Monte Carlo Simulation of Dust Particles in a Protoplanetary Disk: Crystalline to Amorphous Silicate Ratio in Comets

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to explore how crystalline silicates form and distribute in protoplanetary disks, explaining the observed crystalline-to-amorphous ratios in comets.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Monte Carlo simulation approach to model silicate particle advection, diffusion, and annealing in a protoplanetary disk, accounting for pebble accretion and flux decay.

Findings

Crystalline silicate abundance beyond the snow line is about 5% in simple models.

In realistic models with sticking and flux decay, crystalline abundance increases to 20-25%.

Simulation results align with observed crystalline ratios in comets.

Abstract

Observationally inferred crystalline abundance in silicates in comets, which should have been formed in the outer region of a protoplanetary disk, is relatively high (~ 10-60%), although crystalline silicates would be formed by annealing of amorphous precursors in the disk inner region. In order to quantitatively address this puzzle, we have performed Monte Carlo simulation of advection/diffusion of silicate particles in a turbulent disk, in the setting based on pebble accretion model: pebbles consisting of many small amorphous silicates embedded in icy mantle are formed in the disk outer region, silicate particles are released at the snow line, crystalline silicate particles are produced at the annealing line, the silicate particles diffused beyond the snow line, and they eventually stick to drifting pebbles to come back to the snow line. In a simple case without the sticking and with a steady pebble flux, we show through the simulations and analytical arguments that crystalline components in silicate materials beyond the snow line is robustly and uniformly ~ 5%. On the other hand, in a more realistic case with the sticking and with a decaying pebble flux, the crystalline abundance is raised up to ~ 20-25%, depending on the ratio of decay and diffusion timescales. This abundance is consistent with the observations. In this investigation, we assume a simple steady accretion disk. The simulations coupled with the disk evolution is needed for more detailed comparison with observed data.