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Infrared observations probe the warm gas in the inner regions ofplanet-forming disks around young sun-like, T Tauri stars. In these systems,H$_2$O, OH, CO, CO$_2$, C$_2$H$_2$, and HCN have been widely observed. However,the potentially abundant carbon carrier CH$_4$ remains largely unconstrained.The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to characterize mid-infraredfluxes of CH$_4$ along with several other carriers of carbon and oxygen. Inanticipation of the JWST mission, we model the physical and chemical structureof a T Tauri disk to predict the abundances and mid-infrared fluxes ofobservable molecules. A range of compositional scenarios are explored involvingthe destruction of refractory carbon materials and alterations to the totalelemental (volatile and refractory) C/O ratio. Photon-driven chemistry in theinner disk surface layers largely destroys the initial carbon and oxygencarriers. This causes models with the same physical structure and C/O ratio tohave similar steady state surface compositions, regardless of the initialchemical abundances. Initial disk compositions are better preserved in theshielded inner disk midplane. The degree of similarity between the surface andmidplane compositions in the inner disk will depend on the characteristics ofvertical mixing at these radii. Our modeled fluxes of observable moleculesrespond sensitively to changes in the disk gas temperature, inner radius, andthe total elemental C/O ratio. As a result, mid-infrared observations of diskswill be useful probes of these fundamental disk parameters, including the C/Oratio, which can be compared to values determined for planetary atmospheres.

Observing Carbon & Oxygen Carriers in Protoplanetary Disks at Mid-infrared Wavelengths