Paper detail

Global Hydromagnetic Simulations of Protoplanetary Disks with Stellar Irradiation and Simplified Thermochemistry

Outflows driven by large-scale magnetic fields likely play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of protoplanetary disks, and in setting the conditions for planet formation. We extend our 2-D axisymmetric non-ideal MHD model of these outflows by incorporating radiative transfer and simplified thermochemistry, with the twin aims of exploring how heating influences wind launching, and illustrating how such models can be tested through observations of diagnostic spectral lines. Our model disks launch magnetocentrifugal outflows primarily through magnetic tension forces, so the mass-loss rate increases only moderately when thermochemical effects are switched on. For typical field strengths, thermochemical and irradiation heating are more important than magnetic dissipation. We furthermore find that the entrained vertical magnetic flux diffuses out of the disk on secular timescales as a result of non-ideal MHD. Through post-processing line radiative transfer, we demonstrate that spectral line intensities and moment-1 maps of atomic oxygen, the HCN molecule, and other species show potentially observable differences between a model with a magnetically driven outflow and one with a weaker, photoevaporative outflow. In particular, the line shapes and velocity asymmetries in the moment-1 maps could enable the identification of outflows emanating from the disk surface.