The Effect of Ultraviolet Photon Pumping of H2 in Dust-deficient Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

We perform radiation hydrodynamics simulations to study the structure and evolution of a photoevaporating protoplanetary disk. Ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the host star heats the disk surface, where H _2 pumping also operates efficiently. We run a set of simulations in which we varied the number of dust grains or the dust-to-gas mass ratio, which determines the relative importance between photoelectric heating and H _2 pumping. We show that H _2 pumping and X-ray heating contribute more strongly to the mass loss of the disk when the dust-to-gas mass ratio is ${ \mathcal D }\leqslant {10}^{-3}$ . The disk mass-loss rate decreases with a lower dust amount, but remains around 10 ^−10−11 M _⊙ yr ^−1 . In these dust-deficient disks, H _2 pumping enhances photoevaporation from the inner disk region and shapes the disk mass-loss profile. We thus argue that the late-stage disk evolution is affected by the ultraviolet H _2 pumping effect. The mass-loss rates derived from our simulations can be used in the study of long-term disk evolution.

Keywords

• Protoplanetary disks
• Planet formation
• Hydrodynamical simulations
• Star formation
• Interstellar medium