Mid-infrared blends and continuum signatures of dust drift and accretion in protoplanetary disks

Abstract

The MIR blend fluxes correlation between HCN and water can be explained as a consequence of dust evolution, namely, changes in the dust MIR opacity. Other disk properties, such as the disk inner radius and the disk flaring angle, can only partially cover the dynamic range of the HCN and water blend observations. At the same time, the dynamic range of the MIR SED slopes is better reproduced by the disk structure (e.g. inner radius, flaring) than by the dust evolution. Our model series do not reproduce the observed trend between continuum flux at 850 {\mu}m and the MIR HCN/H2O blend ratio. However, our models show that this continuum flux is not a unique indicator of disk mass and it should therefore be used jointly with complementary observational data for optimal results. The presence of an anti-correlation between MIR H2O blend fluxes and the MIR SED is consistent with a scenario where dust evolves in disks, producing lower opacity and stronger features in the Spitzer spectral regime, while the gas eventually becomes depleted at a later stage, leaving behind an inner cavity in the disk.