Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/iii/paper-57/1/b/solution

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 gives
The 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 is
This 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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