An enhanced carbon chemistry in disks around very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs?
Ilaria Pascucci
University of Arizona


There is growing observational evidence that disk evolution is stellar-mass dependent. In this talk, I will show that these dependencies extend to the atomic and molecular content of disk atmospheres. I will summarize the main results from a unique dataset of high-resolution Spitzer/IRS spectra from 8 very low-mass star and brown dwarf disks. I will present the first detections of ionized neon, molecular hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and water in these disks and discuss implications for the heating and ionization of disk atmospheres. Finally, I will show that BD disks have on average higher C2H2/HCN and HCN/H2O line flux and column density ratios than T Tauri disks. I will speculate on the implications of these trends for the O/C ratio in inner disks and the bulk composition of rocky planets.