EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
The timescale of gas dispersion in protoplanetary disks

Davide Fedele
Universita' di Padova, Italy
MPIA-Heidelberg, Germany
There is a growing consensus that the inner part of protoplanetary disks are cleared of dust within the first 5-9 Myr. The main mechanisms responsible for disk dispersion are viscous accretion and photoevaporation. Planet formation is likely in competition with these processes. To better understand the evolution of disks and to constraint the age of planet formation, it is fundamental to measure the gas dispersion timescale. We present a multi-object spectroscopic survey of a number of young clusters aimed at determining the mass accretion timescale in protoplanetary disks. This will pose a strict upper limit on the gas dispersion timescale and then on the time available to form planets.