Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-11-05
Annual Review Astronomy Astrophysics 49: 195-236 (2011)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2011). Final edited version at http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/ann
Scientific paper
10.1146/annurev-astro-081710-102
Protoplanetary disks are quasi-steady structures whose evolution and dispersal determine the environment for planet formation. I review the theory of protoplanetary disk evolution and its connection to observations. Substantial progress has been made in elucidating the physics of potential angular momentum transport processes - including self-gravity, magnetorotational instability, baroclinic instabilities, and magnetic braking - and in developing testable models for disk dispersal via photoevaporation. The relative importance of these processes depends upon the initial mass, size and magnetization of the disk, and subsequently on its opacity, ionization state, and external irradiation. Disk dynamics is therefore coupled to star formation, pre-main-sequence stellar evolution, and dust coagulation during the early stages of planet formation, and may vary dramatically from star to star. The importance of validating theoretical models is emphasized, with the key observations being those that probe disk structure on the scales, between 1 AU and 10 AU, where theory is most uncertain.
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