept study, we focus on magnetocentrifugal winds, MRI (magnetorotational instability) turbulence, and external photoevapotaion. By developing a simple, yet physically motivated disk model and coupling it with simulation results available in the literature, we compute the mass loss rate as a function of external UV flux for each mechanism. We find that different mechanisms lead to different levels of mass loss rate, indicating that the origin of disk accretion and dispersal can be determined, by observing the wind mass loss rate resulting from each mechanism. This determination provides important implications for planet formation. This work thus shows that the ongoing and future observations of the wind mass loss rate for protoplanetary disks are paramount to reliably constrain how protoplanetary disks evolve with time and how planet formation takes place in the disks.