The structure of young embedded protostellar discs

Abstract

Young protostellar discs provide the initial conditions for planet formation. The properties of these discs may be different from those of late-phase (T Tauri) discs due to continuing infall from the envelope and protostellar variability resulting from irregular gas accretion. We use a set of hydrodynamic simulations to determine the structure of discs forming in collapsing molecular clouds. We examine how radiative feedback from the host protostar affects the disc properties by examining three regimes: without radiative feedback, with continuous radiative feedback and with episodic feedback, similar to FU Ori-type outbursts. We find that the radial surface density and temperature profiles vary significantly as the disc accretes gas from the infalling envelope. These profiles are sensitive to the presence of spiral structure, induced by gravitational instabilities, and the radiative feedback provided by the protostar, especially in the case when the feedback is episodic. We also investigate whether mass estimates from position-velocity (PV) diagrams are accurate for early-phase discs. We find that the protostellar system mass (i.e. the mass of the protostar and its disc) is underestimated by up to 20%, due to the impact of an enhanced radial pressure gradient on the gas. The mass of early-phase discs is a significant fraction of the mass of the protostar, so position-velocity diagrams cannot accurately provide the mass of the protostar alone. The enhanced radial pressure gradient expected in young discs may lead to an increased rate of dust depletion due to gas drag, and therefore to a reduced dust-to-gas ratio.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15 Pages, 12 Figures, 2 Tables

References in corpus (61)

• Spectral Energy Distributions of T Tauri Stars With Passive Circumstellar Disks
• Astrophysics Source Code Library
• First Results from High Angular Resolution ALMA Observations Toward the HL Tau Region
• Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks
• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• Protoplanetary Disk Structures in Ophiuchus
• The properties of brown dwarfs and low-mass hydrogen-burning stars formed by disc fragmentation
• The locality of transport in self-gravitating accretion discs
• Spiral Density Waves in a Young Protoplanetary Disk
• Episodic accretion in magnetically layered protoplanetary discs
• On the Role of Disks in the Formation of Stellar Systems: A Numerical Parameter Study of Rapid Accretion
• The Effects of Radiative Transfer on Low-Mass Star Formation
• The Deuterium-Burning Mass Limit for Brown Dwarfs and Giant Planets
• The Importance of Radiative Feedback for the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• A 0.2 solar mass protostar with a Keplerian disk in the very young L1527 IRS system
• PROSAC: A Submillimeter Array survey of low-mass protostars. II. The mass evolution of envelopes, disks, and stars from the Class 0 through I stages
• Non-steady Accretion in Protostars
• A Triple Protostar System Formed via Fragmentation of a Gravitationally Unstable Disk
• Radiation Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Protostellar Collapse: Protostellar Core Formation
• Collapse of massive magnetized dense cores using radiation-magneto-hydrodynamics: early fragmentation inhibition
• A Keplerian disk around a Class 0 source: ALMA observations of VLA1623A
• Testing the locality of transport in self-gravitating accretion discs - II. The massive disc case
• Variable protostellar accretion with episodic bursts
• Formation of a Keplerian disk in the infalling envelope around L1527 IRS: transformation from infalling motions to Kepler motions
• Long-term Evolution of Protostellar and Protoplanetary Disks. II. Layered Accretion with Infall
• 2-D simulations of FU Orionis disk outbursts
• Dust retention in protoplanetary disks
• The minimum mass for star formation, and the origin of binary brown dwarfs
• Radiative transfer and the energy equation in SPH simulations of star formation
• Recurrent Planet Formation and Intermittent Protostellar Outflows Induced by Episodic Mass Accretion
• Long-term Evolution of Protostellar and Protoplanetary Disks. I. Outbursts
• On the convergence of the critical cooling timescale for the fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Collapse of a molecular cloud core to stellar densities: stellar core and outflow formation in radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations
• Non-convergence of the critical cooling timescale for fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Formation Scenario for Wide and Close Binary Systems
• Testing the theory of grain growth and fragmentation by millimeter observations of protoplanetary disks
• Bimodality of circumstellar disk evolution induced by Hall current
• Grain Growth and Density Distribution of the Youngest Protostellar Systems
• Continuum Variability of Deeply Embedded Protostars as a Probe of Envelope Structure
• The importance of episodic accretion for low-mass star formation
• Formation and survivability of giant planets on wide orbits
• Envelope Emission in Young Stellar Systems: A Sub-Arcsecond Survey of Circumstellar Structure
• A Sub-arcsecond Survey Toward Class 0 Protostars in Perseus: Searching for Signatures of Protostellar Disks
• HOPS 383: An Outbursting Class 0 Protostar in Orion
• SEREN - A new SPH code for star and planet formation simulations
• Circumstellar Disks of the Most Vigorously Accreting Young Stars
• Observations of Infalling and Rotational Motions on a 1,000-AU Scale around 17 Class 0 and 0/I Protostars: Hints of Disk Growth and Magnetic Braking?
• Episodic accretion, protostellar radiative feedback, and their role in low-mass star formation
• On the reliability of protostellar disc mass measurements and the existence of fragmenting discs
• Effects of radiation transfer on the structure of self-gravitating disks, their fragmentation and evolution of the fragments
• Vertical Structure of the Transition Zone from Infalling Rotating Envelope to Disk in the Class 0 Protostar, IRAS04368+2557
• Revealing the dynamics of Class 0 protostellar discs with ALMA
• The lower limits of disc fragmentation and the prospects for observing fragmenting discs
• Simulated Observations of Young Gravitationally Unstable Protoplanetary Discs
• Apparent disk-mass reduction and planetesimal formation in gravitationally unstable disks in Class 0/I YSOs
• The Burst Mode of Accretion in Primordial Protostars
• The effect of radiative feedback on disc fragmentation
• Constraining the Earliest Circumstellar Disks and their Envelopes
• Lecture notes on the formation and early evolution of planetary systems
• The Rotating Outflow, Envelope and Disk in Class-0/I protostar [BHB2007] 11 in the Pipe Nebula
• Gravitational instabilities in a protosolar-like disc II: continuum emission and mass estimates

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Planet formation around M dwarfs via disc instability: Fragmentation conditions and protoplanet properties
• Radiative Transfer modeling of EC 53: An Episodically Accreting Class I Young Stellar Object
• Observational signatures of outbursting protostars -- II: Exploring a wide range of eruptive protostars
• Observational signatures of outbursting protostars - I: From hydrodynamic simulations to observations
• The diverse lives of massive protoplanets in self-gravitating discs