Studying the emission of forbidden lines from protoplanetary disks and using it to distinguish between different wind models

We use Cloudy to simulate the profiles of prominent forbidden lines in protoplanetary disks, such as [O I] 6300 Å and [Ne II] 12800 nm, in the photoevaporative wind models of Owen and collaborators, and in more recent magnetothermal models by Bai et al (2016) and Wang et al. (2019). We find that, at typical measured accretion luminosities, far-ultraviolet (FUV) pumping competes with collisions as an excitation mechanism of the [O I] lines. These two mechanisms originate from distinct regions in the protostellar disk and wind. Consequently, the line strengths and shapes calculated for a given wind model will be affected by the inclusion of FUV pumping. Moreover, unlike unmagnetized photoevaporative winds, magnetothermal models can produce broad low-velocity line components when launched from the inner disk (< 0.5 AU). It has been proposed that the [Ne II] 12800 nm is a unique signature of x-ray driven photoevaporative winds, so we have also studied the formation of this line in magnetothermal winds.