Classification of X-Ray Flare-driven Chemical Variability in Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

Abstract Young stars are highly variable in the X-ray regime. In particular, bright X-ray flares can substantially enhance ionization in the surrounding protoplanetary disk. Since disk chemical evolution is impacted by ionization, X-ray flares have the potential to fundamentally alter the chemistry of planet-forming regions. We present two-dimensional disk chemical models that incorporate a stochastic X-ray flaring module, named XGEN, and examine the flares’ overall chemical impact compared to models that assume a constant X-ray flux. We examine the impact of 500 yr of flaring events and find global chemical changes on both short timescales (days) in response to discrete flaring events and long timescales (centuries) in response to the cumulative impact of many flares. Individual X-ray flares most strongly affect small gas-phase cations, where a single flare can temporarily enhance the abundance of species such as H 3 + , HCO+, CH3 +, and C+. We find that flares can also drive chemistry out of “steady state” over longer time periods, where the disk-integrated abundance of some species, such as O and O2, changes by a few percent over the 500 yr model. We also explore whether the specific history of X-ray flaring events (randomly drawn but from the same energy distribution) impacts the chemical evolution and find that it does not. Finally, we examine the impact of X-ray flares on the electron fraction. While most molecules modeled are not highly sensitive to flares, certain species, including observable molecules, are very reactive to the dynamic environment of a young star.