Astronomical Evidence for the Rapid Growth of Millimeter Sized Particles in Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

I summarize recent surveys of protoplanetary disks at millimeter wavelengths and show that the distribution of luminosity, equivalent to the mass in small dust grains, declines rapidly. This contrasts with statistics on the lifetime of disks from infrared observations and the high occurrence of planets from radial velocity and transit surveys. I suggest that these disparate results can be reconciled if most of the dust in a disk is locked up in millimeter and larger sized particles within about 2 Myr. This statistical result on disk evolution agrees with detailed modeling of a small number of individual disks and with cosmochemical measurements of rapid planetesimal formation.

This is a general level summary (12 pages, 3 figures) of protoplanetary disk mass evolution intended for cosmochemists. Revised following referee report. To appear in a special issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science dedicated to Klaus Keil

References in corpus (11)

• Protoplanetary Disks and Their Evolution
• A simple model for the evolution of the dust population in protoplanetary disks
• The Occurrence and Mass Distribution of Close-in Super-Earths, Neptunes, and Jupiters
• A Submillimeter View of Circumstellar Dust Disks in $\rho$ Ophiuchus
• A Spitzer view of protoplanetary disks in the gamma Velorum cluster
• The Exoplanet Census: A General Method, Applied to Kepler
• The Late Stages of Protoplanetary Disk Evolution: A Millimeter Survey of Upper Scorpius
• Saturn Forms by Core Accretion in 3.4 Myr
• Protoplanetary Disk Masses in IC348: A Rapid Decline in the Population of Small Dust Grains After 1 Myr
• Continuum and line modeling of disks around young stars II. Line diagnostics for GASPS from the DENT grid
• Disks, young stars, and radio waves: the quest for forming planetary systems

Cited by in corpus (17)

• An ALMA Survey of Protoplanetary Disks in the $\sigma$ Orionis Cluster
• Why do protoplanetary disks appear not massive enough to form the known exoplanet population?
• Dust masses of young disks: constraining the initial solid reservoir for planet formation
• The Mass Budget of Planet Forming Discs: Isolating the Epoch of Planetesimal Formation
• Protoplanetary Disk Structure With Grain Evolution: the ANDES Model
• External photoevaporation of circumstellar disks constrains the timescale for planet formation
• Solution to the debris disc mass problem: planetesimals are born small?
• The determination of protoplanetary disk masses
• Challenges in Forming the Solar System's Giant Planet Cores via Pebble Accretion
• Demographics of disks around young very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Lupus
• An ALMA survey of $\lambda$ Orionis disks: from supernovae to planet formation
• An SMA Continuum Survey of Circumstellar Disks in the Serpens Star-Forming Region
• Global Modeling of Nebulae With Particle Growth, Drift, and Evaporation Fronts. III. Redistribution of Refractories and Volatiles
• Reexamination of Induction Heating of Primitive Bodies in Protoplanetary Disks
• Forming rocky exoplanets around K-dwarf stars
• Numerical Insights into Disk Accretion, Eccentricity, and Kinematics in the Class 0 phase
• Which molecule traces what: chemical diagnostics of protostellar sources