Physics
Scientific paper
Aug 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007phdt........14a&link_type=abstract
Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2007. Section 0085, Part 0606 178 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- Hawaii: Univer
Physics
2
Circumstellar Disks, Accretion Disks, Planet Formation
Scientific paper
We present a comprehensive observational study at submillimeter wavelengths aimed at determining the properties of circumstellar disks around young star and their evolutionary behavior. Using a deep, uniform, multiwavelength submillimeter photometry survey of nearly 200 disks in nearby star-forming regions, we derive for the first time the statistical distributions of disk masses and colors and tie them to a standard evolution sequence. Based on these properties and the relative detection frequencies of various diagnostics, we infer that disk dissipation unfolds at a pace that is practically independent of radius. Building on this large sample, we conduct a more in-depth, high spatial resolution aperture synthesis survey of 24 circumstellar disks with the Submillimeter Array interferometer. With a combined analysis of the spectral energy distributions and the resolved submillimeter continuum visibilities, we measure some key characteristics of disk structure, including sizes, opacity properties, and the radial distributions of temperatures and surface densities. We show that the evolution of these physical conditions are in good agreement with viscous accretion disk models for a level of internal turbulent support parameterized by a [approximate] 0.01. Finally, after a brief review of the novel CO molecular line emission data from this survey, we comment on some future prospects for improving constraints on disk structure and the particle growth process in the context of linking disk evolution and the formation of planetary systems.
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