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Article overview
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Strong effect of the cluster environment on the size of protoplanetary discs? | Kirsten Vincke
; Andreas Breslau
; Susanne Pfalzer
; | Date: |
23 Apr 2015 | Abstract: | Context. Most stars are born in clusters, thus the protoplanetary discs
surrounding the newly formed stars might be influenced by this environment.
Isolated star-disc encounters have previously been studied, and it was shown
that very close encounters are necessary to completely destroy discs. However,
relatively distant encounters are still able to change the disc size
considerably. Aims. We quantify the importance of disc-size reduction that is
due to stellar encounters in an entire stellar population. Methods. We modelled
young, massive clusters of different densities using the code Nbody6 to
determine the statistics of stellar encounter parameters. In a second step, we
used these parameters to investigate the effect of the environments on the disc
size. For this purpose, we performed a numerical experiment with an artificial
initial disc size of 105 AU. Results. We quantify to which degree the disc size
is more sensitive to the cluster environment than to the disc mass or
frequency. We show that in all investigated clusters a large portion of discs
is significantly reduced in size. After 5 Myr, the fraction of discs smaller
than 1000 AU in ONC-like clusters with an average number density of 60pc$^3$,
the fraction of discs smaller than 1000 AU is 65%, while discs smaller than 100
AU make up 15%. These fractions increase to 84% and 39% for discs in denser
clusters like IC 348 (500pc$^3$). Even in clusters with a density four times
lower than in the ONC (15pc$^3$), about 43% of all discs are reduced to sizes
below 1 000 AU and roughly 9% to sizes below 100 AU. Conclusions. For any disc
in the ONC that initially was larger than 1 000 AU, the probability to be
truncated to smaller disc sizes as a result of stellar encounters is quite
high. Thus, among other effects, encounters are important in shaping discs and
potentially forming planetary systems in stellar clusters. | Source: | arXiv, 1504.6092 | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites |
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