If planetesimal formation is an efficient process, as suggested by several models involving gravitational collapse of pebble clouds, then, before long, a significant part of the primordial dust mass should be absorbed in many km sized objects. A good understanding of the total amount of solids in the disk around a young star is crucial for planet formation theory. But as the mass of particles above the mm size cannot be assessed observationally, one must ask how much mass is hidden in bigger objects. We perform 0-d local simulations to study how the planetesimal to dust and pebble ratio is evolving in time and to develop an understanding of the potentially existing mass in planetesimals for a certain amount of dust and pebbles at a given disk age. We perform a parameter study based on a model considering dust growth, planetesimal formation and collisional fragmentation of planetesimals, while neglecting radial transport processes. While at early times, dust is the dominant solid particle species, there is a phase during which planetesimals make up a significant portion of the total mass starting at approximately $10^4 - 10^6$ yr. The time of this phase and the maximal total planetesimal mass strongly depend on the distance to the star $R$, the initial disk mass, and the efficiency of planetesimal formation $ε$. After approximately $10^6$ yr, our model predicts planetesimal collisions to dominate, which resupplies small particles. In our model, planetesimals form fast and everywhere in the disk. For a given $ε$, we were able to relate the dust content and mass of a given disk to its planetesimal content, providing us with some helpful basic intuition about mass distribution of solids and its dependence on underlying physical processes.
About $20\%$ of exoplanets discovered by radial velocity surveys reside in stellar binaries. To clarify their origin one has to understand the dynamics of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks within binaries. The standard description, accounting for only gas drag and gravity of the companion star has been challenged recently, as the gravity of the protoplanetary disk was shown to play a crucial role in planetesimal dynamics. An added complication is the tendency of protoplanetary disks in binaries to become eccentric, giving rise to additional excitation of planetesimal eccentricity. Here, fo…
Using self-consistent models of turbulent particle growth in an evolving protoplanetary nebula of solar composition we find that recently proposed local metallicity and Stokes number criteria necessary for the streaming instability to generate gravitationally bound particle overdensities are generally not approached anywhere in the disk during the first million years, an epoch in which meteoritic and observational evidence strongly suggests that the formation of the first planetesimals and perhaps giant planet core accretion is already occurring.
After 25 years of laboratory research on protoplanetary dust agglomeration, a consistent picture of the various processes that involve colliding dust aggregates has emerged. Besides sticking, bouncing and fragmentation, other effects, like, e.g., erosion or mass transfer, have now been extensively studied. Coagulation simulations consistently show that $\rm μ$m-sized dust grains can grow to mm- to cm-sized aggregates before they encounter the bouncing barrier, whereas sub-$\rm μ$m-sized water-ice particles can directly grow to planetesimal sizes. For siliceous materials, other processes have t…
(abridged) Angular momentum transport and accretion in protoplanetary discs are generally believed to be driven by MHD turbulence via the magneto-rotational instability (MRI). The dynamics of solid bodies embedded in such discs (dust grains, boulders, planetesimals and planets) may be strongly affected by the turbulence, such that the formation pathways for planetary systems are determined in part by the strength and spatial distribution of the turbulent flow. We examine the dynamics of planetesimals, with radii between 1m â 10 km, embedded in turbulent protoplanetary discs, using three dimens…
Models of dust coagulation and subsequent planetesimal formation are usually computed on the backdrop of an already fully formed protoplanetary disk model. At the same time, observational studies suggest that planetesimal formation should start early, possibly even before the protoplanetary disk is fully formed. In this paper, we investigate under which conditions planetesimals already form during the disk buildup stage, in which gas and dust fall onto the disk from its parent molecular cloud. We couple our earlier planetesimal formation model at the water snow line to a simple model of disk f…
Nearly-axisymmetric gaps and rings are commonly observed in protoplanetary discs. The leading theory regarding the origin of these patterns is that they are due to dust trapping at the edges of gas gaps induced by the gravitational torques from embedded planets. If the concentration of solids at the gap edges becomes high enough, it could potentially result in planetesimal formation by the streaming instability. We test this hypothesis by performing global 1-D simulations of dust evolution and planetesimal formation in a protoplanetary disc that is perturbed by multiple planets. We explore dif…
Recent observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed ring-like structures that can be associated to pressure maxima. Pressure maxima are known to be dust collectors and planet migration traps. Most of planet formation works are based either on the pebble accretion model or on the planetesimal accretion model. However, recent studies proposed the possible formation of Jupiter by the hybrid accretion of pebbles and planetesimals. We aim to study the full process of planet formation consisting of dust evolution, planetesimal formation and planet growth at a pressure maximum in a protoplaneta…
Aims. We investigate the feasibility of planetesimal growth in circumbinary protoplanetary disks around the observed systems Kepler- 16 and Kepler-34 under the gravitational influence of a precessing eccentric gas disk. Methods. We embed the results of our previous hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary disks around binaries into an N-body code to perform 3D, high-resolution, inter-particle gravity-enabled simulations of planetesimal growth and dynamics that include the gravitational force imparted by the gas. Results. Including the full, precessing asymmetric gas disk generates high ecc…
One of the first stages of planet formation is the growth of small planetesimals and their accumulation into large planetesimals and planetary embryos. This early stage occurs much before the dispersal of most of the gas from the protoplanetary disk. Due to their different aerodynamic properties, planetesimals of different sizes/shapes experience different drag forces from the gas at these stage. Such differential forces produce a wind-shearing effect between close by, different size planetesimals. For any two planetesimals, a wind-shearing radius can be considered, at which the differential a…
Axisymmetric dust rings are a ubiquitous feature of young protoplanetary disks. These rings are likely caused by pressure bumps in the gas profile; a small bump can induce a traffic jam-like pattern in the dust density, while a large bump may halt radial dust drift entirely. The resulting increase in dust concentration may trigger planetesimal formation by the streaming instability (SI), as the SI itself requires some initial concentration. Here we present the first 3D simulations of planetesimal formation in the presence of a pressure bump modeled specifically after those observed by ALMA. In…
(abridged) Accretion in protoplanetary discs is thought to be driven by [...] turbulence via the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Recent work has shown that a planetesimal swarm embedded in a fully turbulent disc is subject to strong excitation of the velocity dispersion, leading to collisional destruction of bodies with radii R_p < 100 km. Significant diffusion of planetesimal semimajor axes also arises, leading to large-scale spreading of the planetesimal population throughout the inner regions of the protoplanetary disc, in apparent contradiction of constraints provided by the distribut…
One of the first stages of planet formation is the growth of small planetesimals. This early stage occurs much before the dispersal of most of the gas from the protoplanetary disk. Due to their different aerodynamic properties, planetesimals of different sizes and shapes experience different drag forces from the gas during this time. Such differential forces produce a wind-shearing (WISH) effect between close by, different size planetesimals. For any two planetesimals, a WISH radius can be considered, at which the differential acceleration due to the wind becomes greater than the mutual gravit…
We investigate the kinematic evolution of planetesimals in self-gravitating discs, combining Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamical (SPH) simulations of the disc gas with a gravitationally coupled population of test particle planetesimals. We find that at radii of 10s of au (which is where we expect planetesimals to be possibly formed in such discs) the planetesimals' eccentricities are rapidly pumped to values $>$ 0.1 within the timescales for which the disc is in the self-gravitating regime. The high resulting velocity dispersion and the lack of planetesimal concentration in the spiral arms means …
This chapter highlights the properties of turbulence and meso-scale flow structures in protoplanetary disks and their role in the planet formation process. Here we focus on the formation of planetesimals from a gravitational collapse of a pebble cloud. Large scale and long lived flow structures - vortices and zonal flows - are a consequence of weak magneto and hydrodynamic instabilities in the pressure and entropy stratified quasi-Keplerian shear flow interacting with the fast rotation of the disk. The vortices and zonal flows on the other hand are particle traps tapping into the radial pebble…
Detections of planets in eccentric, close (separations of ~20 AU) binary systems such as αCen or γCep provide an important test of planet formation theories. Gravitational perturbations from the companion are expected to excite high planetesimal eccentricities resulting in destruction, rather than growth, of objects with sizes of up to several hundred km in collisions of similar-size bodies. It was recently suggested that gravity of a massive axisymmetric gaseous disk in which planetesimals are embedded drives rapid precession of their orbits, suppressing eccentricity excitation. However, disk…
In the standard model for giant planet formation, the planetary growth begins with accretion of solids followed by a buildup of a gaseous atmosphere as more solids are accreted, and finally, by rapid accretion of gas. The interaction of the solids with the gaseous envelope determines the subsequent planetary growth and the final internal structure. In this work we simulate the interaction of planetesimals with a growing giant planet (proto-Jupiter) and investigate how different treatments of the planetesimal-envelope interaction affect the heavy-element distribution, and the inferred core mass…
When planetesimals grow via collisions in a turbulent disk, stirring through density fluctuation caused by turbulence effectively increases the relative velocities between planetesimals, which suppresses the onset of runaway growth. We investigate the onset of runaway growth in a turbulent disk through simulations that calculate the mass and velocity evolution of planetesimals. When planetesimals are small, the average relative velocity between planetesimals, $v_{\rm r}$, is much greater than their surface escape velocity, $v_{\rm esc}$, so that runaway growth does not occur. As planetesimals …
The protoplanetary disks of Herbig Ae stars eventually dissipate leaving a tenuous debris disk comprised of planetesimals and dust, as well as possibly gas and planets. This paper uses the properties of 10-20Myr A star debris disks to consider the protoplanetary to debris disk transition. The physical distinction between these two classes is argued to rest on the presence of primordial gas in sufficient quantities to dominate the motion of small dust grains (not the secondary nature of the dust or its level of stirring). This motivates an observational classification based on the dust spectrum…
Transporting solids of different sizes is an essential process in the evolution of protoplanetary disks and planet formation. Large solids are supposed to drift inward; high-temperature minerals found in comets are assumed to have been transported outward. From low-gravity experiments on parabolic flights we studied the light-induced erosion of dusty bodies caused by a solid-state greenhouse effect and photophoresis within a dust bed's upper layers. The gravity levels studied were 0.16g, 0.38g, 1g, and 1.7g. The light flux during the experiments was 12 +/- 2 kW/m^2 and the ambient pressure was…
The dynamics of planetesimals and planetary cores may be strongly influenced by density perturbations driven by magneto-rotational turbulence in their natal protoplanetary gas disks. Using the local shearing box approximation, we perform numerical simulations of planetesimals moving as massless particles in a turbulent, magnetized, unstratified gas disk. Our fiducial disk model shows turbulent accretion characterized by a Shakura-Sunyaev viscosity parameter of $α\sim 10^{-2}$, with root-mean-square density perturbations of $\sim$10%. We measure the statistical evolution of particle orbital pro…
Planet formation around one component of a tight, eccentric binary system such as $γ$ Cephei (with semimajor axis around 20 AU) is theoretically challenging because of destructive high-velocity collisions between planetesimals. Despite this fragmentation barrier, planets are known to exist in such orbital configurations. Here we present a novel numerical framework for carrying out multi-annulus coagulation-fragmentation calculations of planetesimal growth, which fully accounts for the specifics of planetesimal dynamics in binaries, details of planetesimal collision outcomes, and the radial tra…
The similar orbital distances and detection rates of debris disks and the prominent rings observed in protoplanetary disks suggest a potential connection between these structures. We explore this connection with new calculations that follow the evolution of rings of pebbles and planetesimals as they grow into planets and generate dusty debris. Depending on the initial solid mass and planetesimal formation efficiency, the calculations predict diverse outcomes for the resulting planet masses and accompanying debris signature. When compared with debris disk incidence rates as a function of lumino…
Dust coagulation in a protoplanetary disk is the first step of planetesimal formation. However, a pathway from dust aggregates to planetesimals remains unclear. Both numerical simulations and laboratory experiments have suggested the importance of dust structure in planetesimal formation, but it is not well constrained by observations. We study how dust structure and porosity alters polarimetric images at millimeter wavelength by performing 3D radiative transfer simulations. Aggregates with different porosity and fractal dimension are considered. As a result, we find that dust aggregates with …
The streaming instability is a promising mechanism to induce the formation of planetesimals. Nonetheless, this process has been found in previous studies to require either a dust-to-gas surface density ratio or a dust size that is enhanced compared to observed values. Employing two-dimensional global simulations of protoplanetary disks, we show that the vertical shear instability and the streaming instability in concert can cause dust concentration that is sufficient for planetesimal formation for lower surface density ratios and smaller dust sizes than the streaming instability in isolation, …
Recent years have seen growing interest in the streaming instability as a candidate mechanism to produce planetesimals. However, these investigations have been limited to small-scale simulations. We now present the results of a global protoplanetary disk evolution model that incorporates planetesimal formation by the streaming instability, along with viscous accretion, photoevaporation by EUV, FUV, and X-ray photons, dust evolution, the water ice line, and stratified turbulence. Our simulations produce massive (60-130 $M_\oplus$) planetesimal belts beyond 100 au and up to $\sim 20 M_\oplus$ of…
Aeolian-erosion is a destructive process which can erode small-size planetary objects through their interaction with a gaseous environment. Aeolian-erosion operates in a wide range of environments and under various conditions. Aeolian-erosion has been extensively explored in the context of geophysics in terrestrial planets. Here we show that aeolian-erosion of cobbles, boulders and small planetesimals in protoplanetary-discs can constitute a significant barrier for the early stages of planet formation. We use analytic calculations to show that under the conditions prevailing in protoplanetary-…
The streaming instability (SI) provides a promising mechanism for planetesimal formation because of its ability to concentrate solids into dense clumps. The degree of clumping strongly depends on the height-integrated solid to gas mass ratio Z in protoplanetary disks (PPDs). In this letter, we show that the magnitude of the radial pressure gradient (RPG) which drives the SI (characterized by $q\equivηv_K/c_s$, where $ηv_K$ is the reduction of Keplerian velocity due to the RPG and $c_s$ is the sound speed) also strongly affects clumping. We present local two-dimensional hybrid numerical simulat…
We introduce a new Lagrangian smooth-particle method to model the growth and drift of pebbles in protoplanetary disks. The Lagrangian nature of the model makes it especially suited to follow characteristics of individual (groups of) particles, such as their composition. In this work we focus on the water content of solid particles. Planetesimal formation via streaming instability is taken into account, partly based on previous results on streaming instability outside the water snowline that were presented in Schoonenberg & Ormel (2017). We validate our model by reproducing earlier results from…
Regular satellites of giant planets are formed by accretion of solid bodies in circumplanetary disks. Planetesimals that are moving on heliocentric orbits and are sufficiently large to be decoupled from the flow of the protoplanetary gas disk can be captured by gas drag from the circumplanetary disk. In the present work, we examine the distribution of captured planetesimals in circumplanetary disks using orbital integrations. We find that the number of captured planetesimals reaches an equilibrium state as a balance between continuous capture and orbital decay into the planet. The number of pl…
The question of what determines the width of Kuiper belt analogues (exoKuiper belts) is an open one. If solved, this understanding would provide valuable insights into the architecture, dynamics, and formation of exoplanetary systems. Recent observations by ALMA have revealed an apparent paradox in this field, the presence of radially narrow belts in protoplanetary discs that are likely the birthplaces of planetesimals, and exoKuiper belts nearly four times as wide in mature systems. If the parent planetesimals of this type of debris disc indeed form in these narrow protoplanetary rings via st…
Forming planetesimals from pebbles is a major challenge in our current understanding of planet formation. In a protoplanetary disk, pebbles drift inward near the disk midplane via gas drag and they may enter a dead zone. In this context, we identified that the backreaction of the drag of pebbles onto the gas could lead to a runaway pile-up of pebbles, the so-called no-drift mechanism. We improve upon the previous study of the no-drift mechanism by investigating the nature and characteristics of the resultant planetesimal belt. We performed 1D diffusion-advection simulations of drifting pebbles…
Recent simulations have shown that the formation of planets in circumbinary configurations (such as those recently discovered by Kepler) is dramatically hindered at the planetesimal accretion stage. The combined action of the binary and the protoplanetary disk acts to raise impact velocities between km-sized planetesimals beyond their destruction threshold, halting planet formation within at least 10 AU from the binary. It has been proposed that a primordial population of "large" planetesimals (100 km or more in size), as produced by turbulent concentration mechanisms, would be able to bypass …
According to the core-accretion scenario, planets form in protostellar disks through the condensation of dust, coagulation of planetesimals, and emergence of protoplanetary embryos. At a few AU in a minimum mass nebula, embryos' growth is quenched by dynamical isolation due to the depletion of planetesimals in their feeding zone. However, embryos with masses ($M_p$) in the range of a few Earth masses ($M_\oplus$) migrate toward a transition radius between the inner viscously heated and outer irradiated regions of their natal disk. Their limiting isolation mass increases with the planetesimals …
Planetesimal formation stage represents a major gap in our understanding of the planet formation process. The late-stage planet accretion models typically make arbitrary assumptions about planetesimals and pebbles distribution while the dust evolution models predict that planetesimal formation is only possible at some orbital distances. We want to test the importance of water snow line for triggering formation of the first planetesimals during the gas-rich phase of protoplanetary disk, when cores of giant planets have to form. We connect prescriptions for gas disk evolution, dust growth and fr…
In the classical core-accretion planet formation scenario, rapid inward migration and accretion timescales of kilometer size planetesimals may not favor the formation of massive cores of giant planets before the dissipation of protoplanetary disks. On the other hand, the existence of pressure maxima in the disk could act as migration traps and locations for solid material accumulation, favoring the formation of massive cores. We aim to study the radial drift of pebbles and planetesimals and planet migration at pressure maxima in a protoplanetary disk and their implications for the formation of…
The composition of planets is largely determined by the chemical and dynamical evolution of the disk during planetesimal formation and growth. To predict the diversity of exoplanet compositions, previous works modeled planetesimal composition as the equilibrium chemical composition of a proto- planetary disk at a single time. However, planetesimals form over an extended period of time, during which, elements sequentially condense out of the gas as the disk cools and are accreted onto planetesi- mals. To account for the evolution of the disk during planetesimal formation, we couple models of di…
Planetesimals form in gas-rich protoplanetary disks around young stars. However, protoplanetary disks fade in about 10 Myr. The planetesimals (and also many of the planets) left behind are too dim to study directly. Fortunately, collisions between planetesimals produce dusty debris disks. These debris disks trace the processes of terrestrial planet formation for 100 Myr and of exoplanetary system evolution out to 10 Gyr. This chapter begins with a summary of planetesimal formation as a prelude to the epoch of planetesimal destruction. Our review of debris disks covers the key issues, including…
Planetesimals in gaseous protoplanetary disks may grow by collecting dust particles. Hydrodynamical studies show that small particles generally avoid collisions with the planetesimals because they are entrained by the flow around them. This occurs when $St$, the Stokes number, defined as the ratio of the dust stopping time to the planetesimal crossing time, becomes much smaller than unity. However, these studies have been limited to the laminar case, whereas these disks are believed to be turbulent. We want to estimate the influence of gas turbulence on the dust-planetesimal collision rate and…
The consistency of planet formation models suffers from the disconnection between the regime of small and large bodies. This is primarily caused by so-called growth barriers: the direct growth of larger bodies is halted at centimetre-sized objects and particular conditions are required for the formation of larger, gravitationally bound planetesimals. We aim to connect models of dust evolution and planetesimal formation to identify regions of protoplanetary discs that are favourable for the formation of kilometre-sized bodies and the first planetary embryos. We combine semi-analytical models of…
The formation of planetesimals via gravitational instability of the dust layer in a protoplanetary disks demands that there be local patches where dust is concentrated by a factor of $\sim$ a few $\times 10^3$ over the background value. Vortices in protoplanetary disks may concentrate dust to these values allowing them to be the nurseries of planetesimals. The concentration of dust in the cores of vortices increases the dust-gas ratio of the core compared to the background disk, creating a "heavy vortex." In this work, we show that these vortices are subject to an instability which we have cal…
We study the collapse of pebble clouds with a statistical model to find the internal structure of comet-sized planetesimals. Pebble-pebble collisions occur during the collapse and the outcome of these collisions affect the resulting structure of the planetesimal. We expand our previous models by allowing the individual pebble sub-clouds to contract at different rates and by including the effect of gas drag on the contraction speed and in energy dissipation. Our results yield comets that are porous pebble-piles with particle sizes varying with depth. In the surface layers there is a mixture of …
(Abridged) We present local 2D and 3D hybrid numerical simulations of particles and gas in the midplane of protoplanetary disks (PPDs) using the Athena code. The particles are coupled to gas aerodynamically, with particle-to-gas feedback included. Magnetorotational turbulence is ignored as an approximation for the dead zone of PPDs, and we ignore particle self-gravity to study the precursor of planetesimal formation. Our simulations include a wide size distribution of particles, ranging from strongly coupled particles with dimensionless stopping time tau_s=Omega t_stop=1e-4 to marginally coupl…
We examine the consequences of a model for the circulation of solids in a protoplanetary nebula in which aerodynamic drag is counterbalanced by the recycling of material to the outer disc by a protostellar outflow or a disc wind. This population of circulating dust eventually becomes unstable to the formation of planetesimals by gravitational instability, and results in the ultimate deposition of 30--50 earth masses in planetesimals on scales R< 1 AU. Such a model may provide an appropriate justification for the approximately power law initial conditions needed to reproduce observed planetary …
The first stages of planet formation take place in protoplanetary disks that are largely made up of gas. Understanding how the gas affects planetesimals in the protoplanetary disk is therefore essential. In this paper, we discuss whether or not gas flow can erode planetesimals. We estimate how much shear stress is exerted onto the planetesimal surface by the gas as a function of disk and planetesimal properties. To determine whether erosion can take place, we compare this with previous measurements of the critical stress that a pebble-pile planetesimal can withstand before erosion begins. If e…
The Al/Si and Mg/Si ratios in non-carbonaceous chondrites are lower than the solar (i.e., CI-chondritic) values, in sharp contrast to the non-CI carbonaceous meteorites and the Earth, which are enriched in refractory elements and have Mg/Si ratios that are solar or larger. We show that the formation of a first generation of planetesimals during the condensation of refractory elements implies the subsequent formation of residual condensates with strongly sub-solar Al/Si and Mg/Si ratios. The mixing of residual condensates with different amounts of material with solar refractory/Si element ratio…
The formation and evolution of protoplanetary discs remains a challenge from both a theoretical and numerical standpoint. In this work we first perform a series of tests of our new hybrid algorithm presented in Glaschke, Amaro-Seoane and Spurzem 2011 (henceforth Paper I) that combines the advantages of high accuracy of direct-summation N-body methods with a statistical description for the planetesimal disc based on Fokker-Planck techniques. We then address the formation of planets, with a focus on the formation of protoplanets out of planetesimals. We find that the evolution of the system is d…
Small, pebble-sized objects and large bodies of planetesimal size both play important roles in planet formation. They form the evolutionary steps of dust growth in their own respect. However, at later times, they are also thought to provide background populations of mass that larger bodies might feed upon. What we suggest in this work is that starting at times of viscous stirring, planetesimals on eccentric orbits could simply explode as they become supersonic in comparison to small, porous planetary bodies entering Earth's atmosphere. We present a toy model of planetesimal motion and destruct…
Planetesimal Formation under Realistic Gas Dynamics: Dust Concentration in Turbulent and Windy Protoplanetary Disks
CAS Key Laboratory of Planetary Sciences, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院行星科学重点实验室、紫金山天文台）；Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University（清华大学高等研究院）；Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University（清华大学天文学系）
The sticking of micron sized dust particles due to surface forces in circumstellar disks is the first stage in the production of asteroids and planets. The key ingredients that drive this process are the relative velocity between the dust particles in this environment and the complex physics of dust aggregate collisions. Here we present the results of a collision model, which is based on laboratory experiments of these aggregates. We investigate the maximum aggregate size and mass that can be reached by coagulation in protoplanetary disks. We model the growth of dust aggregates at 1 AU at the …
We present a model in which planetesimal disks are built from the combination of planetesimal formation and accretion of radially drifting pebbles onto existing planetesimals. In this model, the rate of accretion of pebbles onto planetesimals quickly outpaces the rate of direct planetesimal formation in the inner disk. This allows for the formation of a high mass inner disk without the need for enhanced planetesimal formation or a massive protoplanetary disk. Our proposed mechanism for planetesimal disk growth does not require any special conditions to operate. Consequently, we expect that hig…
We present an algebraic map (MAMA) for the dynamical and collisional evolution of a planetesimal swarm orbiting the main star of a tight binary system (TBS). The orbital evolution of each planetesimal is dictated by the secular perturbations of the secondary star and gas drag due to interactions with a protoplanetary disk. The gas disk is assumed eccentric with a constant precession rate. Gravitational interactions between the planetesimals are ignored. All bodies are assumed coplanar. A comparison with full N-body simulations shows that the map is of the order of 100 times faster, while prese…
In parabolic flight experiments we studied the wind induced erosion of granular beds composed of spherical glass beads at low gravity and low ambient pressure. Varying g-levels were set by centrifugal forces. Expanding existing parameter sets to a pressure range between $p=300-1200\,$Pa and to g-levels of $g=1.1-2.2\,\rm m\,s^{-2}$ erosion thresholds are still consistent with the existing model for wind erosion on planetary surfaces by Shao & Lu (2000). These parameters were the lowest values that could technically be reached by the experiment. The experiments decrease the necessary range of e…
Context. The growth process of dust particles in protoplanetary disks can be modeled via numerical dust coagulation codes. In this approach, physical effects that dominate the dust growth process often must be implemented in a parameterized form. Due to a lack of these parameterizations, existing studies of dust coagulation have ignored the effects a hydrodynamical gas flow can have on grain growth, even though it is often argued that the flow could significantly contribute either positively or negatively to the growth process. Aims. We intend to provide a quantification of hydrodynamical effe…
Planetesimal formation is a crucial yet poorly understood process in planet formation. It is widely believed that planetesimal formation is the outcome of dust clumping by the streaming instability (SI). However, recent analytical and numerical studies have shown that the SI can be damped or suppressed by external turbulence, and at least the outer regions of protoplanetary disks are likely weakly turbulent due to magneto-rotational instability (MRI). We conduct high-resolution local shearing-box simulations of hybrid particle-gas magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), incorporating ambipolar diffusion a…
The early stages of planet formation are still not well understood. Coagulation models have revealed numerous obstacles to the dust growth, such as the bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift barriers. We study the interplay between dust coagulation and drift in order to determine the conditions in protoplanetary disk that support the formation of planetesimals. We focus on planetesimal formation via sweep-up and investigate whether it can take place in a realistic protoplanetary disk. We have developed a new numerical model that resolves spatial distribution of dust in the radial and vertica…
