J/A+A/707/A216 Precise determination of disk lifetimes (Polnitzky+, 2026)
Precise determination of circumstellar disk lifetimes.
Disk evolution in a single star forming region,
Polnitzky F.A., Ratzenbock S., Grossschedl J., Alves J.
<Astron. Astrophys. 707, A216 (2026)>
=2026A&A...707A.216P 2026A&A...707A.216P (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: YSOs ; Stars, ages ; Optical ; Photometry, infrared
Keywords: protoplanetary disks - circumstellar matter - stars: formation -
stars: pre-main sequence - open clusters and associations: general
Abstract:
Determining how long circumstellar disks last is key to understanding
the timescale of planet formation. Typically, this is done by
measuring the fraction of young stars with infrared-excess, a sign of
circumstellar material, in stellar clusters of different ages.
However, comparing data from different star-forming regions at
different distances introduces uncertainties and biases because of the
different sample completeness and environment. This study addresses
these challenges by analyzing 33 clusters, aged 3 to 21 million years
(PARSEC isochrones), within the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association,
sampling the stellar IMF from the hydrogen burning limit to about
8M{sun{. By using Gaia, 2MASS, and WISE data, we identified stars
with infrared-excess through color-color diagrams and spectral energy
distributions, ensuring a consistent selection of disk-bearing
sources. Our results indicate a disk lifetime of 5.8±0.3Myr, about a
factor of two longer than most previous estimates, suggesting that
planet formation may have more time than previously thought. We also
find that an exponential decay model best describes disk dispersal.
These findings emphasize the importance of studying disk evolution in
a single star-forming region to reduce uncertainties and refine our
understanding of planet formation timelines.
Description:
We present the results from identifying young stellar objects with and
without in the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. To do so, we use
photometric infrared measurements and analyze color-color diagrams and
the spectral energy distribution. Using a separation of the stellar
sources into stellar cluster, we compute the fraction of young stellar
sources with a disk and present this for different identification
methods of disks and subsets.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
clusters.dat 444 33 Catalog of stellar clusters (table C2)
sources.dat 773 10270 Catalog of stellar sources (table C3)
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See also:
I/355 : Gaia DR3 Part 1. Main source (Gaia Collaboration, 2022)
J/A+A/678/A71 : Cluster ages in Sco-Cen (Ratzenboeck+, 2023)
J/AJ/163/25 : Circumstellar disk populations in the Sco-Cen complex
(Luhman, 2022)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: clusters.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 16 A16 --- Cluster Name of the stellar cluster (cluster_name)
18- 21 F4.1 --- SigMAlabel Label of the stellar cluster (SigMA_label)
23- 26 F4.1 Myr Age Age of the stellar cluster from Ratzenbock
et al., 2023A&A...678A..71R 2023A&A...678A..71R
(Parsec, Bp-Rp) (age)
28- 37 F10.8 Myr e_Age Lower uncertainty of the age of the
stellar cluster (age_lower)
39- 48 F10.8 Myr E_Age Higher uncertainty of the age of the
stellar cluster (age_higher)
50- 53 I4 --- NCCD Number of sources from the CCD selection
(N_CCD)
55- 57 I3 --- nD-CCD Number of disk-bearing sources from the
CCD selection (nDCCD)
59- 62 I4 --- nND-CCD Number of disk-less sources from the
CCD selection (nNDCCD)
64- 87 E24.16 --- dfCCD Disk fraction from the CCD selection
(df_CCD)
89-112 E24.16 --- e_dfCCD Lower uncertainty of the disk fraction from
the CCD selection (dflowerCCD)
114-131 F18.16 --- E_dfCCD Higher uncertainty of the disk fraction
from the CCD selection (dfhigherCCD)
133-136 I4 --- NSED Number of sources from the SED selection
(N_SED)
138-140 I3 --- nD-SED Number of disk-bearing sources from the
SED selection (nDSED)
142-145 I4 --- nND-SED Number of disk-less sources from the SED
selection (nNDSED)
147-169 E23.15 --- dfSED Disk fraction from the SED selection
(df_SED)
171-193 E23.15 --- e_dfSED Lower uncertainty of the disk fraction from
the SED selection (dflowerSED)
195-212 F18.16 --- E_dfSED Higher uncertainty of the disk fraction
from the SED selection (dfhigherSED)
214-217 I4 --- NLuhman ? Number of sources from the Luhman
selection (N_Luhman)
219-221 I3 --- nDLuhman ? Number of disk-bearing sources from the
Luhman selection (nDLuhman)
223-226 I4 --- nNDLuhman ? Number of disk-less sources from the
Luhman selection (nNDLuhman)
228-245 F18.16 --- dfLuhman ? Disk fraction from the Luhman selection
(df_Luhman)
247-264 F18.16 --- e_dfLuhman ? Lower uncertainty of the disk fraction
from the Luhman selection
(dflowerLuhman)
266-283 F18.16 --- E_dfLuhman ? Higher uncertainty of the disk fraction
from the Luhman selection
(dfhigherLuhman)
285-288 I4 --- NsmallRUWE Number of sources in the RUWE<1.4 subset
(N_smallRUWE)
290-292 I3 --- nDsmallRUWE Number of disk-bearing sources in the
RUWE<1.4 subset (nDsmallRUWE)
294-297 I4 --- nNDsmallRUWE Number of disk-less sources in the
RUWE<1.4 subset (nNDsmallRUWE)
299-321 E23.15 --- dfsmallRUWE Disk fraction in the RUWE < 1.4 subset
(df_smallRUWE)
323-345 E23.15 --- e_dfsmallRUWE Lower uncertainty of the disk fraction in
the RUWE<1.4 subset (dflowersmallRUWE)
347-364 F18.16 --- E_dfsmallRUWE Higher uncertainty of the disk fraction in
the RUWE<1.4 subset (dfhighersmallRUWE)
366-368 I3 --- NlargeRUWE Number of sources in the RUWE ≥ 1.4 subset
(N_largeRUWE)
370-371 I2 --- nDlargeRUWE Number of disk-bearing sources in the
RUWE≥1.4 subset (nDlargeRUWE)
373-375 I3 --- nNDlargeRUWE Number of disk-less sources in the
RUWE≥1.4 subset (nNDlargeRUWE)
377-400 E24.16 --- dflargeRUWE Disk fraction in the RUWE ≥ 1.4 subset
(df_largeRUWE)
402-425 E24.16 --- e_dflargeRUWE Lower uncertainty of the disk fraction in
the RUWE≥1.4 subset (dflowerlargeRUWE)
427-444 F18.16 --- E_dflargeRUWE Higher uncertainty of the disk fraction in
the RUWE≥1.4 subset (dfhigherlargeRUWE)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: sources.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 19 I19 --- GaiaDR3 Gaia source identification number
(source_id)
21- 38 F18.14 deg RAdeg ? Right ascension (ICRS) at Ep=2016.0
from Gaia (ra)
40- 59 F20.16 deg DEdeg ? Declination (ICRS) at Ep=2016.0
from Gaia (dec)
61- 80 F20.16 deg GLON ? Galactic longitude from Gaia (l)
82-101 F20.16 deg GLAT ? Galactic latitude from Gaia (b)
103-121 F19.16 --- ruwe ? The RUWE parameter from Gaia (ruwe)
123-141 A19 --- AllWISE ? AllWISE identification number (AllWISE)
143-148 F6.3 mag W1mag ? W1 magnitude from AllWISE (W1mag)
150-154 F5.3 mag e_W1mag ? Uncertainty in the W1 magnitude
from AllWISE (e_W1mag)
156-161 F6.3 mag W2mag ? W2 magnitude from AllWISE (W2mag)
163-167 F5.3 mag e_W2mag ? Uncertainty in the W2 magnitude
from AllWISE (e_W2mag)
169-174 F6.3 mag W3mag ? W3 magnitude from AllWISE (W3mag)
176-180 F5.3 mag e_W3mag ? Uncertainty in the W3 magnitude
from AllWISE (e_W3mag)
182-187 F6.3 mag W4mag ? W4 magnitude from AllWISE (W4mag)
189-193 F5.3 mag e_W4mag ? Uncertainty in the W4 magnitude
from AllWISE (e_W4mag)
195-200 F6.3 mag Jmag ? Magnitude in the J band from 2MASS (Jmag)
202-206 F5.3 mag e_Jmag ? Uncertainty in the magnitude in the
J band from 2MASS (e_Jmag)
208-213 F6.3 mag Hmag ? Magnitude in the H band from 2MASS (Hmag)
215-219 F5.3 mag e_Hmag ? Uncertainty in the magnitude in the
H band from 2MASS (e_Hmag)
221-226 F6.3 mag Kmag ? Magnitude in the KS band from 2MASS
(Kmag)
228-232 F5.3 mag e_Kmag ? Uncertainty in the magnitude in
the KS band from 2MASS (e_Kmag)
234-237 F4.1 --- snr1 ? Signal-to-noise ratio in the W1 band
from AllWISE (snr1)
239-248 F10.6 --- chi2W1 ? Reduced chi-squared value in the W1 band
from AllWISE (chi2W1)
250-253 F4.1 --- snr2 ? Signal-to-noise ratio in the W2 band
from AllWISE (snr2)
255-263 F9.6 --- chi2W2 ? Reduced chi-squared value in the W2 band
from AllWISE (chi2W2)
265-269 F5.1 --- snr3 ? Signal-to-noise ratio in the W3 band
from AllWISE (snr3)
271-279 F9.5 --- chi2W3 ? Reduced chi-squared value in the W3 band
from AllWISE (chi2W3)
281-285 F5.1 --- snr4 ? Signal-to-noise ratio in the W4 band
from AllWISE (snr4)
287-294 F8.4 --- chi2W4 ? Reduced chi-squared value in the W4 band
from AllWISE (chi2W4)
296-297 A2 --- DiskCCD ? Selection of disks in the CCDs
(Disk_CCD) (1)
299-300 A2 --- W123 ? Selection of disks in the W123 CCDs
(W123) (1)
302-303 A2 --- W124 ? Selection of disks in the W124 CCDs
(W124) (1)
305-306 A2 --- HKW2 ? Selection of disks in the HKW2 CCDs
(HKW2) (1)
308-309 A2 --- HKW3 ? Selection of disks in the HKW3 CCDs
(HKW3) (1)
311-312 A2 --- DiskSED ? Selection of disks in the SED
(Disk_SED) (1)
314-332 F19.16 --- alphaKW3 ? Slope of the SED fitting between KS
to W3 (alpha_KW3)
334-351 F18.16 --- e_alphaKW3 ? Uncertainty in the slope of the SED
fitting between KS and W3 (ealphaKW3)
353-372 F20.16 --- interKW3 ? Intercept of the SED fitting between
K_S to W3 (intercept_KW3)
374-391 F18.16 --- e_interKW3 ? Uncertainty in the intercept of the SED
fitting between KS to W3 (einterceptKW3)
393-411 F19.16 --- alphaKW4 ? Slope of the SED fitting between
KS to W4 (alpha_KW4)
413-430 F18.16 --- e_alphaKW4 ? Uncertainty in the slope of the SED
fitting between K_S and W4 (ealphaKW4)
432-451 F20.16 --- interKW4 ? Intercept of the SED fitting between
KS to W4 (intercept_KW4)
453-470 F18.16 --- e_interKW4 ? Uncertainty in the intercept of the SED
fitting between KS to W4 (einterceptKW4)
472-490 F19.16 --- alphaW13 ? Slope of the SED fitting between W1 to W3
(alpha_W13)
492-513 E22.16 --- e_alphaW13 ? Uncertainty in the slope of the SED
fitting between W1 and W3 (ealphaW13)
515-534 F20.16 --- interW13 ? Intercept of the SED fitting between
W1 to W3 (intercept_W13)
536-557 E22.16 --- e_interW13 ? Uncertainty in the intercept of the SED
fitting between W1 to W3 (einterceptW13)
559-577 F19.16 --- alphaW14 ? Slope of the SED fitting between W1 to W4
(alpha_W14)
579-596 F18.16 --- e_alphaW14 ? Uncertainty in the slope of the SED
fitting between W1 and W4 (ealphaW14)
598-617 F20.16 --- interW14 ? Intercept of the SED fitting between
W1 to W4 (intercept_W14)
619-636 F18.16 --- e_interW14 ? Uncertainty in the intercept of the SED
fitting between W1 to W4 (einterceptW14)
638-656 F19.16 --- alphaKW2 ? Slope of the SED fitting between
KS to W2 (alpha_KW2)
658-679 E22.16 --- e_alphaKW2 ? Uncertainty in the slope of the SED
fitting between KS and W2 (ealphaKW2)
681-700 F20.16 --- interKW2 ? Intercept of the SED fitting between
KS to W2 (intercept_KW2)
702-723 E22.16 --- e_interKW2 ? Uncertainty in the intercept of the SED
fitting between KS to W2 (einterceptKW2)
725-743 F19.16 --- alpha ? alpha-value used in the selection (alpha)
745-765 A21 --- DiskClLuhman ? Disk type from Luhman 2022AJ....163...25L 2022AJ....163...25L
(DiskClass_Luhman)
767-768 A2 --- DiskLuhman ? Selection of disks from Luhman
(2022AJ....163...25L 2022AJ....163...25L) (Disk_Luhman) (1)
770-773 F4.1 --- SigMAlabel ? Stellar cluster label to which the source
belongs to (SigMA_label)
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Note (1): Code as follows:
D = a disk is detected ("Disk)
ND = no detection (No disk)
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Acknowledgements:
Fabian A. Polnitzky, fabian.polnitzky(at)univie.ac.at
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 28-Jan-2026