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Title: Review: disk evolution and lifetimes
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Authors:
Lee Hartmann,
CfA
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Abstract:
I will review
observations of the evolution of disk dust emission and mass accretion.
As has been
recognized for over a decade, timescales for the disappearance of
small dust in
the inner disk and the cessation of disk accretion are similar, a few
to 10 Myr, with
a wide range of outcomes for individual objects. Some, but not
all,
of this
variation in evolutionary timescales is probably due to the presence of
binary
(or multiple)
companions. I will offer a few conjectures concerning the
mechanisms
of disk
evolution.
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