The survivorship bias of protoplanetary disc populations

Abstract

The evolution of protoplanetary discs has a substantial impact on theories of planet formation. To date, neither of the two main competing evolutionary models, namely the viscous-photoevaporative paradigm and the MHD winds model, has been ruled out by observations. Due to the high number of sources observed by large surveys, population synthesis is a powerful tool to distinguish the evolution mechanism in observations. We explore the evolution of the mass distribution of synthetic populations under the assumptions of turbulence-driven accretion and dispersal caused by internal photoevaporation. We find that the rapid removal of light discs often results in an apparent increase of the median mass of the survived disc population. This occurs both when the disc properties are independent of each other, and when typical correlations between these quantities and the stellar mass are assumed. Furthermore, as MHD wind-driven accretion rarely manifests the same feature, this serves as a signature of the viscous-photoevaporative evolution when dispersal proceeds from inside-out. Therefore, we propose the evolution of the median mass as a new method to distinguish this model in observed populations. This survivorship bias is not shown by the median accretion rate, which, instead, decreases with time. Moreover, we introduce a new criterion that estimates the disc lifetime as a function of initial conditions and an analytical relation to predict whether internal photoevaporation triggers an inside-out or an outside-in dispersal. We verify both analytical relations with numerical simulations.

arXiv comment14 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (61)

• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP): I. Motivation, Sample, Calibration, and Overview
• ALMA Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks I: Dust and Gas Masses
• The Origin of T Tauri X-ray Emission: New Insights from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project
• Spitzer Space Telescope study of disks in the young $\sigma$ Orionis cluster
• X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects in Lupus: Accretion properties of class II and transitional objects
• Timescale of Mass Accretion in Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
• The Star-formation History and Accretion-Disk Fraction Among the K-Type Members of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association
• X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects: IV -- Accretion in low-mass stars and sub-stellar objects in Lupus
• Photoevaporation of Circumstellar Disks by FUV, EUV and X-ray Radiation from the Central Star
• The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST)
• ALMA Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks II: Gas Disk Radii
• Radiation-Hydrodynamic Models of X-Ray & EUV Photoevaporating Protoplanetary Discs
• On the theory of disc photoevaporation
• ALMA Observations of Circumstellar Disks in the Upper Scorpius OB Association
• Photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs I: hydrodynamic models
• Time-Evolution of Viscous Circumstellar Disks due to Photoevaporation by FUV, EUV and X-ray Radiation from the Central Star
• Photoevaporation of Circumstellar Disks around Young Stars
• Giant planet migration, disk evolution, and the origin of transitional disks
• The Photoevaporation of Discs Around Young Stars in Massive Clusters
• X-Shooter study of accretion in Chamaeleon I: II. A steeper increase of accretion with stellar mass for very low mass stars?
• The dispersal of protoplanetary discs I: A new generation of X-ray photoevaporation models
• Physical properties of dusty protoplanetary disks in Lupus: evidence for viscous evolution?
• Scaling Relations Associated with Millimeter Continuum Sizes in Protoplanetary Disks
• Determining protoplanetary disk gas masses from CO isotopologues line observations
• The evolution of dust-disk sizes from a homogeneous analysis of 1-10 Myr-old stars
• Empirical constraints on turbulence in proto-planetary discs
• The time evolution of dusty protoplanetary disc radii: observed and physical radii differ
• Protoplanetary disc `isochrones' and the evolution of discs in the $\dot{M}-M_{\mathrm{d}}$ plane
• ALMA survey of Class II protoplanetary disks in Corona Australis: a young region with low disk masses
• Constraints from Dust Mass and Mass Accretion Rate Measurements on Angular Momentum Transport in Protoplanetary Disks
• A systematic description of wind-driven protoplanetary discs
• Observed sizes of planet-forming disks trace viscous evolution
• The protoplanetary disk population in the rho-Ophiuchi region L1688 and the time evolution of Class II YSOs
• Radiation hydrodynamics simulations of photoevaporation of protoplanetary disks II: Metallicity dependence of UV and X-ray photoevaporation
• Protoplanetary Disk Sizes and Angular Momentum Transport
• The first multi-dimensional view of mass loss from externally FUV irradiated protoplanetary discs
• The determination of protoplanetary disk masses
• On the secular evolution of the ratio between gas and dust radii in protoplanetary discs
• Dynamical mass measurements of two protoplanetary discs
• Photoevaporative Dispersal of Protoplanetary Disks around Evolving Intermediate-mass Stars
• Chamaeleon DANCe. Revisiting the stellar populations of Chamaeleon I and Chamaeleon II with Gaia-DR2 data
• Demographics of disks around young very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Lupus
• The Relationship between Accretion Disc Age and Stellar Age and its Consequences for Proto-Stellar Discs
• Radiation pressure clear-out of dusty photoevaporating discs
• The Mdot - M* relation of pre-main sequence stars: a consequence of X-ray driven disc evolution
• Large gaps and high accretion rates in photoevaporative transition disks with a dead zone
• Rotation curves in protoplanetary disks with thermal stratification
• Population Synthesis Models Indicate a Need for Early and Ubiquitous Disk Substructures
• A Gaia Survey for Young Stars Associated with the Lupus Clouds
• Photoevaporation of Grain-Depleted Protoplanetary Disks around Intermediate-Mass Stars: Investigating Possibility of Gas-Rich Debris Disks as Protoplanetary Remnants
• Photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs with PLUTO+PRIZMO I. Lower X-ray-driven mass-loss rates due to enhanced cooling
• Effects of photoevaporation on protoplanetary disc `isochrones'
• The distribution of accretion rates as a diagnostic of protoplanetary disc evolution
• On the time evolution of the $M_{\mathrm{d}}-M_{\star }$ and $\dot{M}-M_{\star }$ correlations for protoplanetary discs: the viscous timescale increases with stellar mass
• An analytic solution to measure the gas size in protoplanetary discs in the viscous self-similar scenario
• The time evolution of $M_{\mathrm{d}}/\dot{M}$ in protoplanetary discs as a way to disentangle between viscosity and MHD winds
• Testing protoplanetary disc evolution with CO fluxes. A proof of concept in Lupus and Upper Sco
• A question of personalities: evolution of viscous and wind-driven protoplanetary discs in the presence of dead zones
• The evolution of the $M_{\mathrm{d}}-M_{\star }$ and $\dot{M}-M_{\star }$ correlations traces protoplanetary disc dispersal
• The emergence of the Md-Macc correlation in the MHD wind scenario

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Planet-forming disks and their environment across regions and time from the full NIR census
• Survival of Protoplanetary Disks in Upper Scorpius from Population Synthesis Models with External Photoevaporation