Radiative transfer in circumstellar disks

I. 1D models for GQ Lupi

¹ Institut für Astrophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany e-mail: shuegelm@astro.physik.uni-goettingen.de
² Hamburger Sternwarte, Gojenbergsweg 112, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
³ Lowell Observatory, 1400 W Mars Hill Rd, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA

Received: 17 December 2008
Accepted: 10 March 2009

Abstract

We present a new code for the calculation of the 1D structure and synthetic spectra of accretion disks. The code is an extension of the general purpose stellar atmosphere code PHOENIX and is therefore capable of including extensive lists of atomic and molecular lines as well as dust in the calculations. We assume that the average viscosity can be represented by a critical Reynolds number in a geometrically thin disk and solve the structure and radiative transfer equations for a number of disk rings in the vertical direction. The combination of these rings provides the total disk structure and spectrum. Since the warm inner regions of protoplanetary disks show a rich molecular spectrum, they are well suited for a spectral analysis with our models. In this paper we test our code by comparing our models with high-resolution VLT CRIRES spectra of the T Tauri star GQ Lup.