Peter Pan discs are a recently discovered class of long-lived discs around low-mass stars that survive for an order of magnitude longer than typical discs .
In this paper we use disc evolutionary models to determine the required balance between initial conditions and the magnitude of dispersal processes for Peter Pan discs to be primordial .
We find that we require low transport ( \alpha \sim 10 ^ { -4 } ) , extremely low external photoevaporation ( \leq 10 ^ { -9 } { M } _ { \odot } { yr ^ { -1 } } ) , and relatively high disc masses ( > 0.25 M _ { * } ) to produce discs with ages and accretion rates consistent with Peter Pan discs .
Higher transport ( \alpha = 10 ^ { -3 } ) results in disc lifetimes that are too short and even lower transport ( \alpha = 10 ^ { -5 } ) leads to accretion rates smaller than those observed .
The required external photoevaporation rates are so low that primordial Peter Pan discs will have formed in rare environments on the periphery of low-mass star-forming regions , or deeply embedded , and as such have never subsequently been exposed to higher amounts of UV radiation .
Given that such an external photoevaporation scenario is rare , the required disc parameters and accretion properties may reflect the initial conditions and accretion rates of a much larger fraction of the discs around low-mass stars .