Project Details
Projekt
Gone with the wind: dust entrainment in photoevaporative winds
Applicant
Professorin Barbara Ercolano, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Term
from 2017 to 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 325594231
The search for the smoking gun of disk dispersal via photoevaporative winds, leading to the formation of Type 1 Transition Disks, has until now failed to identify suitable diagnostics. Quantitative spectroscopy of YSOs to search for blue-shifted emission lines produced in the wind relies on an accurate characterisation of the thermochemical properties of the winds. A central ingredients for the chemical calculations is the dust content of the wind as micron sized grains provide the dominant opacity channel in the far-ultraviolet. Furthermore small particles are important players in the temperature balance of the gas via the photoelectric process. We will use realistic radiation-hydrodynamic models of photoevaporative winds coupled to dust evolution models for the underlying grain distribution in the disk, to calculate the dust entrainment in winds to feed to chemical models. The observability of the emission and scattering due to the dust grains in winds from edge-on disks, a potential new diagnostic, will be estimated for current and upcoming facilities (e.g. SPHERE, JWST) both for Herbig Ae stars and for their fainter T-Tauri counterparts.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
USA
Co-Investigators
Professor Dr. Tilman Birnstiel; Professor Dr. Cornelis Petrus Dullemond; Professor Dr. Thomas Henning
Cooperation Partner
Dr. James Owen
