875 research outputs found
Line Emission from Gas in Optically Thick Dust Disks around Young Stars
We present self-consistent models of gas in optically-thick dusty disks and
calculate its thermal, density and chemical structure. The models focus on an
accurate treatment of the upper layers where line emission originates, and at
radii AU. We present results of disks around stars where we have varied dust properties, X-ray luminosities and
UV luminosities. We separately treat gas and dust thermal balance, and
calculate line luminosities at infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths from all
transitions originating in the predominantly neutral gas that lies below the
ionized surface of the disk. We find that the [ArII] 7m, [NeII]
12.8m, [FeI] 24m, [SI] 25m, [FeII] 26m, [SiII] 35 m,
[OI] 63m and pure rotational lines of H, HO and CO can be quite
strong and are good indicators of the presence and distribution of gas in
disks. We apply our models to the disk around the nearby young star, TW Hya,
and find good agreement between our model calculations and observations. We
also predict strong emission lines from the TW Hya disk that are likely to be
detected by future facilities. A comparison of CO observations with our models
suggests that the gas disk around TW Hya may be truncated to AU,
compared to its dust disk of 174 AU. We speculate that photoevaporation due to
the strong stellar FUV field from TW Hya is responsible for the gas disk
truncation.Comment: Accepted to Astrophysical Journa
Diffusion-limited reactions and mortal random walkers in confined geometries
Motivated by the diffusion-reaction kinetics on interstellar dust grains, we
study a first-passage problem of mortal random walkers in a confined
two-dimensional geometry. We provide an exact expression for the encounter
probability of two walkers, which is evaluated in limiting cases and checked
against extensive kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We analyze the continuum
limit which is approached very slowly, with corrections that vanish
logarithmically with the lattice size. We then examine the influence of the
shape of the lattice on the first-passage probability, where we focus on the
aspect ratio dependence: Distorting the lattice always reduces the encounter
probability of two walkers and can exhibit a crossover to the behavior of a
genuinely one-dimensional random walk. The nature of this transition is also
explained qualitatively.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figure
Effective grain surface area in the formation of molecular hydrogen in interstellar clouds
In the interstellar clouds, molecular hydrogens are formed from atomic
hydrogen on grain surfaces. An atomic hydrogen hops around till it finds
another one with which it combines. This necessarily implies that the average
recombination time, or equivalently, the effective grain surface area depends
on the relative numbers of atomic hydrogen influx rate and the number of sites
on the grain. Our aim is to discover this dependency. We perform a numerical
simulation to study the recombination of hydrogen on grain surfaces in a
variety of cloud conditions. We use a square lattice (with a periodic boundary
condition) of various sizes on two types of grains, namely, amorphous carbon
and olivine. We find that the steady state results of our simulation match very
well with those obtained from a simpler analytical consideration provided the
`effective' grain surface area is written as , where, is
the actual physical grain area and is a function of the flux of atomic
hydrogen which is determined from our simulation. We carry out the simulation
for various astrophysically relevant accretion rates. For high accretion rates,
small grains tend to become partly saturated with and and the
subsequent accretion will be partly inhibited. For very low accretion rates,
the number of sites to be swept before a molecular hydrogen can form is too
large compared to the actual number of sites on the grain, implying that
is greater than unity.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures in eps forma
Tracing Slow Winds from T Tauri Stars via Low Velocity Forbidden Line Emission
Using Keck/HIRES spectra {\Delta}v ~ 7 km/s, we analyze forbidden lines of [O
I] 6300 {\AA}, [O I] 5577 {\AA} and [S II] 6731 {\AA} from 33 T Tauri stars
covering a range of disk evolutionary stages. After removing a high velocity
component (HVC) associated with microjets, we study the properties of the low
velocity component (LVC). The LVC can be attributed to slow disk winds that
could be magnetically (MHD) or thermally (photoevaporative) driven. Both of
these winds play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of
protoplanetary material.
LVC emission is seen in all 30 stars with detected [O I] but only in 2 out of
eight with detected [S II] , so our analysis is largely based on the properties
of the [O I] LVC. The LVC itself is resolved into broad (BC) and narrow (NC)
kinematic components. Both components are found over a wide range of accretion
rates and their luminosity is correlated with the accretion luminosity, but the
NC is proportionately stronger than the BC in transition disks.
The FWHM of both the BC and NC correlates with disk inclination, consistent
with Keplerian broadening from radii of 0.05 to 0.5 AU and 0.5 to 5 AU,
respectively. The velocity centroids of the BC suggest formation in an MHD disk
wind, with the largest blueshifts found in sources with closer to face-on
orientations. The velocity centroids of the NC however, show no dependence on
disk inclination. The origin of this component is less clear and the evidence
for photoevaporation is not conclusive
The Photoevaporative Wind from the Disk of TW Hya
Photoevaporation driven by the central star is expected to be a ubiquitous
and important mechanism to disperse the circumstellar dust and gas from which
planets form. Here, we present a detailed study of the circumstellar disk
surrounding the nearby star TW Hya and provide observational constraints to its
photoevaporative wind. Our new high-resolution (R ~ 30,000) mid-infrared
spectroscopy in the [Ne II] 12.81 {\mu}m line confirms that this gas diagnostic
traces the unbound wind component within 10AU from the star. From the blueshift
and asymmetry in the line profile, we estimate that most (>80%) of the [Ne II]
emission arises from disk radii where the midplane is optically thick to the
redshifted outflowing gas, meaning beyond the 1 or 4AU dust rim inferred from
other observations. We re-analyze high-resolution (R ~ 48, 000) archival
optical spectra searching for additional transitions that may trace the
photoevaporative flow. Unlike the [Ne II] line, optical forbidden lines from
OI, SII, and MgI are centered at the stellar velocity and have symmetric
profiles. The only way these lines could trace the photoevaporative flow is if
they arise from a disk region physically distinct from that traced by the [Ne
II] line, specifically from within the optically thin dust gap. However, the
small (~10 km/s) FWHM of these lines suggest that most of the emitting gas
traced at optical wavelengths is bound to the system rather than unbound. We
discuss the implications of our results for a planet-induced versus a
photoevaporation-induced gap.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Far Field Monitoring of Rogue Nuclear Activity with an Array of Large anti-neutrino Detectors
The result of a study on the use of an array of large anti-neutrino detectors
for the purpose of monitoring rogue nuclear activity is presented. Targeted
regional monitoring of a nation bordering large bodies of water with no
pre-existing legal nuclear activity may be possible at a cost of about several
billion dollars, assuming several as-yet-untested schemes pan out in the next
two decades. These are: (1) the enabling of a water-based detector to detect
reactor anti-neutrinos by doping with GdCl; (2) the deployment of a
KamLAND-like detector in a deep-sea environment; and (3) the scaling of a
Super-Kamiokande-like detector to a size of one or more megatons. The first may
well prove feasible, and should be tested by phase-III Super-Kamiokande in the
next few years. The second is more of a challenge, but may well be tested by
the Hanohano collaboration in the coming decade. The third is perhaps the least
certain, with no schedule for construction of any such device in the
foreseeable future. In addition to the regional monitoring scheme, several
global, untargeted monitoring schemes were considered. All schemes were found
to fail benchmark sensitivity levels by a wide margin, and to cost at least
several trillion dollars.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, proceedings for Neutrino Sciences 2005,
submitted to Earth, Moon, and Planet
Photoevaporation of Circumstellar Disks due to External FUV Radiation in Stellar Aggregates
When stars form in small groups (N = 100 - 500 members), their circumstellar
disks are exposed to little EUV radiation but a great deal of FUV radiation
from massive stars in the group. This paper calculates mass loss rates for
circumstellar disks exposed to external FUV radiation. Previous work treated
large disks and/or intense radiation fields in which the disk radius exceeds
the critical radius (supercritical disks) where the sound speed in the FUV
heated layer exceeds the escape speed. This paper shows that significant mass
loss still takes place for subcritical systems. Some of the gas extends beyond
the disk edge (above the disk surface) to larger distances where the
temperature is higher, the escape speed is lower, and an outflow develops. The
evaporation rate is a sensitive function of the stellar mass and disk radius,
which determine the escape speed, and the external FUV flux, which determines
the temperature structure of the flow. Disks around red dwarfs are readily
evaporated and shrink to disk radii of 15 AU on short time scales (10 Myr) when
exposed to moderate FUV fields with = 3000. Although disks around solar
type stars are more durable, these disks shrink to 15 AU in 10 Myr for intense
FUV radiation fields with = 30,000; such fields exist in the central 0.7
pc of a cluster with N = 4000 stars. If our solar system formed in the presence
of such strong FUV radiation fields, this mechanism could explain why Neptune
and Uranus in our solar system are gas poor, whereas Jupiter and Saturn are gas
rich. This mechanism for photoevaporation can also limit the production of
Kuiper belt objects and can suppress giant planet formation in sufficiently
large clusters, such as the Hyades, especially for disks associated with low
mass stars.Comment: 49 pages including 12 figures; accepted to Ap
Probing X-ray irradiation in the nucleus of NGC 1068 with observations of high-J lines of dense gas tracers
With the incorporation of high-J molecular lines, we aim to constrain the
physical conditions of the dense gas in the central region of the Seyfert 2
galaxy NGC 1068 and to determine signatures of the AGN or the starburst
contribution.
We used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to observe the J=4-3 transition of
HCN, HNC, and HCO+, as well as the CN N_J=2_{5/2}-1_{3/2} and
N_J=3_{5/2}-2_{5/2}, in NGC 1068.
We estimate the excitation conditions of HCN, HNC, and CN, based on the line
intensity ratios and radiative transfer models.
We find that the bulk emission of HCN, HNC, CN, and the high-J HCO+ emerge
from dense gas n(H_2)>=10^5 cm^-3). However, the low-J HCO+ lines (dominating
the HCO+ column density) trace less dense (n(H_2)<10^5 cm^-3) and colder
(T_K30 K) gas than
the other molecules.
The HCO+ J=4-3 line intensity, compared with the lower transition lines and
with the HCN J=4-3 line, support the influence of a local XDR environment. The
estimated N(CN)/N(HCN)~1-4 column density ratios are indicative of an XDR/AGN
environment with a possible contribution of grain-surface chemistry induced by
X-rays or shocks.Comment: Main text: 8 pages, 5 tables, 1 figure. Appendix: 7 pages, 1 table, 8
figures. Accepted for publication in A&
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