Spitzer Space Telescope - Archive Research Proposal #20739


Investigating T Tauri Disk Evolution

Principal Investigator: Caer-Eve McCabe
           Institution: JPL/Caltech

Co-Investigators: 
Gaspard Duchene, Observatoire de Grenoble                             
Cathy Clarke, Cambridge University                                    
Russel White, Caltech                                                 

Science Category: circumstellar/debris disks 
Dollars Approved: 58500.0 

Abstract:
We propose to use Spitzer archival IRAC observations of a sample of
119 T Tauri stars with M2-M9 spectral types in the ~2 Myr old star
forming regions of Taurus and IC 348, in order to investigate whether
the timescale of disk evolution is dependent on the stellar mass.
Comparing the near- and mid-infrared excesses due to dust emission
from the inner few AU of the circumstellar disks around these young,
low mass stars, we will search for the presence of inner disk holes,
one of the key signatures of viscous disk evolution or disk evolution
via photoevaporation and compare the disk diagnostics with the known
accretion diagnostics.  This proposed sample of T Tauri stars provides
a complimentary sample in terms of spectral type to the results from
our recent ground-based mid-infrared survey of disks and to the Cores
to Disks WTTS program, and will investigate the fraction of systems
with inner disk holes as a function of mass.