Testing a flare origin of crystalline silicates in protoplanetary disks

Details Testing a flare origin of crystalline silicates in protoplanetary disks Testing a flare origin of crystalline silicates in protoplanetary disks

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50076f&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50076

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Infrared spectroscopy with the Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the rich chemistry of the dust present in protoplanetary disks. Of particular importance for understanding the evolution of the dust are crystalline silicates; high temperature condensates which formed in the protoplanetary disks and which can also be observed in ancient primitive Solar System bodies. At present, it is not clear which of several possible processes are responsible for their formation: gas-phase condensation or slow thermal melting in the hot inner disks, a variety of disk shock mechanisms, or magnetic reconnection flaring. Here we propose a study to investigate the role of a possible key formation mechanism: X-ray flaring. X-ray astronomical studies have demonstrated that strong and frequent magnetic flares are ubiquitous in pre-main sequence stars, and evidence is growing that the stellar X-rays efficiently irradiate the surrounding disks. It is thus a tempting explanation for grain annealing. We propose a critical test of this model by obtaining Spitzer IRS spectra of 13 star-disk systems in several nearby young stellar clusters, chosen specifically for unusually high levels of magnetic flaring with log Lx ~ 31 erg/s. These stars lie in the top 1% of the X-ray luminosity function of young stars and have not been well observed in previous IRS studies. If X-ray flaring is important, our proposed observations will show that a larger fraction of these disks will have crystalline silicates compared to existing disk samples with similar ages and stellar properties.

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