Final Report Summary - DISKEVOL (Formation and evolution of planetary systems)
The goal of this research project was to obtain a global and precise view of protoplanetary disks. This DiskEvol program tackled the complex problem of combining consistently the constraints on the gas phase of a disk, provided by the Herschel observations, with our existing studies of the dust phase. This is of particular importance as the dissipation of abundant gas remnant from star formation limits the timescale for giant planet formation, controls the dynamics of planetary bodies during their formation and determines the final architecture of the planetary system. This project relied on 1) the preparation of a database of chemistry and radiative transfer models for the Herschel GASPS Key Program project. This initial work allowed 2) a detailed analysis of the GASPS program through a statistical comparison of the GASPS observations with the predictions from the grid of models. This global study, of the large sample of disks observed by GASPS, was 3) extended and completed through finer detailed modelling of a selected sample of representative sources for which we will obtain a complete view of the dust structure and gas chemistry using simultaneous interpretation of continuum observations, resolved emission maps in low-level rotational lines of C.
The work developped during this project has led to the publications of 40 refereed papers over 36 months. It has has long-lasting value in the era of ALMA and JWST. It allowed the fellow, with now a permanent position withing CNRS/France, to estalish himself as a recognised young researcher and to set-up his own team, mentoring a postdoc, with additional funding from the French national agency.