Related papers: X-ray ionization rates in protoplanetary discs
The evolution of protoplanetary disks is believed to be driven largely by angular momentum transport resulting from magnetized disk winds and turbulent viscosity. The ionization of the disk that is essential for these processes has been…
The chemical properties of protoplanetary disks are especially sensitive to their ionization environment. Sources of molecular gas ionization include cosmic rays, stellar X-rays and short-lived radionuclides, each of which varies with…
The X-ray luminosities of T Tauri stars are about two to four orders of magnitude higher than the luminosity of the contemporary Sun. As these stars are born in clusters, their disks are not only irradiated by their parent star but also by…
Disc fragmentation plays an important role in determining the number of primordial stars (Pop III stars), their masses, and hence the initial mass function. In this second paper of a series, we explore the effect of uniform FUV…
We present the initial results of a study aimed at computing the global effects of the X-ray ionization due to young stars within a molecular cloud that forms stars with a standard IMF at a rate accelerating with time. We model the gas…
We present the results of a theoretical study investigating the effects of photoionization and heating by X-rays on discs around low-mass stars. In particular we address the question of whether or not X-rays can drive a disc wind. First, we…
X-ray pulsars shine thanks to the conversion of the gravitational energy of accreted material to X-ray radiation. The accretion rate is modulated by geometrical and hydrodynamical effects in the stellar wind of the pulsar companions and/or…
We discuss a hydrodynamical model for the dispersal of protoplanetary discs around young, low mass (<1.5 M_sun) stars by photoevaporation from the central object's energetic radiation, which considers the far-ultraviolet as well as the…
We present simple analytic solutions for the ionization rate $\zeta_{\rm{SLR}}$ arising from the decay of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) within protoplanetary disks. We solve the radiative transfer problem for the decay products within…
We calculate the ionisation fraction in protostellar disk models using a number of different chemical reaction networks, including gas-phase and gas-grain reaction schemes. The disk models we consider are conventional alpha-disks, which…
Ionization drives important chemical and dynamical processes within protoplanetary disks, including the formation of organics and water in the cold midplane and the transportation of material via accretion and magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD)…
Cosmic-ray and X-ray heating are derived from the electron energy loss calculations of Dalgarno, Yan and Liu for hydrogen-helium gas mixtures. These authors treated the heating from elastic scattering and collisional de-excitation of…
Whether protoplanetary disks accrete at observationally significant rates by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) depends on how well ionized they are. Disk surface layers ionized by stellar X-rays are susceptible to charge…
Detailed models for the density and temperature profiles of gas and dust in protoplanetary disks are constructed by taking into account X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation from a central T Tauri star, as well as dust size growth and…
The UV emission from X-ray binaries, is more likely to be produced by reprocessing of X-rays by the outer regions of an accretion disk. The structure of the outer disk may be altered due to the presence of X-ray irradiation and we discuss…
We present an observational and theoretical study of the primary ionizing agents (cosmic rays and X-rays) in the TW Hya protoplanetary disk. We use a set of resolved and unresolved observations of molecular ions and other molecular species,…
This white paper is motivated by open questions in star formation, which can be uniquely addressed by high resolution X-ray imaging and require an X-ray observatory with large collecting area along good spectral resolution. A complete…
We develop a fast and accurate calculation method for ionization degrees in protoplanetary and circumplanetary disks including dust grains. We apply our method to calculate the ionization degree of circumplanetary disks. It is important to…
Context: T Tauri stars have X-ray luminosities ranging from L_X = 10^28-10^32 erg/s. These luminosities are similar to UV luminosities (L_UV 10^30-10^31 erg/s) and therefore X-rays are expected to affect the physics and chemistry of the…
(Abridged) Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to provide an important source of ionization in the outermost and densest regions of protoplanetary disks; however, it is unknown to what degree they are physically present. As is observed in the…