An alternative look at the snowline in protoplanetary disks

¹ Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, Warsaw, 00-716, Poland e-mail: kornet@camk.edu.pl; mnr@camk.edu.pl
² Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA e-mail: tom@lpi.usra.edu

Corresponding author: K. Kornet, kornet@camk.edu.pl

Received: 2 July 2003
Accepted: 12 November 2003

Abstract

We have calculated an evolution of protoplanetary disk from an extensive set of initial conditions using a time-dependent model capable of simultaneously keeping track of the global evolution of gas and water-ice. A number of simplifications and idealizations allows for an embodiment of gas-particle coupling, coagulation, sedimentation, and evaporation/condensation processes. We have shown that, when the evolution of ice is explicitly included, the location of the snowline has to be calculated directly as the inner edge of the region where ice is present and not as the radius where disk's temperature equals the evaporation temperature of water-ice. The final location of the snowline is set by an interplay between all involved processes and is farther from the star than implied by the location of the evaporation temperature radius. The evolution process naturally leads to an order of magnitude enhancement in surface density of icy material.