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Physical and Chemical Structure of Protoplanetary Disks with Grain Growth

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abstract

We calculate the physical structure of protoplanetary disks by evaluating the gas density and temperature self-consistently and solving separately for the dust temperature. The effect of grain growth is taken into account by assuming a power-law size distribution and varying the maximum radius of grains a_max. In our fiducial model with a_max=10um, the gas is warmer than the dust in the surface layer of the disk, while the gas and dust have the same temperature in deeper layers. In the models with larger a_max, the gas temperature in the surface layer is lower than in the fiducial model because of reduced photo-electric heating rates from small grains, while the deeper penetration of stellar radiation warms the gas at intermediate height. A detailed chemical reaction network is solved at outer radii (r \ge 50 AU). Vertical distributions of some molecular species at different radii are similar, when plotted as a function of hydrogen column density Sigma_H from the disk surface. Consequently, molecular column densities do not much depend on disk radius. In the models with larger a_max, the lower temperature in the surface layer makes the geometrical thickness of the disk smaller, and the gaseous molecules are confined to smaller heights. However, if we plot the vertical distributions of molecules as a function of Sigma_H, they do not significantly depend on a_max. The dependence of the molecular column densities on a_max is not significant, either. Notable exceptions are HCO+, H3+ and H2D+, which have smaller column densities in the models with larger a_max.

fields

astro-ph.EP 1

years

2026 1

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 1

representative citing papers

Interpreting the scattering surface in protoplanetary disks

astro-ph.EP · 2026-06-22 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Semi-analytical model links observed scattering-surface height to small-dust mass, yielding global mass fractions of order 10^{-3} consistent with modest grain growth in ten protoplanetary disks.

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  • Interpreting the scattering surface in protoplanetary disks astro-ph.EP · 2026-06-22 · unverdicted · none · ref 72 · internal anchor

    Semi-analytical model links observed scattering-surface height to small-dust mass, yielding global mass fractions of order 10^{-3} consistent with modest grain growth in ten protoplanetary disks.