The Evolution of Circumstellar Disks
Open Access
- Author:
- Richert, Alexander John Wolf
- Graduate Program:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 08, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Eric D Feigelson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Eric D Feigelson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Kevin Luhman, Committee Member
Steinn Sigurdsson, Committee Member
Reka Z Albert, Outside Member
Eric B Ford, Committee Member
Marc Kuchner, Committee Member - Keywords:
- planet formation
circumstellar disks
astrophysics
hydrodynamics - Abstract:
- Angular momentum conservation during protostellar collapse leads to long-lived, gas-rich circumstellar disks where planets form through the concentration of gas and dust by one or both of gravitational agglomeration and aerodynamic concentration of dust. In this dissertation, I summarize four projects aimed at understanding the evolution of planet-forming disks and the debris-dominated disks that remain after the primordial gas has been depleted. The first two projects make use of X-ray and near-infrared point source data to explore the longevity of young circumstellar disks, providing constraints on the timescales available for planet formation; the first is a study of disk depletion rates in 69 young stellar clusters, while the second examines the role of external photoevaporation by massive stars in accelerating disk depletion. Next, I discuss numerical simulations of planet--disk interactions in gas-rich, optically thick disks, with implications for the observability of newly-formed massive planets. Lastly, I present numerical simulations of gas--dust interactions in optically thin disks in order to explore their effect on disk morphology, with potential consequences for identifying embedded planets.