Refractory carbon depletion by photolysis through dust collisions and vertical mixing

¹ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
² University Observatory, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 Munich, Germany
³ Exzellenzcluster ORIGINS, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁴ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany

^★ Corresponding author; vaikundaraman@mps.mpg.de

Received: 22 January 2025
Accepted: 18 March 2025

Abstract

Context. The inner Solar System is depleted in refractory carbon in comparison to the interstellar medium and the depletion likely took place in the protoplanetary disk phase of the Solar System.

Aims. We study the effect of photolysis of refractory carbon in the upper layers of the protosolar disk and its interplay with dust collisional growth and vertical mixing.

Methods. We make use of a 1D Monte Carlo model to simulate dust coagulation and vertical mixing. To model the far ultraviolet (FUV) flux of the disk, we used a simple analytical prescription and benchmarked it with data from a radiative transfer simulation. We study the effects of fragmentation and bouncing on dust distribution and the propagation of carbon depletion.

Results. We find that when bouncing is included, the size distribution is truncated at smaller sizes than fragmentation-limited size distributions but there is a loss of small grains as well. The population of small grains is reduced due to fewer fragmentation events and this reduces the effectiveness of photolysis. We find that dust collisional growth and vertical mixing increase the effectiveness of carbon depletion by efficiently replenishing carbon to the upper regions of the disk with higher FUV flux. It takes around 100–300 kyr to reach the measured carbon abundances at 1 au, depending on the strength of the turbulence in the disk. These timescales are faster than reported by previous studies.

Conclusions. Collisional redistribution and turbulent mixing are important aspects of dust evolution that should be included when modeling dust chemistry as they can influence the efficiency of chemical processes. Photolysis, along with another process such as sublimation, most likely played a key role in refractory carbon depletion that we see around us in the inner Solar System.