Recent theoretical work suggests that disk evolution and dispersal might be driven by a combination of MHD and photoevaporative winds (e.g., Turner et al. 2014, Alexander 2014, Gorti et al. 2016, Ercolano & Pascucci 2017).
Schematic disk evolution and dispersal (Ercolano & Pascucci 2017 adapted from Alexander et al. 2014).
In the past five years our group has gathered and analyzed a large sample of high-resolution (dv<10km/s) optical and infrared spectra to test theoretical predictions and empirically assess the role of disk winds.
The high-resolution optical surveys have revealed that MHD disk winds within a few au are common and kinematically linked to jets. Forbidden line ratios constrain the wind temperature and electron density, critical parameters to estimate mass loss rates. The main results from our optical surveys are summarized in the following papers: Pascucci et al. 2015, Simon et al. 2016, Fang et al. 2018, Banzatti et al. 2019. The fully reduced spectra presented in these papers can be downloaded here HighResSpectra.tar.
Acknowledgments. This work has been mostly supported by two Collaborative NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants to S. Edwards, U. Gorti, and I. Pascucci (IDs: 1312962 and 1313003 & IDs: 1715022, 1713780, and 1714229). Partial support was also provided by the “Earths in Other Solar Systems” NASA/NExSS program.