The Impact of External Radiation on the Inner Disk Chemistry of Planet Formation

Abstract

The vast majority of young stars hosting planet-forming disks exist within clustered environments, like the Orion Nebula, implying that seemingly `extreme' UV environments (10^4 G_0 and above) are not so atypical in the context of planet formation. Using thermo-chemical modeling, we explore how the temperature and chemistry within a protoplanetary disk around a T Tauri star is impacted by the surrounding UV environment. The disk becomes hotter due to heating by photodissociation of molecules, photoelectric heating, H_2, and atomic processes and as a result the area in which molecules exist in the ice-phase shrinks, being pushed both downward and inward. Beyond 1AU the chemistry changes most significantly in a UV-rich background; the atmosphere becomes more H2O, OH, and atomic-rich. Hydrocarbons, however, reside primarily well within 1AU of the disk, thus their abundance and distribution is not impacted by the UV field, up to a 10^6 G0. The products of photodissociation and photochemistry are formed deeper into the disk with increasing UV background field strength beyond 1AU, impacting the chemistry near the midplane. Effectively a `reset' chemistry takes place, with an enhancement of atoms, simple molecules, and molecules in the gas-phase. Planets that form in highly irradiated regions will be exposed to a different chemical reservoir in the gas and ice-phases than that in an isolated disk, and the impact from the UV background should only be detectable in highly irradiated disks (~10^6 G_0).