[Previous] | [Session 2] | [Next]
S.C. Martin, J.S. Carr (Naval Research Laboratory)
Recent ground and space based observations have provided new data on the emergent radiation from the disks of gas and dust around young stellar objects. The orbiting gas and dust provide the building blocks for planet formation. To derive the physical conditions within these disks (and hence the initial conditions for planet formation) requires a detailed accretion disk model.
We report on calculations of the detailed vertical disk structure within the geometrically thin alpha disk paradigm. The three coupled integro-differential equations of radiative transfer, energy conservation, and hydrostatic equilibrium are solved self-consistently to find the vertical run of the radiation field, temperature, and density at a given disk radius. In addition, we consider realistic disk opacities that include the effects of the myriad molecular lines appropriate to the conditions found in disks around low-mass pre-main- sequence stars. This model provides the necessary accuracy to explore the emergent radiation field from a disk that may not necessarily be fully optically thick and which becomes optically thin in the uppermost surface layers.
This work was performed while S.C.M. held a National Research Council- Naval Research Laboratory Research Associateship. We acknowledge support from the Office of Naval Research and a NASA Long Term Space Astrophysics Grant.