Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

Quantifying the relationship between stellar birth environment and protoplanetary disc dispersal

Andrew Winter , University of Cambridge

The mass and time available for planet formation is strongly dependent on the stellar birth environment. Both external photoevaporation induced by far ultraviolet photons and star-disc encounters are capable of accelerating protoplanetary disc (PPD) dispersal. I quantify the influence of the two mechanisms in observed young stellar environments and find that external photoevaporation generally dominates over encounters. I further find that the influence of photoevaporation causes PPDs to disperse quickly (within ~3 Myr) for the majority of stars in many local stellar clusters and associations. PPDs around low mass stars are more quickly dispersed due to a shallower gravitational potential and this effect should be detectable in samples of observed discs. Finally, I discuss how the primordial gas properties on galactic scales can be used to infer timescales for disc dispersal outside of the Solar neighbourhood, and the consequences for expected exoplanet frequency.

SFB Seminar - The Milky Way System
28 Nov 2018, 15:15
ARI seminar room basement, video broadcast to HITS, LSW, MPIA

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