A Study of Protoplanetary Disk Evolution in Infrared CO
dc.contributor.advisor | Banzatti, Andrea | |
dc.contributor.author | Sanchez, Michael A. | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Rangelov, Blagoy | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Olson, Donald | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-08-12T14:57:36Z | |
dc.date.available | 2021-08-12T14:57:36Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2021-08 | |
dc.description.abstract | The inner radii (< 10 AU) of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) are the birthplaces of exoplanets. Understanding what happens at these planet-forming distances requires the knowledge of inner gaseous disk evolution. Carbon monoxide (<sup>12</sup>CO; hereafter CO) gas is known to be an effective tracer of excited molecular gas at small radii (0.01 AU – 10 AU). Therefore, in this work, the depletion of molecular gas is traced as the planet-forming regions of PPDs evolve and become gas-poor. To probe CO gas properties, a LTE (local thermal equilibrium) molecular excitation model is employed. Spectral emission of CO and H<sub>2</sub> (molecular hydrogen) gas are compared to analyze gas properties in both gas-rich, full disks and gas-poor transition disks. This approach demonstrates a radial stratification of molecular gas: CO lines are increasingly narrower than H2 lines for disks with large inner gaps, or cavities, suggesting a recession of CO gas in the inner disk. In this thesis, I report results from an excitation analysis of CO spectra to identify how inner disk gas properties change as inner dust cavities form. | |
dc.description.department | Physics | |
dc.format | Text | |
dc.format.extent | 66 pages | |
dc.format.medium | 1 file (.pdf) | |
dc.identifier.citation | Sánchez, M. A. (2021). A study of protoplanetary disk evolution in infrared CO (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10877/14296 | |
dc.language.iso | en | |
dc.subject | protoplanetary disks | |
dc.subject | emission spectroscopy | |
dc.subject | astronomy | |
dc.subject | astrophysics | |
dc.title | A Study of Protoplanetary Disk Evolution in Infrared CO | |
dc.type | Thesis | |
thesis.degree.department | Physics | |
thesis.degree.discipline | Physics | |
thesis.degree.grantor | Texas State University | |
thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
thesis.degree.name | Master of Science |
Files
Original bundle
1 - 1 of 1