Depletion of gaseous CO in protoplanetary disks by surface-energy-regulated ice formation

Abstract

Empirical constraints of fundamental properties of protoplanetary disks are essential for understanding planet formation and planetary properties (1,2). Carbon monoxide (CO) gas is often used to constrain disk properties (3). However, estimates show that the CO gas abundance in disks is depleted relative to expected values (4,5,6,7), and models of various disk processes impacting the CO abundance could not explain this depletion on observed 1Myr timescales (8,9,10,11,12,13,14). Here we demonstrate that surface energy effects on particles in disks, such as the Kelvin effect, that arise when ice heterogeneously nucleates onto an existing particle can efficiently trap CO in its ice phase. In previous ice formation models, CO gas was released when small ice-coated particles were lofted to warmed disk layers. Our model can reproduce the observed abundance, distribution and time evolution of gaseous CO in the four most studied protoplanetary disks (7). We constrain the solid and gaseous CO inventory at the midplane and disk diffusivities and resolve inconsistencies in estimates of the disk mass -- three crucial parameters that control planetary formation.

Published in Nature Astronomy (2022), includes supplementary material

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Chemical Inventory of the Inner Regions of Planet-forming Disks -- The JWST/MINDS Program
• Fractal aggregates of sub-micron-sized grains in the young planet-forming disk around IM Lup
• On the underestimation of dust mass in protoplanetary disks: Effects of disk structure and dust properties
• BOWIE-ALIGN: How formation and migration histories of giant planets impact atmospheric compositions
• Support for fragile porous dust in a gravitationally self-regulated disk around IM Lup
• The ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks (AGE-PRO): III. Dust and Gas Disk Properties in the Lupus Star-forming Region
• Testing protoplanetary disc evolution with CO fluxes. A proof of concept in Lupus and Upper Sco
• Chemical transformation of CO in evolving protoplanetary discs across stellar masses: a route to C-rich inner regions
• PRODIGE -- Planet-forming disks in Taurus with NOEMA. I. Overview and first results for 12CO, 13CO, and C18O
• Wavelength-Dependent Extinction and Grain Sizes in Dippers
• Dancing on the Grain: Variety of CO and its isotopologue fluxes as a result of surface chemistry and T Tauri disk properties
• Icy Volatile Enhancements in Evolving Protoplanetary Disks
• Alkali Metallicity, Mineral Clouds, and Deep Atmospheric Variability on Jupiter
• A Pathway for Collisional Planetesimal Growth in the Ice-Dominant Regions of Protoplanetary Disks
• Protoplanetary Disk Chemistry