Line-driven ablation of circumstellar discs: III. Accounting for and analyzing the effects of continuum optical depth

Abstract

In studying the formation of massive stars, it is essential to consider the strong radiative feedback on the stars' natal environments from their high luminosities ($10^4\sim 10^6{L}_{\odot }$). Given that massive stars contract to main-sequence-like radii before accretion finishes, one form this feedback takes is UV line-acceleration, resulting in outflows much like those expected from main-sequence massive stars. As shown by the prior papers in this series, in addition to driving stellar winds, such line forces also ablate the surface layers off of circumstellar discs within a few stellar radii of the stellar photosphere. This removal of material from an accretion disc in turn results in a decreased accretion rate onto the forming star. Quantifying this, however, requires accounting for the continuum optical depth of the disc along the non-radial rays required for the three-dimensional line-acceleration prescription used in this paper series. We introduce the "thin disc approximation", allowing these continuum optical depths arising from an optically thick but geometrically thin disc to be dynamically treated in the context of radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. Using this approximation in full dynamical simulations, we show that such continuum optical depth effects only reduce the disc ablation by 30 percent or less relative to previous simulations that ignored continuum absorption.

arXiv comment10 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Grids of stellar models with rotation - I. Models from 0.8 to 120 Msun at solar metallicity (Z = 0.014)
• PLUTO: a Numerical Code for Computational Astrophysics
• Toward Understanding Massive Star Formation
• The Formation of Massive Star Systems by Accretion
• The PLUTO Code for Adaptive Mesh Computations in Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
• Circumventing the radiation pressure barrier in the formation of massive stars via disk accretion
• Three-dimensional simulation of massive star formation in the disk accretion scenario
• A hot compact dust disk around a massive young stellar object
• Radiation-Hydrodynamic Simulations of Massive Star Formation with Protostellar Outflows
• A Keplerian-like disk around the forming O-type star AFGL 4176
• An Unstable Truth: How Massive Stars get their Mass
• G11.92-0.61 MM1: A Keplerian disc around a massive young proto-O star
• Simulating the Formation of Massive Protostars: I. Radiative Feedback and Accretion Disks
• A Keplerian disk around Orion Source I, a ~15 Msun YSO
• Accelerating infall and rotational spin-up in the hot molecular core G31.41+0.31
• Line-driven ablation of circumstellar disks: I. Optically thin decretion disks of classical Oe/Be stars
• Radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of massive star formation using Monte Carlo radiative transfer: I. Algorithms and numerical methods
• Radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of massive star formation using Monte Carlo radiative transfer II. The formation of a 25 solar-mass star
• Fragmentation and disk formation in high-mass star formation: The ALMA view of G351.77-0.54 at 0.06" resolution
• On the effects of optically thick gas (disks) around massive stars

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Formation and Evolution of Disks around Young Stellar Objects
• Chasing discs around O-type (proto)stars - ALMA evidence for an SiO disc and disc wind from G17.64+0.16
• A Massive Star is Born: How Feedback from Stellar Winds, Radiation Pressure, and Collimated Outflows Limits Accretion onto Massive Stars
• Makemake + Sedna: A Continuum Radiation Transport and Photoionization Framework for Astrophysical Newtonian Fluid Dynamics
• On the episodic excursions of massive protostars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
• A Multi-observing-technique Study of the Dynamical Evolution of the Viscous Disk around the Be Star $\omega$ CMa
• An Updated Formalism For Line-Driven Radiative Acceleration and Implications for Stellar Mass Loss
• Fragmentation, rotation and outflows in the high-mass star-forming region IRAS 23033+5951. A case study of the IRAM NOEMA large program CORE
• Line-driven ablation of circumstellar discs: IV. The role of disc ablation in massive star formation and its contribution to the stellar upper mass limit
• Revisiting Viscous Transonic Decretion Disks of Be Stars