The connection between the nature of a protoplanetary disk and that of a debris disk is not well understood. Dust evolution, planet formation, and disk dissipation likely play a role in the processes involved. We aim to reconcile both manifestations of dusty circumstellar disks through a study of optically thin Class III disks and how they correlate to younger and older disks. In this work, we collect literature and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array archival millimeter fluxes for 85 disks (8%) of all Class III disks across nearby star-forming regions. We derive millimeter-dust masses M dust and compare these with Class II and debris disk samples in the context of excess infrared luminosity, accretion rate, and age. The mean M dust of Class III disks is 0.29 ± 0.19 M ⊕. We propose a new evolutionary scenario wherein radial drift is very efficient for nonstructured disks during the Class II phase resulting in a rapid M dust decrease. In addition, we find possible evidence for long infrared protoplanetary disk timescales, ∼8 Myr, consistent with overall slow disk evolution. In structured disks, the presence of dust traps allows for the formation of planetesimal belts at large radii, such as those observed in debris disks. We propose therefore that the planetesimal belts in debris disks are the result of dust traps in structured disks, whereas protoplanetary disks without dust traps decrease in dust mass through radial drift and are therefore undetectable as debris disks after the gas dissipation. These results provide a hypothesis for a novel view of disk evolution.

VLA 1623 West is an ambiguous source that has been described as a shocked cloudlet as well as a protostellar disk. We use deep ALMA 1.3 and 0.87 mm observations to constrain its shape and structure to determine its origins better. We use a series of geometric models to fit the uv visibilities at both wavelengths with GALARIO. Although the real visibilities show structures similar to what has been identified as gaps and rings in protoplanetary disks, we find that a modified flat-topped Gaussian model at high inclination provides the best fit to the observations. This fit agrees well with expectations for an optically thick, highly inclined disk. Nevertheless, we find that the geometric models consistently yield positive residuals at the four corners of the disk at both wavelengths. We interpret these residuals as evidence that the disk is flared in the millimeter dust. We use a simple toy model for an edge-on flared disk and find that the residuals best match a disk with flaring that is mainly restricted to the outer disk at R ≳ 30 au. Thus, VLA 1623W may represent a young protostellar disk where the large dust grains have not yet had enough time to settle into the midplane. This result may have implications for how disk evolution and vertical dust settling impact the initial conditions leading to planet formation.

The lifetime of protoplanetary disks is a crucial parameter for planet formation research. Observations of disk fractions in star clusters imply median disk lifetimes of 1–3 Myr. This very short disk lifetime calls for planet formation to occur extremely rapidly. We show that young, distant clusters (≤5 Myr, >200 pc) often dominate these types of studies. Such clusters frequently suffer from limiting magnitudes leading to an over-representation of high-mass stars. As high-mass stars disperse their disks earlier, the derived disk lifetimes apply best to high-mass stars rather than low-mass stars. Including only nearby clusters (<200 pc) minimizes the effect of limiting magnitude. In this case, the median disk lifetime of low-mass stars is with 5–10 Myr, thus much longer than often claimed. The longer timescales provide planets ample time to form. How high-mass stars form planets so much faster than low-mass stars is the next grand challenges.

Context. Planet formation theory suggests that planet bulk compositions are likely to reflect the chemical abundance ratios of their host star’s photosphere. Variations in the abundance of particular chemical species in stellar photospheres between different galactic stellar populations demonstrate that there are differences among the expected solid planet bulk compositions. Aims. We aim to present planetary mass-radius relations of solid planets for kinematically differentiated stellar populations, namely, the thin disc, thick disc, and halo. Methods. Using two separate internal structure models, we generated synthetic planets using bulk composition inputs derived from stellar abundances. We explored two scenarios, specifically iron-silicate planets at 0.1 AU and silicate-iron-water planets at 4 AU. Results. We show that there is a persistent statistical difference in the expected mass-radius relations of solid planets among the different galactic stellar populations. At 0.1 AU for silicate-iron planets, there is a 1.51–2.04% mean planetary radius difference between the thick and thin disc stellar populations, whilst for silicate-iron-water planets past the ice line at 4 AU, we calculate a 2.93–3.26% difference depending on the models. Between the halo and thick disc, we retrieve at 0.1 AU a 0.53–0.69% mean planetary radius difference, and at 4 AU we find a 1.24–1.49% difference depending on the model. Conclusions. Future telescopes (such as PLATO) will be able to precisely characterize solid exoplanets and demonstrate the possible existence of planetary mass-radius relationship variability between galactic stellar populations.