Accretion in Protoplanetary Disks

Eugene Chiang

March 24, 2011

–

Abstract: Disks surrounding brown dwarfs, T Tauri stars, and Herbig Ae stars accrete, but the mechanism of angular momentum transport remains unclear. I will review the proposal that disks accrete via the magneto-rotational instability, activated in disk surface layers ionized by some non-thermal means. I will discuss the relevant chemistry and identify the chief source of ionization. Applications include transitional disks whose giant inner holes may be carved out by planets.