Dust in Proto-Planetary Disks: Properties and Evolution

TL;DR

This review summarizes observational evidence showing that dust grains in protoplanetary disks are larger and more crystalline than in the interstellar medium, with properties evolving early and persisting over millions of years.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of dust properties and evolution in protoplanetary disks based on diverse observational techniques, highlighting early processing and long-term grain survival.

Findings

Dust grains are significantly larger than in the interstellar medium.

Evidence of vertical stratification with smaller grains near the surface.

No clear correlation between dust properties and stellar age or mass.

Abstract

We review the properties of dust in protoplanetary disks around optically visible pre-main sequence stars obtained with a variety of observational techniques, from measurements of scattered light at visual and infrared wavelengths to mid-infrared spectroscopy and millimeter interferometry. A general result is that grains in disks are on average much larger than in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). In many disks, there is evidence that a large mass of dust is in grains with millimeter and centimeter sizes, more similar to "sand and pebbles" than to grains. Smaller grains (with micron-sizes) exist closer to the disk surface, which also contains much smaller particles, e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. There is some evidence of a vertical stratification, with smaller grains closer to the surface. Another difference with ISM is the higher fraction of crystalline relative to amorphous silicates found in disk surfaces. There is a large scatter in dust properties among different sources, but no evidence of correlation with the stellar properties, for samples that include objects from intermediate to solar mass stars and brown dwarfs. There is also no apparent correlation with the age of the central object, over a range roughly between 1 and 10 Myr. This suggests a scenario where significant grain processing may occur very early in the disk evolution, possibly when it is accreting matter from the parental molecular core. Further evolution may occur, but not necessarily rapidly, since we have evidence that large amounts of grains, from micron to centimeter size, can survive for periods as long as 10 Myr.