Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-10-08
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Accepted to ApJ
Scientific paper
The chemical and physical evolution of primitive materials in protoplanetary disks are determined by the types of environments they are exposed to and their residence times within each environment. Here a method for calculating representative paths of materials in diffusive protoplanetary disks is developed and applied to understanding how the vertical trajectories that particles take impact their overall evolution. The methods are general enough to be applied to disks with uniform diffusivity, the so-called "constant-$\alpha$" cases, and disks with a spatially varying diffusivity, such as expected in "layered-disks." The average long-term dynamical evolution of small particles and gaseous molecules is independent of the specific form of the diffusivity in that they spend comparable fractions of their lifetimes at different heights in the disk. However, the paths that individual particles and molecules take depend strongly on the form of the diffusivity leading to a different range of behavior of particles in terms of deviations from the mean. As temperatures, gas densities, chemical abundances, and photon fluxes will vary with height in protoplanetary disks, the different paths taken by primitive materials will lead to differences in their chemical and physical evolution. Examples of differences in gas phase chemistry and photochemistry are explored here. The methods outlined here provide a means of integrating particle dynamics with chemical models to understand the formation and evolution of primitive materials in protoplanetary disks over timescales of $10^5$-$10^6$ years.
No associations
LandOfFree
Residence Times of Particles in Diffusive Protoplanetary Disk Environments I. Vertical Motions 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 Residence Times of Particles in Diffusive Protoplanetary Disk Environments I. Vertical Motions, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Residence Times of Particles in Diffusive Protoplanetary Disk Environments I. Vertical Motions will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-485619