TY - JOUR
T1 - The foggy disks surrounding herbig Ae stars
T2 - A theoretical study of the H2O line spectra
AU - Cernicharo, J.
AU - Ceccarelli, C.
AU - Ménard, F.
AU - Pinte, C.
AU - Fuente, A.
PY - 2009/1/1
Y1 - 2009/1/1
N2 - Water is a key species in many astrophysical environments, but it is particularly important in protoplanetary disks. So far, observations of water in these objects have been scarce, but the situation should soon change thanks to the Herschel satellite. We report here a theoretical study of the water line spectrum of a protoplanetary disk surrounding Ae stars. We show that several lines will be observable with the HIFI instrument onboard the Herschel Space Observatory. We predict that some maser lines also could be observable with ground telescopes and we discuss how the predictions depend not only on the adopted physical and chemical model but also on the set of collisional coefficients used and on the H2 ortho-to-para ratio through its effect on collisional excitation. This makes the water line observations a powerful, but dangerous - if misused - diagnostic tool.
AB - Water is a key species in many astrophysical environments, but it is particularly important in protoplanetary disks. So far, observations of water in these objects have been scarce, but the situation should soon change thanks to the Herschel satellite. We report here a theoretical study of the water line spectrum of a protoplanetary disk surrounding Ae stars. We show that several lines will be observable with the HIFI instrument onboard the Herschel Space Observatory. We predict that some maser lines also could be observable with ground telescopes and we discuss how the predictions depend not only on the adopted physical and chemical model but also on the set of collisional coefficients used and on the H2 ortho-to-para ratio through its effect on collisional excitation. This makes the water line observations a powerful, but dangerous - if misused - diagnostic tool.
KW - Astrochemistry
KW - Circumstellar matter
KW - ISM: abundances
KW - ISM: molecules
KW - Planetary systems: protoplanetary disks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77949515312&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/L123
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/L123
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77949515312
VL - 703
SP - L123-L126
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
JF - The Astrophysical Journal
SN - 1538-4357
IS - 2 PART 2
ER -