Synthetic populations of protoplanetary disks: Impact of magnetic fields and radiative transfer

¹ Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: ugo.lebreuilly@cea.fr
² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Augusto Righi”, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁴ Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str. 2, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
⁵ Universität Heidelberg, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen, Im Neuenheimer Feld 205, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
⁶ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (INAF-IAPS), Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
⁷ Univ. Lyon, ENS de Lyon, Univ. Lyon 1, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574, 69007 Lyon, France
⁸ Université Paris-Cité, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
¹⁰ ESO – European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
¹¹ Fakultat für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
¹² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Giovanni Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
¹³ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands

Received: 31 March 2023
Accepted: 29 October 2023

Abstract

Context. Protostellar disks are the product of angular momentum conservation during protostellar collapse. Understanding their formation is crucial because they are the birthplace of planets and their formation is also tightly related to star formation. Unfortunately, the initial properties of Class 0 disks and their evolution are still poorly constrained both theoretically and observationally.

Aims. We aim to better understand the mechanisms that set the statistics of disk properties as well as to study their formation in massive protostellar clumps. We also want to provide the community with synthetic disk populations to better interpret young disk observations.

Methods. We used the ramses code to model star and disk formation in massive protostellar clumps with magnetohydrodynamics, including the effect of ambipolar diffusion and radiative transfer as well as stellar radiative feedback. Those simulations, resolved up to the astronomical unit scale, have allowed us to investigate the formation of disk populations.

Results. Magnetic fields play a crucial role in disk formation. A weaker initial field leads to larger and massive disks and weakens the stellar radiative feedback by increasing fragmentation. We find that ambipolar diffusion impacts disk and star formation and leads to very different disk magnetic properties. The stellar radiative feedback also have a strong influence, increasing the temperature and reducing fragmentation. Comparing our disk populations with observations reveals that our models with a mass-to-flux ratio of 10 seems to better reproduce observed disk sizes. This also sheds light on a tension between models and observations for the disk masses.

Conclusions. The clump properties and physical modeling significantly impact disk populations. It is critical to for the tension, with respect to disk mass estimates, between observations and models to be solved with synthetic observations. This is particularly important in the context of understanding planet formation.