The evolution of the solar nebula I. Evolution of the global properties and planet masses

Abstract

We investigate the formation, structure, and evolution of the solar nebula by including nonuniform viscosity and the mass influx from the gravitational collapse of the molecular cloud core. The calculations are done by using currently accepted viscosity, which is nonuniform, and probable mass influx from star formation theory. In the calculation of the viscosity, we include the effect of magnetorotational instability. The radial distributions of the surface density and other physical quantities of the nebula are significantly different from nebula models with constant α viscosity and the models which do not include the mass influx. We find that the nebula starts to form from the inner boundary because of the inside-out collapse and then expands due to viscosity. The surface density is not a monotonic function of the radius like the case of uniform viscosity. There are minimums near 1.5 AU due to nonuniform viscosity. The general shape of the surface density is sustained before the mass influx stops because the mass supply offsets mass loss accreted onto the protosun and provides the mass needed for the nebula expansion. We show that not all protoplanetary disks experience gravitational instability during some periods of their lifetime. We find that the nebula becomes gravitationally unstable in some durations when the angular momentum of the cloud core is high. Our numerical calculations confirm Jin's early suggestion that nonuniform viscosity explains the differences in mass and gas content among Jovian planets. Our calculations of nebular evolution show that the nebula temperature is less than 1200 K. Even in the inner portion of the nebula, refractory material from the molecular cloud may survive and refractory condensates may form. © 2010 The American Astronomical Society.