A number of protoplanetary disks observed with ALMA potentially provide direct examples of initial conditions for planetary systems. In particular, the HL Tau disk has been intensively studied, and its rings/gaps are conventionally interpreted to be a result of unseen massive planets embedded in the gaps. Based on this interpretation, we carried out N-body simulations to investigate orbital evolution of planets within the protoplanetary disk and after the disk dispersal. Before the disk dispersal, our N-body simulations include both migration and mass-growth of the planet coupled with evolution of the disk. By varying the disk parameters, we produce a variety of widely-separated planetary systems consisting of three super-Jupiters at the end of disk dispersal. We found the outer planet is more massive than the inner one, and the migration of the innermost planet is inefficient due to the accretion of outer planet(s). We also showed how the final configuration and the final planetary mass depend on disk parameters. The migration is found to be convergent and no planet-pair has a period ratio less than 2. After the disk dispersal, we switch to pure gravitational N-body simulations and integrate the orbits up to 10 Gyr. Most simulated systems remain stable for at least 10 Gyr. We discuss implications of our result in terms of the observed widely-separated planetary systems HR 8799 and PDS 70.
I attempt to summarize our knowledge of planet formation in evolving protoplanetary discs. I first review the physics of disc evolution and dispersal. For most of the disc lifetime evolution is driven by accretion and photoevaporation, and I discuss how the interplay between these processes shapes protoplanetary discs. I also discuss the observations that we use to test these models, and the major uncertainties that remain. I will then move on to consider planet formation and migration in evolving discs, and discuss how observations of both discs and planets can be used to inform our understan…
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.
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 …
Disc-driven planet migration is integral to the formation of planetary systems. In standard, gas-dominated protoplanetary discs, low-mass planets or planetary cores undergo rapid inwards migration and are lost to the central star. However, several recent studies indicate that the solid component in protoplanetary discs can have a significant dynamical effect on disc-planet interaction, especially when the solid-to-gas mass ratio approaches unity or larger and the dust-on-gas drag forces become significant. As there are several ways to raise the solid abundance in protoplanetary discs, for exam…
The known exoplanet population displays a great diversity of orbital architectures, and explaining the origin of this is a major challenge for planet formation theories. The gravitational interaction between young planets and their protoplanetary disks provides one way in which planetary orbits can be shaped during the formation epoch. Disk-planet interactions are strongly influenced by the structure and physical processes that drive the evolution of the protoplanetary disk. In this review we focus on how disk-planet interactions drive the migration of planets when different assumptions are ma…
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…
Puffed-up Edges of Planet-opened Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks. II. The Role of the Planet's Orbital Eccentricity
Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics(中央研究院天文及天文物理研究所);National Center for Theoretical Sciences(国家理论科学中心);Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学汤川研究所)
We present the most sensitive 3 mm-survey to date of protoplanetary disks carried in the Taurus-Auriga star forming region (average rms of about 0.3 mJy), using the IRAM PdBI. With our high detection rate of 17/19, we provide the first detections at wavelengths longer than about 1 mm for 12 sources. This enables us to study statistically the mm SED slopes and dust properties of faint disks and compare them to brighter disks using a uniform analysis method. With these new data and literature measurements at sub-millimeter and millimeter wavelengths, we analyze the dust properties of a sample of…
Recent observations of HL Tau revealed remarkably detailed structure within the system's circumstellar disc. A range of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the morphology, including, e.g., planet-disc interactions, condensation fronts, and secular gravitational instabilities. While embedded planets seem to be able to explain some of the major structure in the disc through interactions with gas and dust, the substructure, such as low-contrast rings and bands, are not so easily reproduced. Here, we show that dynamical interactions between three planets (only two of which are modelled) and a…
High-resolution sub-mm observations of some protoplanetary discs reveal non-asixymmetric features, which can often be interpreted as dust concentrations in vortices that form at the edges of gaps carved out by the embedded planets. We use recent results on the timescale for the planet-driven vortex development in low-viscosity discs to set constraints on the mass and age of a planet producing the vortex. Knowledge of the age of the central star in a vortex-bearing protoplanetary disc system allows one to set a lower limit on the planetary mass at the level of several tens of $M_\oplus$. Also, …
Waves reflected by the inner edge of a protoplanetary disk are shown to significantly modify Type I migration, even allowing the trapping of planets near the inner disk edge for small planets in a range of disk parameters. This may inform the distribution planets close to their central stars, as observed by the Kepler mission.
Observations of bright protoplanetary disks often show annular gaps in their dust emission. One interpretation of these gaps is disk-planet interaction. If so, fitting models of planetary gaps to observed protoplanetary disk gaps can reveal the presence of hidden planets. However, future surveys are expected to produce an ever-increasing number of protoplanetary disks with gaps. In this case, performing a customized fitting for each target becomes impractical owing to the complexity of disk-planet interaction. To this end, we introduce DPNNet (Disk Planet Neural Network), an efficient model of…
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…
The formation of planets depends on the underlying protoplanetary disc structure, which influences both the accretion and migration rates of embedded planets. The disc itself evolves on time-scales of several Myr during which both temperature and density profiles change as matter accretes onto the central star. Here we use a detailed model of an evolving disc to determine the growth of planets by pebble accretion and their migration through the disc. Cores that reach their pebble isolation mass accrete gas to finally form giant planets with extensive gas envelopes, while planets that do not re…
A giant planet creates a gap in a protoplanetary disk, which might explain the observed gaps in protoplanetary disks. The width and depth of the gaps depend on the planet mass and disk properties. We have performed two--dimensional hydrodynamic simulations for various planet masses, disk aspect ratios and viscosities, to obtain an empirical formula for the gap width. The gap width is proportional to the square root of the planet mass, -3/4 power of the disk aspect ratio and -1/4 power of the viscosity. This empirical formula enables us to estimate the mass of a planet embedded in the disk from…
Dust gaps and rings appear ubiquitous in bright protoplanetary disks. Disk-planet interaction with dust-trapping at the edges of planet-induced gaps is one plausible explanation. However, the sharpness of some observed dust rings indicate that sub-mm-sized dust grains have settled to a thin layer in some systems. We test whether or not such dust around gas gaps opened by planets can remain settled by performing three-dimensional, dust-plus-gas simulations of protoplanetary disks with an embedded planet. We find planets massive enough to open gas gaps stir small, sub-mm-sized dust grains to hig…
Recent observations show that rings and gaps are ubiquitous in protoplanetary discs. These features are often interpreted as being due to the presence of planets; however, the effect of planetary migration on the observed morphology has not been investigated hitherto. In this work we investigate whether multiwavelength mm/submm observations can detect signatures of planet migration, using 2D dusty hydrodynamic simulations to model the structures generated by migrating planets and synthesising ALMA continuum observations at 0.85 and 3 mm. We identify three possible morphologies for a migrating …
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…
(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…
We investigate the migration of a low-mass ($\lesssim 10 M_\oplus$) planet near the inner edge of a protoplanetary disc using two-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics simulations. We employ an inner boundary condition representing the truncation of the disc at the stellar corotation radius. As described by Tsang (2011), wave reflection at the inner disc boundary modifies the Type I migration torque on the planet, allowing migration to be halted before the planet reaches the inner edge of the disc. For low-viscosity discs ($α\lesssim 10^{-3}$), planets may be trapped with semi-major axes as large …
Recent observations of several protoplanetary discs have found evidence of departures from flat, circular motion in the inner regions of the disc. One possible explanation for these observations is a disc warp, which could be induced by a planet on a misaligned orbit. We present three-dimensional numerical simulations of the tidal interaction between a protoplanetary disc and a misaligned planet. For low planet masses we show that our simulations accurately model the evolution of inclined planet orbit (up to moderate inclinations). For a planet massive enough to carve a gap, the disc is separa…
The formation of planets with gaseous envelopes takes place in protoplanetary accretion discs on time-scales of several millions of years. Small dust particles stick to each other to form pebbles, pebbles concentrate in the turbulent flow to form planetesimals and planetary embryos and grow to planets, which undergo substantial radial migration. All these processes are influenced by the underlying structure of the protoplanetary disc, specifically the profiles of temperature, gas scale height and density. The commonly used disc structure of the Minimum Mass Solar Nebular (MMSN) is a simple pow…
Planetary migration in standard models of gaseous protoplanetary disks is known to be very rapid ($\sim 10^5$ years) jeopardizing the existence of planetary systems. We present a new mechanism for significantly slowing rapid planetary migration, discovered by means of radiative transfer calculations of the thermal structure of protoplanetary disks irradiated by their central stars. Rapid dust settling in a disk's dead zone - a region with very little turbulence - leaves a dusty wall at its outer edge. We show that the back-heating of the dead zone by this irradiated wall produces a positive gr…
We present a new mechanism of generating large planetary eccentricities. This mechanism applies to planets within the inner cavities of their companion protoplanetary disks. A massive disk with an inner truncation may become eccentric due to non-adiabatic effects associated with gas cooling, and can retain its eccentricity in long-lived coherently-precessing eccentric modes; as the disk disperses, the inner planet will encounter a secular resonance with the eccentric disk when the planet and the disk have the same apsidal precession rates; the eccentricity of the planet is then excited to a la…
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-…
Protoplanetary disk simulations show that a single planet can excite more than one spiral arm, possibly explaining recent observations of multiple spiral arms in some systems. In this paper, we explain the mechanism by which a planet excites multiple spiral arms in a protoplanetary disk. Contrary to previous speculations, the formation of both primary and additional arms can be understood as a linear process when the planet mass is sufficiently small. A planet resonantly interacts with epicyclic oscillations in the disk, launching spiral wave modes around the Lindblad resonances. When a set of…
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…
Recent observations of large-scale asymmetric features in protoplanetary disks suggest that large-scale vortices exist in such disks. Massive planets are known to be able to produce deep gaps in protoplanetary disks. The gap edges could become hydrodynamically unstable to the Rossby wave/vortex instability and form large-scale vortices. In this study we examine the long term evolution of these vortices by carrying out high-resolution two dimensional hydrodynamic simulations that last more than $10^4$ orbits (measured at the planet's orbit). We find that the disk viscosity has a strong influenc…
Relatively large dust grains (referred to as pebbles) accumulate at the outer edge of the gap induced by a planet in a protoplanetary disk, and a ring structure with a high dust-to-gas ratio can be formed. Such a ring has been thought to be located right outside of the planet orbit. We examined the evolution of the dust ring formed by a migrating planet, by performing two-fluid (gas and dust) hydrodynamic simulations. We found that the initial dust ring does not follow the migrating planet and remains at the initial location of the planet in the cases with a low viscosity of $α\sim 10^{-4}$. T…
Dust growth is often neglected when building models of protoplanetary disks due to its complexity and computational expense. However, it does play a major role in shaping the evolution of protoplanetary dust and planet formation. In this paper, we present a numerical model coupling 2-D hydrodynamic evolution of a protoplanetary disk, including a Jupiter-mass planet, and dust coagulation. This is obtained by including multiple dust fluids in a single grid-based hydrodynamic simulation and solving the Smoluchowski equation for dust coagulation on top of solving for the hydrodynamic evolution. We…
While recent observational progress is converging on the detection of compact regions of thermal emission due to embedded protoplanets, further theoretical predictions are needed to understand the response of a protoplanetary disk to the planet formation radiative feedback. This is particularly important to make predictions for the observability of circumplanetary regions. In this work we use 2D hydrodynamical simulations to examine the evolution of a viscous protoplanetary disk in which a luminous Jupiter-mass planet is embedded. We use an energy equation which includes the radiative heating …
The composition of planets may be largely determined by the chemical processing and accretion of icy pebbles in protoplanetary disks. Recent observations of protoplanetary disks hint at wide-spread depletion of gaseous carbon. The missing volatile carbon is likely frozen in CO and/or CO$_2$ ice on grains and locked into the disk through pebble trapping in pressure bumps or planetesimals. We present the results of the first successful ACA (Atacama Compact Array) [C I] $J$ = 1-0 mini-survey of seven protoplanetary disks. Using tailored azimuthally symmetric DALI (Dust And LInes) thermo-chemical …
Gravitational coupling between protoplanetary discs and planets embedded in them leads to the emergence of spiral density waves, which evolve into shocks as they propagate through the disc. We explore the performance of a semi-analytical framework for describing the nonlinear evolution of the global planet-driven density waves, focusing on the low planet mass regime (below the so-called thermal mass). We show that this framework accurately captures the (quasi-)self-similar evolution of the wave properties expressed in terms of properly rescaled variables, provided that certain theoretical inpu…
We present a new analytic approach to the disk-planet interaction that is especially useful for planets with eccentricity larger than the disk aspect ratio. We make use of the dynamical friction formula to calculate the force exerted on the planet by the disk, and the force is averaged over the period of the planet. The resulting migration and eccentricity damping timescale agrees very well with the previous works in which the planet eccentricity is moderately larger than the disk aspect ratio. The advantage of this approach is that it is possible to apply this formulation to arbitrary large e…
AA Tau is the archetype for a class of stars with a peculiar periodic photometric variability thought to be related to a warped inner disk structure with a nearly edge-on viewing geometry. We present high resolution ($\sim$0.2") ALMA observations of the 0.87 and 1.3~mm dust continuum emission from the disk around AA Tau. These data reveal an evenly spaced three-ringed emission structure, with distinct peaks at 0.34", 0.66", and 0.99", all viewed at a modest inclination of 59.1$^{\circ}\pm$0.3$^{\circ}$ (decidedly not edge-on). In addition to this ringed substructure, we find non-axisymmetric f…
How do dust grains in protoplanetary disks overcome rapid radial drift and grow from micron size particles to planets is not well understood. The key is to search for evidence of dust accumulation and growth as a function of radius in the disk. We investigate the radial profile of grain size in the DS Tau disk by fitting multi-band ALMA observations with self-consistent radiative transfer models. The best-fit grain sizes range from centimeters in the inner disk down to 30 micron in the outer regions. Such an inside-out decreasing tendency is consistent with theories of dust evolution. Based on…
A massive planet in a protoplanetary disc will open a gap in the disc material. A steep gap edge can be hydrodynamically unstable, which results in the formation of vortices that can act as tracers for the presence of planets in observational results. However, in a viscous disc, the potential formation of these vortices is dependent on the timescale over which the massive planet accretes mass and with a sufficiently long timescale it is possible for no vortices to form. Hence, there is a connection between the presence of vortices and the growth timescale of the planet and it may therefore be …
When two planets are born in a protoplanetary disk, they may enter into a mean-motion resonance as a consequence of the convergent planetary migration. The formation of mean-motion resonances is important for understanding how the planetary systems are shaped in the disk environments. Motivated by recent progress in the comprehension of the migration of partial gap-opening planets, we have investigated the orbital evolution of the planet pairs in a wide range of masses and disk properties with the aim to find out when the resonance capture is likely to happen. Using the formula for the migrati…
We carry out three dimensional SPH simulations to show that a migrating giant planet strongly suppresses the spiral structure in self-gravitating discs. We present mock ALMA continuum observations which show that in the absence of a planet, spiral arms due to gravitational instability are easily observed. Whereas in the presence of a giant planet, the spiral structures are suppressed by the migrating planet resulting in a largely axisymmetric disc with a ring and gap structure. Our modelling of the gas kinematics shows that the planet's presence could be inferred, for example, using optically …
We investigate a repulsion mechanism between two low-mass planets migrating in a protoplanetary disk, for which the relative migration switches from convergent to divergent. This mechanism invokes density waves emitted by one planet transferring angular momentum to the coorbital region of the other and then directly to it through the horseshoe drag. We formulate simple analytical estimates, which indicate when the repulsion mechanism is effective. One condition for a planet to be repelled is that it forms a partial gap in the disk and another is that this should contain enough material to supp…
The formation of planetary cores must proceed rapidly in order for the giant planets to accrete their gaseous envelopes before the dissipation of the protoplanetary gas disc (<3 Myr). In orbits beyond 10 AU, direct accumulation of planetesimals by the cores is too slow. Fragments of planetesimals could be accreted faster, but planetesimals are likely too large for fragmentation to be efficient, and resonant trapping poses a further hurdle. Here we instead investigate the accretion of small pebbles (mm-cm sizes) that are the natural outcome of an equilibrium between the growth and radial drift …
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…
Recent ALMA molecular line observations have revealed 3-D gas velocity structure in protoplanetary disks, shedding light on mechanisms of disk accretion and structure formation. 1) By carrying out viscous simulations, we confirm that the disk's velocity structure differs dramatically using vertical stress profiles from different accretion mechanisms. Thus, kinematic observations tracing flows at different disk heights can potentially distinguish different accretion mechanisms. On the other hand, the disk surface density evolution is mostly determined by the vertically integrated stress. The sh…
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…
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…
Combining hydrodynamic planet-disk interaction simulations with dust evolution models, we show that protoplanetary disks having a giant planet can reveal diverse morphology in (sub-)millimeter continuum, including a full disk without significant radial structure, a transition disk with an inner cavity, a disk with a single gap and a central continuum peak, and a disk with multiple rings and gaps. Such a diversity originates from (1) the level of viscous transport in the disk which determines the number of gaps a planet can open; (2) the size and spatial distributions of grains determined by th…
We present the next step in a series of papers devoted to connecting the composition of the atmospheres of forming planets with the chemistry of their natal evolving protoplanetary disks. The model presented here computes the coupled chemical and dust evolution of the disk and the formation of three planets per disk model. Our three canonical planet traps produce a Jupiter near 1 AU, a Hot Jupiter and a Super-Earth. We study the dependency of the final orbital radius, mass, and atmospheric chemistry of planets forming in disk models with initial disk masses that vary by 0.02 $M_\odot$ above an…
Measuring the masses of protoplanetary disks is crucial for understanding their planet-forming potential. Typically, dust masses are derived from (sub-)millimeter flux density measurements plus assumptions for the opacity, temperature, and optical depth of the dust. Here we use radiative transfer models to quantify the validity of these assumptions with the aim of improving the accuracy of disk dust mass measurements. We first carry out a controlled exploration of disk parameter space. We find that the disk temperature is a strong function of disk size, while the optical depth depends on both …
Our recent N-body simulations of planetary system formation, incorporating models for the main physical processes thought to be important during the building of planets (i.e. gas disc evolution, migration, planetesimal/boulder accretion, gas accretion onto cores, etc.), have been successful in reproducing some of the broad features of the observed exoplanet population (e.g. compact systems of low mass planets, hot Jupiters), but fail completely to form any surviving cold Jupiters. The primary reason for this failure is rapid inward migration of growing protoplanets during the gas accretion pha…
A large planet orbiting a star in a protoplanetary disk opens a density gap along its orbit due to the strong disk-planet interaction and migrates with the gap in the disk. It is expected that in the ideal case, a gap-opening planet migrates at the viscous drift speed, which is referred to as type II migration. However, recent hydrodynamic simulations have shown that in general, the gap-opening planet is not locked to the viscous disk evolution. A new physical model is required to explain the migration speed of such a planet. For this reason, we re-examined the migration of a planet in the dis…
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…
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 …
We use resistive magnetohydrodynamical simulations with the nested grid technique to study the formation of protoplanetary disks around protostars from molecular cloud cores that provide the realistic environments for planet formation. We find that gaseous planetary-mass objects are formed in the early evolutionary phase by gravitational instability in regions that are decoupled from the magnetic field and surrounded by the injection points of the magnetohydrodynamical outflows during the formation phase of protoplanetary disks. Magnetic decoupling enables massive disks to form and these are s…