How does accretion of planet-forming disks influence stellar abundances?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the accretion of material from planet-forming disks affects stellar elemental abundances, using numerical simulations to understand the impact of disk processes and planet formation on observed stellar compositions.

Contribution

It introduces detailed 1D simulations of disk accretion and chemical evolution, linking disk dynamics and planet formation to stellar abundance changes, which were previously not quantitatively modeled.

Findings

Refractory element abundance peaks within 2 Myr for significant grain growth.

Long-lived disks see diminished refractory abundance increases due to ongoing accretion.

Planet formation can reduce dust species abundance by blocking inward drifting pebbles.

Abstract

Millimeter sized dust grains experience radial velocities exceeding the gas velocities by orders of magnitude. The viscous evolution of the accretion disk adds disk material onto the central star's convective envelope, influencing its elemental abundances, [X/H]. At the same time, the envelope mass shrinks over time, amplifying the rate of abundance change. Therefore, the elemental abundances of the star are sensitive to disk processes that alter the composition and timing of disk accretion. We perform numerical 1D log-radial simulations integrating the disk advection-diffusion equation, accounting for phase transitions of chemical species at the evaporation fronts. They reveal a peak of refractory abundance within the first 2 Myr of $\Delta\mathrm{[X/H]}\sim 5\times 10^{-2}$ if grain growth is significant, but subsequent accretion diminishes previous refractory abundance increases for long-lived disks. Planet formation can reduce the abundance of dust species whose evaporation fronts lie within the planet's orbit by opening a gap and consequently blocking inward drifting pebbles. We expect the accretion of the Solar protoplanetary disk with Jupiter present to have changed the Sun's elemental abundances by ${\sim}10^{-2}$ throughout its lifetime. These considerations are also applied to the HD106515 wide binary system. We find that measurements of $\Delta\mathrm{[X/H]}$ are in reasonable agreement with results from simulations where the observed giant planet around HD106515 A is included and if HD106515B's disk formed planetesimals more efficiently. Simulations where the planet formed inside the water ice line are more favorable to agree with observations. Even though the general changes in the stellar abundances due to disk accretion are small, they are detectable at current sensitivities, indicating that the here presented methods can be used to constrain the planet formation pathway.