The infrared line-emitting regions of T Tauri protoplanetary disks
Abstract
Mid-infrared molecular line emission detected with the Spitzer Space Telescope is often interpreted using slab models. However, we need to understand the mid-infrared line emission in 2D disk models, such that we gain information about from where the lines are being emitted and under which conditions, such that we gain information about number densities, temperatures, and optical depths in both the radial and vertical directions. In this paper, we introduce a series of 2D thermochemical models of a prototypical T Tauri protoplanetary disk, in order to examine how sensitive the line-emitting regions are to changes in the UV and X-ray fluxes, the disk flaring angle, dust settling, and the dust-to-gas ratio. These all affect the heating of the inner disk, and thus can affect the mid-infrared spectral lines. Using the ProDiMo and FLiTs codes, we produce a series of 2D thermochemical disk models. We find that there is often a significant difference between the gas and dust temperatures in the line emitting regions, and we illustrate that the size of the line emitting regions is relatively robust against changes in the stellar and disk parameters (namely, the UV and X-ray fluxes, the flaring angle, and dust settling). These results demonstrate the potential for localized variations in the line-emitting region to greatly affect the resulting spectra and line fluxes, and the necessity of allowing for such variations in our models.
Citation
Greenwood , A J , Kamp , I , Waters , L B F M , Woitke , P & Thi , W-F 2019 , ' The infrared line-emitting regions of T Tauri protoplanetary disks ' , Astronomy & Astrophysics , vol. 631 , A81 . https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834175
Publication
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0004-6361Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © ESO 2019. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834175
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.