The birth and death of organic molecules in protoplanetary disks

Abstract

The most intriguing question related to the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks is the genesis of pre-biotic organic molecules in the planet-forming zone. In this contribution we briefly review current observational knowledge of physical structure and chemical composition of disks and discuss whether organic molecules can be present in large amounts at the verge of planet formation. We predict that some molecules, including CO-bearing species such as H${}_2$CO, can be underabundant in inner regions of accreting protoplanetary disks around low-mass stars due to the high-energy stellar radiation and chemical processing on dust grain surfaces. These theoretical predictions are further compared with high-resolution observational data and the limitations of current models are discussed.

8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the IAU 251 proceedings book

References in corpus (7)

• H2O and OH gas in the terrestrial planet-forming zones of protoplanetary disks
• Photoprocesses in protoplanetary disks
• Neon Fine-Structure Line Emission By X-ray Irradiated Protoplanetary Disks
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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales (MAPS) VI: Distribution of the small organics HCN, C2H, and H2CO