paper

Line ratio identification of external photoevaporation

arXiv:2506.19788 · doi:10.1093/mnras/staf1090

Abstract

External photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs, by massive O stars in stellar clusters, is thought to be a significant process in the evolution of a disc. It has been shown to result in significant mass loss and disc truncation, ultimately reducing the lifetime of the discs, and possibly affecting potential planet populations. It is a well-studied process in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) where the cometary morphology of proplyds is spatially resolvable due to its proximity to Earth. However, we need to study external photoevaporation in additional stellar clusters to better understand its prevalence and significance more globally. Unfortunately, more massive stellar clusters where the majority of stars form are much farther away than the ONC. In these more distant clusters the proplyds are spatially unresolvable with current facilities, hence the cometary morphology is not a useful identification of external photoevaporation. Therefore, in order to identify and interpret external photoevaporation, the only observations we have are of spatially unresolved emission lines. To resolve this issue we have used the CLOUDY code to develop an approximate general model of the emission lines emanating from the hot ionized wind of a proplyd. We have used the model to determine which line ratios are most sensitive to the distance from an OB star, and found that the most sensitive line ratios vary by multiple orders of magnitude over an FUV field of between 10 G to 10 G. By identifying spatial gradients of line ratios in stellar clusters, we can identify regions of ongoing external photoevaporation.

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