Nano-diamonds in proto-planetary discs: Life on the edge

TL;DR

This study investigates nano-diamonds in circumstellar discs, analyzing their sizes, compositions, and evolution to understand their survival and observational signatures in proto-planetary environments.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of nano-diamond optical properties, temperatures, and lifetimes, highlighting the characteristics that influence their survival in circumstellar discs.

Findings

Large nano-diamonds are hotter and less resistant in inner disc regions.

Small, hydrogenated nano-diamonds remain cooler and are more likely to survive.

Reconciling nano-diamond survival with their observed presence remains challenging.

Abstract

Nano-diamonds remain an intriguing component of the dust in the few sources where they have been observed in emission. This work focusses on the nano-diamonds observed in circumstellar discs and is an attempt to derive critical information about their possible sizes, compositions, and evolution using a recently-derived set of optical constants. The complex indices of refraction of nano-diamonds and their optical properties (the efficiency factors Qext, Qsca, Qabs, and Qpr) were used to determine their temperatures, lifetimes, and drift velocities as a function of their radii (0.5-100 nm), composition (surface hydrogenation and irradiated states), and distance from the central stars in circumstellar regions. The nano-diamond temperature profiles were determined for the stars HR 4049, Elias 1, and HD 97048 in the optically-thin limit. The results indicate that large nano-diamonds (a = 30 - 100 nm) are the hottest and therefore the least resistant in the inner disc regions (~ 10-50 AU), while small (a < 10 nm) fully-hydrogenated nano-diamonds remain significantly cooler in these same regions. We discuss these results within the context of nano-diamond formation in circumstellar discs. Large nano-diamonds, being the hottest, are most affected by the stellar radiation field, however, the effects of radiation pressure appear to be insufficient to move them out of harm's way. The nano-diamonds that best survive and therefore shine in the inner regions of proto-planetary discs are then seemingly small (a < 10 nm), hydrogenated, and close in size to pre-solar nano-diamonds (a ~ 1.4 nm). Nevertheless, it does not yet appear possible to reconcile their existence there with their seemingly short lifetimes in such regions.