Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Protoplanetary Disk Dead Zone

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

  • 235 Accesses

Definition

A dead zone is an annular region of a circumstellar disk where the local viscosity is essentially zero, leading to a negligible infall of disk material toward the central star. Viscosity is needed to remove the orbital energy and angular momentum from gas and dust in the disk, allowing material to spiral inward and accrete onto the central star (as observed in young stellar systems with known circumstellar material). The source of this disk viscosity is uncertain, but the most likely source is electromagnetic interactions between ionized species, known as the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Dead zones may be created when the local gas is insufficiently ionized to support the MRI. They can occur, for example, when the gas column density is large enough to protect the inner zones of the disk from ionization by cosmic rays.

See Also

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Avi M. Mandell

Authors
  1. Avi M. Mandell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avi M. Mandell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Mandell, A.M. (2014). Protoplanetary Disk Dead Zone. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_394-4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_394-4

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation