English

Dynamics of Circumstellar Disks II: Heating and Cooling

Astrophysics 2011-02-11 v1

Abstract

We present a series of 2-d (r,ϕr,\phi) hydrodynamic simulations of marginally self gravitating disks around protostars using an SPH code. We implement simple dynamical heating and we cool each location as a black body, using a photosphere temperature obtained from the local vertical structure. We synthesize SEDs from our simulations and compare them to fiducial SEDs derived from observed systems. These simulations produce less distinct spiral structure than isothermally evolved systems, especially in the inner third of the disk. Pattern are similar further from the star but do not collapse into condensed objects. The photosphere temperature is well fit to a power law in radius with index q1.1q\sim1.1, which is very steep. Far from the star, internal heating (PdVPdV work and shocks) are not responsible for generating a large fraction of the thermal energy contained in the disk matter. Gravitational torques responsible for such shocks cannot transport mass and angular momentum efficiently in the outer disk. Within \sim5--10 AU of the star, rapid break up and reformation of spiral structure causes shocks, which provide sufficient dissipation to power a larger fraction of the near IR energy output. The spatial and size distribution of grains can have marked consequences on the observed near IR SED and can lead to increased emission and variability on 10\lesssim 10 year time scales. When grains are vaporized they do not reform into a size distribution similar to that from which most opacity calculations are based. With rapid grain reformation into the original size distribution, the disk does not emit near infrared photons. With a plausible modification to the opacity, it contributes much more.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9908146,
  title  = {Dynamics of Circumstellar Disks II: Heating and Cooling},
  author = {Andrew F. Nelson and Willy Benz and Tamara Ruzmaikina},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9908146},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

Accepted by ApJ, 60pg incl 24 figures