Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet

Details Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet

Jun 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004aipc..713..127j&link_type=abstract

THE SEARCH FOR OTHER WORLDS: Fourteenth Astrophysics Conference. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 713, pp. 127-130 (2004).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

1

Infrared Excess, Debris Disks, Protoplanetary Disks, Exo-Zodiacal Dust, Stellar Atmospheres, Radiative Transfer, Opacity And Line Formation

Scientific paper

We calculate the effect of stellar irradiation on the temperature structure of the photosphere of a circumstellar disk in the vicinity of a protoplanet. We restrict our study to small protoplanets that perturb the disk locally but are too small to open a gap. These protoplanets induce a compression of the disk material near it, resulting in a decrement in the density at the disk's surface. Thus, an isodensity contour at the height of the photosphere takes on the shape of a well. When such a well is illuminated by stellar irradiation at grazing incidence, it results in cooling in a shadowed region and heating in an exposed region. Using a method we have developed for calculating three-dimensional radiative transfer on a perturbed surface, we examine the variation of this effect with protoplanetary mass and distance. We conclude that even relatively small protoplanets can induce significant temperature variations in a passive disk, up to +/-30% for planets at the gap-opening threshold. Therefore, many of the processes involved in planet formation should not be modeled with a locally isothermal equation of state. Although the temperature perturbation is unlikely to be observable, it may affect accretion of disk material onto the planet or the rate of Type I migration.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Radiative Transfer in the Vicinity of a Protoplanet will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-890136