Collaborative Research: The Evolution of Gas in Protoplanetary Disks

这项拟议工作的目标是了解气体在原行星盘中的行为和演化。原行星盘高达99%的质量由气体组成。然而，天文学家甚至对气体成分的演化或驱动这种演化的因素都没有基本的了解。ALMA射电天文台收集的对原行星盘的观测将用于检验盘演化的两个主要理论。威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的团队将在当地的外联和教育中心威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校为学生团体游客设计并提供为期1小时的无线电波主题的定期实践课程。在亚利桑那州图森市，UA小组将通过与皮马县学校监督办公室合作，为K-12教师开发一个关于无线电波主题的为期一天的研讨会。此外，这项工作将为研究生、本科生和博士后提供研究经验。该项目将在整个磁盘寿命(0.1-10Myr)内以定义良好的样本提供气盘质量和大小的稳健测量的旧有库。这样的文库将是检验任何当前和未来的盘进化理论的关键。这个项目将收集突破性数据，通过ALMA对原行星盘气体演化的调查，AGE-PRO，一个公认的ALMA Cycle 8大型程序(103h，PI)，绘制原行星盘中气体的演化图。张)。他们将收集和分析在典型磁盘寿命内对磁盘的全面样本的深入ALMA观测。通过结合AGE-PRO观测和最先进的热化学模型，该团队将提供这些圆盘的准确气体质量测量(精度比现有限制条件高10-20倍)，以及这些圆盘中气体的详细表面密度分布。然后，他们将在不同的磁盘进化机制下运行大量的磁盘进化模型。将他们通过观测得到的气体分布测量结果与圆盘演化模型的测量结果进行比较，他们将为圆盘演化的两个主要理论：湍流粘性和磁流体动力学圆盘风提供关键测试。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The objective of the proposed work is to build understanding of the behavior and evolution of gas in protoplanetary disks. Up to 99% of the mass of a protoplanetary disk consists of gas. However, astronomers do not have even a basic understanding of the evolution of the gas component or what factors drive such evolution. Observations of protoplanetary disks, collected with the ALMA radio observatory, will be used to test the two leading theories of disk evolution. The UW-Madison group will design and provide a regular 1-hour long hands-on session on the topic of radio waves for student group visitors at the UW-Madison Space Place, a local outreach and educational center. In Tucson, AZ, the UA group will develop a one day workshop for K-12 teachers on the topic of radio waves, by collaborating with the Pima County School Superintendent's Office. In addition, this work will provide research experience to graduate students, undergraduates, and a post-doc.This project will provide a legacy library of robust measurements of gas disk masses and sizes in a well-defined sample spanning over the whole disk lifetime (0.1-10 Myr). Such library will be critical to test any current and future theories of disk evolution. This project will gather breakthrough data to map the evolution of gas in protoplanetary disks, through the ALMA survey of Gas Evolution in PROtoplanetary disk, AGE-PRO, an accepted ALMA Cycle 8 large program (103 h, PI. Zhang). They will collect and analyze deep ALMA observations of a comprehensive sample of disks throughout the typical disk lifetime. By combining AGE-PRO observations and state-of- the-art thermo-chemical models, the team will provide accurate gas mass measurements of these disks (10-20 times better accuracy than existing constraints), as well as detailed surface density distributions of gas in these disks. They will then run a large grid of disk evolution models under different disk evolution mechanisms. Comparing their gas distribution measurements from observations with that of disk evolution models, they will provide critical tests to the two leading theories of disk evolution: turbulent viscosity and magneto-hydrodynamical disk winds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.