Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/iii/paper-57/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 57 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The wind removes of mass per unit time from an annulus; is already the surface-density loss term in the supplied mass conservation equation, so there is no additional two-face factor. Integrating the photoevaporation profile givesThe convergence at infinity is important: the loss is concentrated near the photoevaporative gravitational radius. Using yields , or about . The initial disk mass is , so the wind-only depletion time isThis estimate treats the heated area and wind normalization as fixed and neglects additional removal through stellar accretion. Once the disk shrinks, its wind rate and geometry need not remain constant.
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