arXiv subjects

Inga Kamp

Publications and source records attributed to Inga Kamp.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

FUV and X-ray irradiated protoplanetary disks: a grid of models II - Gas diagnostic line emission

Most of the mass in protoplanetary disks is in the form of gas. The study of the gas and its diagnostics is of fundamental importance in order to achieve a detailed description of the thermal and chemical structure of the disk. The radiation from the central star (from optical to X-ray wavelengths) and viscous accretion are the main source of energy and dominates the disk physics and chemistry in its early stages. This is the environment in which the first phases of planet formation will proceed. We investigate how stellar and disk parameters impact the fine-structure cooling lines [NeII], [ArII], [OI], [CII] and H2O rotational lines in the disk. These lines are potentially powerful diagnostics of the disk structure and their modelling permits a thorough interpretation of the observations carried out with instrumental facilities such as Spitzer and Herschel. Following Aresu et al. (2011), we computed a grid of 240 disk models, in which the X-ray luminosity, UV-excess luminosity, minimum dust grain size, dust size distribution power law and surface density distribution power law, are systematically varied. We solve self-consistently for the disk vertical hydrostatic structure in every model and apply detailed line radiative transfer to calculate line fluxes and profiles for a series of well known mid- and far-infrared cooling lines. The [OI] 63 micron line flux increases with increasing FUV luminosity when Lx < 1e30 erg/s, and with increasing X-ray luminosity when LX > 1e30 erg/s. [CII] 157 micron is mainly driven by FUV luminosity via C+ production, X-rays affect the line flux to a lesser extent. [NeII] 12.8 micron correlates with X-rays; the line profile emitted from the disk atmosphere shows a double-peaked component, caused by emission in the static disk atmosphere, next to a high velocity double-peaked component, caused by emission in the very inner rim. (abridged)

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arXiv2012

The role of OH in the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks. I. The comet-forming region

Context. Time dependent gas-grain chemistry can help us understand the layered structure of species deposited onto the surface of grains during the lifetime of a protoplanetary disk. The history of trapping important quantities of carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules onto the grains is of special significance for the formation of more complex (organic) molecules on the surface of grains. Aims. Among other processes, cosmic ray-induced UV photo-processes can lead to the efficient formation of OH. Using a more accurate treatment of cosmic ray-gas interactions for disks, we obtain an increased cosmic ray-induced UV photon flux of 3.8x10^5 photons cm^-2s^-1 for a cosmic-ray ionization rate of H2 value of 5x10^-17 s^-1 (compared to previous estimates of 10^4 photons cm^-2s^-1 based on ISM dust properties). We explore the role of the enhanced OH abundance on the gas-grain chemistry in the midplane of the disk at 10 AU, which is a plausible location for comet formation. We focus on studying the formation/destruction pathways and timescales of the dominant chemical species. Methods. We solve the chemical rate equations based on a gas-grain chemical network and correcting for the enhanced cosmic rayinduced UV field. This field is estimated from an appropriate treatment of dust properties in a protoplanetary disk, as opposed to previous estimates that assume an ISM-like grain size distribution. We also explore the chemical effects of photo-desorption of water ice into OH+H. Results. Near the end of the disk's lifetime our chemical model yields H2O, CO, CO2 and CH4 ice abundances at 10 AU (consistent with a midplane density of 10^10 cm^-3 and a temperature of 20 K) that are compatible with measurements of the chemical composition of cometary bodies for a [C/O] ratio of 0.16. Such comparison provides constraints on the physical conditions in which comets were formed.

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arXiv2012

IVOA Recommendation: Spectrum Data Model 1.1

We present a data model describing the structure of spectrophotometric datasets with spectral and temporal coordinates and associated metadata. This data model may be used to represent spectra, time series data, segments of SED (Spectral Energy Distributions) and other spectral or temporal associations.

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arXiv2011

An Encoding System to Represent Stellar Spectral Classes in Archival Databases and Catalogs

The data archives from space and ground-based telescopes present a vast opportunity for the astronomical community. We describe a classification encoding system for stellar spectra designed for archival databases that organizes the spectral data by "spectral classes." These classes are encoded into a digital format of the form TT.tt.LL.PPPP, where TT and tt refer to spectral type and subtype, LL to luminosity class, and PPPP to possible spectral peculiarities. Archive centers may wish to utilize this system to quantify classes of formerly arbitrary spectral classification strings found in classification catalogs corresponding to datasets of pointed spectroscopic observations in their holdings. The encoding system will also allow users to request archived data based on spectral class ranges, thereby streamlining an otherwise tedious data discovery process. Material in Appendix A is "normative" (part of the defined standard). Appendices B and C are "informative," meant to show how one data provider (MAST) has opted to handle some practical details.

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arXiv2011

Evolution of PAHs in protoplanetary disks

Depending on whom you ask, PAHs are either the smallest dust particles or the largest gas-phase molecules in space. Whether referred to as gas or dust, these PAHs can contain up to 20% of the total cosmic carbon abundance and as such also play an important role in the carbon chemistry of protoplanetary disks. The interpretation of PAH bands is often a complex procedure involving not only gas physics to determine their ionization stage and temperature, but also radiative transfer effects that can bury these bands in a strong thermal continuum from a population of larger dust particles. PAHs are most readily seen in the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of disks around Herbig AeBe stars where they are photoprocessed by the stellar radiation field. Resolved images taken in the PAH bands confirm their origin in the flaring surfaces of circumstellar disks: if the SED is consistent with a flat disk structure (less illuminated), there is little or no evidence of PAH emission. The very low detection rates in the disks around T Tauri stars often require an overall lower abundance of PAHs in these disk surface as compared to that in molecular clouds. In this review, I will adress three aspects of PAHs in protoplanetary disks: (1) Do PAHs form in protoplanetary disks or do they originate from the precursor molecular cloud? (2) Is the presence of PAH features in SEDs a consequence of the disk structure or do PAHs in fact shape the disk structure? (3) How can we use PAHs as tracers of processes in protoplanetary disks?

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arXiv2010

Radiation thermo-chemical models of protoplanetary discs. III. Impact of inner rims on Spectral Energy Distributions

We study the hydrostatic density structure of the inner disc rim around HerbigAe stars using the thermo-chemical hydrostatic code ProDiMo. We compare the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) and images from our hydrostatic disc models to that from prescribed density structure discs. The 2D continuum radiative transfer in ProDiMo includes isotropic scattering. The dust temperature is set by the condition of radiative equilibrium. In the thermal-decoupled case the gas temperature is governed by the balance between various heating and cooling processes. The gas and dust interact thermally via photoelectrons, radiatively, and via gas accommodation on grain surfaces. As a result, the gas is much hotter than in the thermo-coupled case, where the gas and dust temperatures are equal, reaching a few thousands K in the upper disc layers and making the inner rim higher. A physically motivated density drop at the inner radius ("soft-edge") results in rounded inner rims, which appear ring-like in near-infrared images. The combination of lower gravity pull and hot gas beyond ~1 AU results in a disc atmosphere that reaches a height over radius ratio z/r of 0.1 while this ratio is 0.2 only in the thermo-coupled case. This puffed-up disc atmosphere intercepts larger amount of stellar radiation, which translates into enhanced continuum emission in the 3- 30 micron wavelength region from hotter grains at ~500 K. We also consider the effect of disc mass and grain size distribution on the SEDs self-consistently feeding those quantities back into the gas temperature, chemistry, and hydrostatic equilibrium computation.

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arXiv2010

Continuum and line modelling of discs around young stars. I. 300000 disc models for Herschel/GASPS

We have combined the thermo-chemical disc code ProDiMo with the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code MCFOST to calculate a grid of ~300000 circumstellar disc models, systematically varying 11 stellar, disc and dust parameters including the total disc mass, several disc shape parameters and the dust-to-gas ratio. For each model, dust continuum and line radiative transfer calculations are carried out for 29 far IR, sub-mm and mm lines of [OI], [CII], 12CO and o/p-H2O under 5 inclinations. The grid allows to study the influence of the input parameters on the observables, to make statistical predictions for different types of circumstellar discs, and to find systematic trends and correlations between the parameters, the continuum fluxes, and the line fluxes. The model grid, comprising the calculated disc temperatures and chemical structures, the computed SEDs, line fluxes and profiles, will be used in particular for the data interpretation of the Herschel open time key programme GASPS. The calculated line fluxes show a strong dependence on the assumed UV excess of the central star, and on the disc flaring. The fraction of models predicting [OI] and [CII] fine-structure lines fluxes above Herschel/PACS and Spica/SAFARI detection limits are calculated as function of disc mass. The possibility of deriving the disc gas mass from line observations is discussed.

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arXiv2009

Warm gas phase chemistry as possible origin of high HDO/H2O ratios in hot and dense gases: application to inner protoplanetary discs

The origin of Earth oceans is controversial. Earth could have acquired its water either from hydrated silicates (wet Earth scenario) or from comets (dry Earth scenario). [HDO]/[H2O] ratios are used to discriminate between the scenarios. High [HDO]/[H2O] ratios are found in Earth oceans. These high ratios are often attributed to the release of deuterium enriched cometary water ice, which was formed at low gas and dust temperatures. Observations do not show high [HDO]/[H2O] in interstellar ices. We investigate the possible formation of high [HDO]/[H2O] ratios in dense (nH> 1E6 cm^{-3}) and warm gas (T=100-1000 K) by gas-phase photochemistry in the absence of grain surface chemistry. We derive analytical solutions, taking into account the major neutral-neutral reactions for gases at T>100 K. The chemical network is dominated by photodissociation and neutral-neutral reactions. Despite the high gas temperature, deuterium fractionation occurs because of the difference in activation energy between deuteration enrichment and the back reactions. The analytical solutions were confirmed by the time-dependent chemical results in a 1E-3 MSun disc around a typical TTauri star using the photochemical code ProDiMo. The ProDiMo code includes frequency-dependent 2D dust-continuum radiative transfer, detailed non-LTE gas heating and cooling, and hydrostatic calculation of the disc structure. Both analytical and time-dependent models predict high [HDO]/[H2O] ratios in the terrestrial planet forming region (< 3 AU) of circumstellar discs. Therefore the [HDO]/[H2O] ratio may not be an unique criterion to discriminate between the different origins of water on Earth.

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arXiv2009

Hot and cool water in Herbig Ae protoplanetary disks. A challenge for Herschel

The spatial origin and detectability of rotational H2O emission lines from Herbig Ae type protoplanetary disks beyond 70 micron is discussed. We use the recently developed disk code ProDiMo to calculate the thermo-chemical structure of a Herbig Ae type disk and apply the non-LTE line radiative transfer code Ratran to predict water line profiles and intensity maps. The model shows three spatially distinct regions in the disk where water concentrations are high, related to different chemical pathways to form the water: (1) a big water reservoir in the deep midplane behind the inner rim, (2) a belt of cold water around the distant icy midplane beyond the snow-line r>20AU, and (3) a layer of irradiated hot water at high altitudes z/r=0.1...0.3, extending from about 1AU to 30AU, where the kinetic gas temperature ranges from 200K to 1500K. Although region 3 contains only little amounts of water vapour (~3x10^-5 M_Earth), we find this warm layer to be almost entirely responsible for the rotational water emission lines, execpt for the 3 lowest excitation lines. Thus, Herschel will probe first and foremost the conditions and radial extension of region 3, where water is predominantly formed via neutral-neutral reactions and the gas is thermally decoupled from the dust T_gas>T_dust. The observations do not allow for a determination of the snow-line, because the snow-line truncates the radial extension of region 1, whereas the lines originate from region 3. Different line transfer approximations (LTE, escape probability, Monte Carlo) are discussed. A non-LTE treatment is required in most cases, and the results obtained with the escape probability method are found to underestimate the Monte Carlo results by 2%...45%.

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arXiv2009

Radiation thermo-chemical models of protoplanetary disks I. Hydrostatic disk structure and inner rim

This paper introduces a new disk code, called ProDiMo, to calculate the thermo-chemical structure of protoplanetary disks and to interpret gas emission lines from UV to sub-mm. We combine frequency-dependent 2D dust continuum radiative transfer, kinetic gas-phase and UV photo-chemistry, ice formation, and detailed non-LTE heating & cooling balance with the consistent calculation of the hydrostatic disk structure. We include FeII and CO ro-vibrational line heating/cooling relevant for the high-density gas close to the star, and apply a modified escape probability treatment. The models are characterized by a high degree of consistency between the various physical, chemical and radiative processes, where the mutual feedbacks are solved iteratively. In application to a T Tauri disk extending from 0.5AU to 500AU, the models are featured by a puffed-up inner rim and show that the dense, shielded and cold midplane (z/r<0.1, Tg~Td) is surrounded by a layer of hot (5000K) and thin (10^7 to 10^8 cm^-3) atomic gas which extends radially to about 10AU, and vertically up to z/r~0.5. This layer is predominantly heated by the stellar UV (e.g. PAH-heating) and cools via FeII semi-forbidden and OI 630nm optical line emission. The dust grains in this "halo" scatter the star light back onto the disk which impacts the photo-chemistry. The more distant regions are characterized by a cooler flaring structure. Beyond 100AU, Tgas decouples from Tdust even in the midplane and reaches values of about Tg~2Td. Our models show that the gas energy balance is the key to understand the vertical disk structure. Models calculated with the assumption Tg=Td show a much flatter disk structure.

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arXiv2008

Stability of organic molecules against shocks in the young Solar nebula

One of the fundamental astrobiology questions is how life has formed in our Solar System. In this context the formation and stability of abiotic organic molecules such as CH4, formic acid and amino acids, is important for understanding how organic material has formed and survived shocks and energetic particle impact from winds in the early Solar System. Shock waves have been suggested as a plausible scenario to create chondrules, small meteoritic components that have been completely molten by energetic events such as shocks and high velocity particle impacts. We study here the formation and destruction of certain gas-phase molecules such as methane and water during such shock events and compare the chemical timescales with the timescales for shocks arising from gravitational instabilities in a protosolar nebula.

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arXiv2008

Gas Evolution in Protoplanetary Disks

This article summarizes a Splinter Session at the Cool Stars XV conference in St. Andrews with 3 review and 4 contributed talks. The speakers have discussed various approaches to understand the structure and evolution of the gas component in protoplanetary disks. These ranged from observational spectroscopy in the UV, infrared and millimeter, through to chemical and hydrodynamical models. The focus was on disks around low-mass stars, ranging from classical T Tauri stars to transitional disks and debris disks. Emphasis was put on water and organic molecules, the relation to planet formation, and the formation of holes and gaps in the inner regions.

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arXiv2005

Chemistry and line emission of outer protoplanetary disks

The structure and chemistry of protoplanetary disks depends strongly on the nature of the central star around which it has formed. The dust temperature is mainly set by the stellar luminosity, while the chemistry of the upper disk layers depends on the amount of intercepted UV and X-ray flux. We will study the differences in chemistry, thermal sturcture and line emission around Herbig Ae/Be, T Tauri stars and low mass M dwarfs. Predictions will be made for future observations with SOFIA and Herschel.

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arXiv2004

The Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute in the context of VO activities

In the past year, the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST) has taken major steps in making MAST's holdings available using VO-defined protocols and standards, and in implementing VO-based tools. For example, MAST has implemented the Simple Cone Search protocol, and all MAST mission searches may be returned in the VOTable format, allowing other archives to use MAST data for their VO applications. We have made many of our popular High Level Science Products available through Simple Image Access Protocol (SIAP), and are implementing the VO Simple Spectral Access Protocol (SSAP). The cross correlation of VizieR catalogs with MAST missions is now possible, and illustrates the integration of VO services into MAST. The user can easily display the results from searches within MAST using the plotting tool VOPlot. MAST also participates in the NVO registry service. Thus, the user can harvest MAST holdings simultaneously with data from many other surveys and missions through the VO DataScope Data Inventory Service.

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arXiv2004

Modeling the gas reservoir of circumstellar disks around young G-type stars

Interpretation of molecular line observations in tenuous circumstellar disks around young G-type stars in terms of a disk mass is difficult without a model that describes the chemical structure of these disks. This paper now discusses the chemistry in tenuous disks around young solar-type stars based on disk models that take into account the presence of a stellar chromosphere. The example of the disk around a 70 Myr old solar-type star shows that the dissociating radiation from the chromosphere is stronger than the interstellar ultraviolet radiation field up to a distance of ~400 AU from the star. Similar to other studies in this research field, it is found that, due to photodissociation, the CO-to-H_2 ratio is far from the canonical value of 10^-4 for molecular clouds. Moreover, the dust-to-gas mass ratio, as well as the dust grain size play an important role for the H_2 abundance in these disks.

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arXiv2002

Line emission from circumstellar disks around A stars

The nature of the tenuous disks around A stars has raised considerable controversy in the literature during the past decade. The debate whether or not the disk around beta Pictoris contains gaseous molecular hydrogen is only the most recent example. Since CO is in general a poor tracer for the gas content of these low mass disks, we discuss here detailed emission line calculations for alternative tracers like C and C+, based on recent optically thin disk models by Kamp & van Zadelhoff (2001). The [CII] 157.7 mum line was searched toward Vega and beta Pictoris -- the most prominent A stars with disks -- using ISO LWS data, and a tentative detection is reported toward the latter object. From a comparison with emission line observations as well as absorption line studies of both stars, the gas-to-dust ratio is constrained to lie between 0.5 and 9 for beta Pictoris. For Vega the [CII] observations indicate an upper limit of 0.2 M_Earth for the disk gas mass. Predicted line intensities of C+ and C are presented for a range of models and appear promising species to trace the gas content in the disks around A stars with future instrumental capabilities (SOFIA, Herschel, APEX and ALMA). Searches for CO emission should focus on the J=3-2 line.

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arXiv2002

The status of Galactic field lambda Bootis stars in the post-Hipparcos era

The lambda Bootis stars are Population I, late B to early F-type stars, with moderate to extreme (up to a factor 100) surface underabundances of most Fe-peak elements and solar abundances of lighter elements (C, N, O, and S). To put constraints on the various existing theories that try to explain these peculiar stars, we investigate the observational properties of lambda Bootis stars compared to a reference sample of normal stars. Using various photometric systems and Hipparcos data, we analyze the validity of standard photometric calibrations, elemental abundances, and Galactic space motions. There crystallizes a clear picture of a homogeneous group of Population I objects found at all stages of their main-sequence evolution, with a peak at about 1 Gyr. No correlation of astrophysical parameters such as the projected rotational velocities or elemental abundances with age is found, suggesting that the a-priori unknown mechanism, which creates lambda Bootis stars, works continuously for late B to early F-type stars in all stages of main-sequence evolution. Surprisingly, the sodium abundances seem to indicate an interaction between the stars and their local environment.

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arXiv2002

The lambda Bootis phenomenon: interaction between a star and a diffuse interstellar cloud

The lambda Bootis stars, a group of late B to early F-type population I stars, have surface abundances that resemble the general metal depletion pattern found in the interstellar medium. Inspired by the recent result that the fundamental parameters of these peculiar stars differ in no respect from a comparison sample of normal stars, the hypothesis of an interaction between a star and a diffuse interstellar cloud is considered as a possible explanation of the peculiar abundance pattern. It is found that such a scenario is able to explain the selective accretion of interstellar gas depleted in condensable elements as well as the spectral range of the lambda Bootis phenomenon.

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