IN-SYNC. VIII. Primordial Disk Frequencies in NGC 1333, IC 348, and the Orion A Molecular Cloud
Journal article, 2018

In this paper, we address two issues related to primordial disk evolution in three clusters (NGC 1333, IC 348, and Orion A) observed by the INfrared Spectra of Young Nebulous Clusters (IN-SYNC) project. First, in each cluster, averaged over the spread of age, we investigate how disk lifetime is dependent on stellar mass. The general relation in IC 348 and Orion A is that primordial disks around intermediate-mass stars (2-5 M-circle dot) evolve faster than those around loss-mass stars (0.1-1 M-circle dot), which is consistent with previous results. However, considering only low-mass stars, we do not find a significant dependence of disk frequency on stellar mass. These results can help to better constrain theories on gas giant planet formation timescales. Second, in the Orion A molecular cloud, in the mass range of 0.35-0.7M(circle dot), we provide the most robust evidence to date for disk evolution within a single cluster exhibiting modest age spread. By using surface gravity as an age indicator and employing 4.5 mu m excess as a primordial disk diagnostic, we observe a trend of decreasing disk frequency for older stars. The detection of intracluster disk evolution in NGC 1333 and IC 348 is tentative, since the slight decrease of disk frequency for older stars is a less than 1 sigma effect.

stars: formation

protoplanetary disks

stars: pre-main sequence

Author

Yuhan Yao

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Beijing University of Technology

Michael R. Meyer

University of Michigan

Kevin R. Covey

Western Washington University

Jonathan Tan

University of Virginia

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

Nicola Da Rio

University of Virginia

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 869 1 72

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/aaec7a

More information

Latest update

7/12/2019