The evolution of circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre: an application to the G-clouds

TL;DR

This paper models the evolution of circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre, proposing a new pathway where discs survive longer due to planetary trapping of dust, potentially explaining the G-clouds observed there.

Contribution

It introduces a novel evolutionary pathway for circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre involving planetary trapping, extending disc lifetimes to explain G-clouds.

Findings

Photoevaporation causes rapid disc truncation and accretion within 1 Myr.

A new pathway allows discs to survive up to 10 Myr with planetary trapping.

A giant planet fraction of ~10% can account for the observed G-clouds.

Abstract

The Galactic Centre is known to have undergone a recent star formation episode a few Myrs ago, which likely produced many T Tauri stars hosting circumstellar discs. It has been suggested that these discs may be the compact and dusty ionized sources identified as ``G-clouds''. Given the Galactic Centre's hostile environment, we study the possible evolutionary pathways these discs experience. We compute new external photoevaporation models applicable to discs in the Galactic Centre that account for the sub-sonic launching of the wind and absorption of UV photons by dust. Using evolutionary disc calculations, we find that photoevaporation's rapid truncation of the disc causes them to accrete onto the central star rapidly. Ultimately, an accreting circumstellar disc has a lifetime $\lesssim1~$Myr, which would fail to live long enough to explain the G-clouds. However, we identify a new evolutionary pathway for circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre. Removal of disc material by photoevaporation prevents the young star from spinning down due to magnetic braking, ultimately causing the rapidly spinning young star to torque the disc into a ``decretion disc'' state which prevents accretion. At the same time, any planetary companion in the disc will trap dust outside its orbit, shutting down photoevaporation. The disc can survive for up to $\sim$10 Myr in this state. Encounters with other stars are likely to remove the planet on Myr timescales, causing photoevaporation to restart, giving rise to a G-cloud signature. A giant planet fraction of $\sim10\%$ can explain the number of observed G-clouds.