An APEX search for carbon emission from NGC 1977 proplyds

Abstract

We used the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope to search for CI 1-0 (492.16GHz) emission towards 8 proplyds in NGC 1977, which is an FUV radiation environment two orders of magnitude weaker than that irradiating the Orion Nebular Cluster (ONC) proplyds. CI is expected to enable us to probe the wind launching region of externally photoevaporating discs. Of the 8 targets observed, no 3$\sigma$ detections of the CI line were made despite reaching sensitivities deeper than the anticipated requirement for detection from prior APEX CI observations of nearby discs and models of external photoevaporation of quite massive discs. By comparing both the proplyd mass loss rates and CI flux constraints with a large grid of external photoevaporation simulations, we determine that the non-detections are in fact fully consistent with the models if the proplyd discs are very low mass. Deeper observations in CI and probes of the disc mass with other tracers (e.g. in the continuum and CO) can test this. If such a test finds higher masses, this would imply carbon depletion in the outer disc, as has been proposed for other discs with surprisingly low CI fluxes, though more massive discs would also be incompatible with models that can explain the observed mass loss rates and CI non-detections. The expected remaining lifetimes of the proplyds are estimated to be similar to those of proplyds in the ONC at 0.1Myr. Rapid destruction of discs is therefore also a feature of common, intermediate UV environments.

10 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (29)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• New evolutionary models for pre-main sequence and main sequence low-mass stars down to the hydrogen-burning limit
• Chemical enrichment of giant planets and discs due to pebble drift
• Meridional flows in the disk around a young star
• Protoplanetary disk masses from CO isotopologues line emission
• Mass measurements in protoplanetary disks from hydrogen deuteride
• The Photoevaporation of Discs Around Young Stars in Massive Clusters
• Different dust and gas radial extents in protoplanetary disks: consistent models of grain growth and CO emission
• An ALMA Survey of CO isotopologue emission from Protoplanetary Disks in Chamaeleon I
• UV Radiation Fields Produced by Young Embedded Star Clusters
• The dangers of being trigger--happy
• A rich population of free-floating planets in the Upper Scorpius young stellar association
• Feedback in Clouds II: UV Photoionisation and the first supernova in a massive cloud
• Triggered star formation in Bright-Rimmed Clouds: The Eagle Nebula revisited
• The evolution of dust in discs influenced by external photoevaporation
• Proplyds around a B1 star - 42 Orionis in NGC 1977
• The first multi-dimensional view of mass loss from externally FUV irradiated protoplanetary discs
• Protoplanetary disk masses in NGC 2024: Evidence for two populations
• On the secular evolution of the ratio between gas and dust radii in protoplanetary discs
• Mass constraints for 15 protoplanetary disks from HD 1-0
• Proplyds in the Flame Nebula NGC 2024
• An Improved HR Diagram for the Orion Trapezium Cluster
• Radiation-Hydrodynamical Models of X-ray Photoevaporation in Carbon Depleted Circumstellar Discs
• The growth of H II regions around massive stars: the role of metallicity and dust
• Testing viscous disc theory using the balance between stellar accretion and external photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs
• The Observational Anatomy of Externally Photoevaporating Planet-Forming Discs I: Atomic Carbon
• HST survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster in the H${}_2$O 1.4 $\mu$m absorption band: II. The substellar IMF down to planetary masses
• A candidate planetary-mass object with a photoevaporating disk in Orion
• A slim disc approach to external photoevaporation of discs

Cited by in corpus (4)

• [OI] 6300Å emission as a probe of external photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs
• PDRs4All. X. ALMA and JWST detection of neutral carbon in the externally irradiated disk d203-506: Undepleted gas-phase carbon
• The evolution of circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre: an application to the G-clouds
• Line ratio identification of external photoevaporation