Related papers: Molecular Hydrogen Emission from Protoplanetary Di…
We investigate the loss rates of the hydrogen atmospheres of terrestrial planets with a range of masses and orbital distances by assuming a stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) luminosity that is 100 times stronger than that of the current…
Requirements for magnetic coupling and accretion in the active layer of a protostellar disk are re-examined, and some implications for thermal emission from the layer are discussed. The ionization and electrical conductivity are calculated…
Context. Planets are thought to eventually form from the mostly gaseous (~99% of the mass) disks around young stars. The density structure and chemical composition of protoplanetary disks are affected by the incident radiation field at…
Young massive stars produce Far-UV photons which dissociate the molecular gas on the surfaces of their parent molecular clouds. Of the many dissociation products which result from this ``back-reaction'', atomic hydrogen \HI is one of the…
Are magnetic fields important in primordial star formation? Assuming that star formation occurs via an accretion disk that is turbulent, initially because of local gravitational instability, we calculate the disk structure for realistic…
The formation of low-mass stars in molecular clouds involves accretion disks and jets, which are of broad astrophysical interest. Accreting stars represent the closest examples of these phenomena. Star and planet formation are also…
Dense pockets of cold, molecular gas precede the formation of stars. During their infancy and later phases of evolution, stars inject considerable energy into the interstellar medium by driving shocks either due to ionising radiation or…
Water vapor has been detected in protoplanetary disks. In this work we model the distribution of water vapor in protoplanetary disks with a thermo-chemical code. For a set of parameterized disk models, we calculate the distribution of dust…
To test theoretical models of massive star formation it is important to compare their predictions with observed systems. To this end, we conduct CO molecular line radiative transfer post-processing of 3D magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD)…
In this review we re-evaluate our observational and theoretical understanding of the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks. We discuss how improved observational capabilities have enabled the detection of numerous molecules exposing an…
Flattened, rotating disks of cool dust and gas extending for tens to hundreds of AU are found around almost all low mass stars shortly after their birth. These disks generally persist for several Myr, during which time some material…
We report on simulations of the formation of the first stars in the Universe, where we identify regions of hot atomic gas (fH2 < 10-6) at densities above 10-14 g/cc, heated to temperatures ranging between 3000 and 8000 K. Within this…
We investigate the apparent discrepancy between gas and dust outer radii derived from millimeter observations of protoplanetary disks. Using 230 and 345 GHz continuum and CO J=3-2 data from the Submillimeter Array for four nearby disk…
Protoplanetary disks are composed primarily of gas (99% of the mass). Nevertheless, relatively few observational constraints exist for the gas in disks. In this review, I discuss several observational diagnostics in the UV, optical,…
The results of experiments on the formation of molecular hydrogen on low density and high density amorphous ice surfaces are analyzed using a rate equation model. The activation energy barriers for the relevant diffusion and desorption…
Most low-mass stars form in stellar clusters that also contain massive stars, which are sources of far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation. Theoretical models predict that this FUV radiation produces photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) on the…
(Abridged) Near- to mid-IR observations of protoplanetary disks show that the inner regions (<10AU) are rich in small organic volatiles (e.g., C2H2 and HCN). Trends in the data suggest that disks around cooler stars (~3000K) are potentially…
Circumstellar disks are exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation from the young star. In the inner disks, the UV radiation can be enhanced by more than seven orders of magnitude compared with the average interstellar field, resulting in a…
The optical filaments found in many cooling flows in galaxy clusters consist of low density ($\sim 10^3 \pcc$) cool ($\sim 10^3$ K) gas surrounded by significant amounts of cosmic-ray and magnetic-field energy. Their spectra show…
The spatial distribution and evolution of gas in the inner 10 au of protoplanetary disks form the basis for estimating the initial conditions of planet formation. Among the most important constraints derived from spectroscopic observations…