Paper detail

The role of OH in the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks. I. The comet-forming region

Context. Time dependent gas-grain chemistry can help us understand the layered structure of species deposited onto the surface of grains during the lifetime of a protoplanetary disk. The history of trapping important quantities of carbon- and oxygen-bearing molecules onto the grains is of special significance for the formation of more complex (organic) molecules on the surface of grains. Aims. Among other processes, cosmic ray-induced UV photo-processes can lead to the efficient formation of OH. Using a more accurate treatment of cosmic ray-gas interactions for disks, we obtain an increased cosmic ray-induced UV photon flux of 3.8x10^5 photons cm^-2s^-1 for a cosmic-ray ionization rate of H2 value of 5x10^-17 s^-1 (compared to previous estimates of 10^4 photons cm^-2s^-1 based on ISM dust properties). We explore the role of the enhanced OH abundance on the gas-grain chemistry in the midplane of the disk at 10 AU, which is a plausible location for comet formation. We focus on studying the formation/destruction pathways and timescales of the dominant chemical species. Methods. We solve the chemical rate equations based on a gas-grain chemical network and correcting for the enhanced cosmic rayinduced UV field. This field is estimated from an appropriate treatment of dust properties in a protoplanetary disk, as opposed to previous estimates that assume an ISM-like grain size distribution. We also explore the chemical effects of photo-desorption of water ice into OH+H. Results. Near the end of the disk's lifetime our chemical model yields H2O, CO, CO2 and CH4 ice abundances at 10 AU (consistent with a midplane density of 10^10 cm^-3 and a temperature of 20 K) that are compatible with measurements of the chemical composition of cometary bodies for a [C/O] ratio of 0.16. Such comparison provides constraints on the physical conditions in which comets were formed.