No Arabic abstract
We investigate dust growth due to settling in a 1D vertical column of a protoplanetary disk. It is known from the observed 10 micron feature in disk SEDs, that small micron-sized grains are present at the disk atmosphere throughout the lifetime of the disk. We hope to explain such questions as what process can keep the disk atmospheres dusty for the lifetime of the disk and how does the particle properties change as a function of height above the midplane. We use a Monte Carlo code to follow the mass and porosity evolution of the particles in time. The used collision model is based on laboratory experiments performed on dust aggregates. As the experiments cannot cover all possible collision scenarios, the largest uncertainty of our model is the necessary extrapolations we had to perform. We simultaneously solve for the particle growth and motion. Particles can move vertically due to settling and turbulent mixing. We assume that the vertical profile of the gas density is fixed in time and only the solid component evolves. We find that the used collision model strongly influences the masses and sizes of the particles. The laboratory experiment based collision model greatly reduces the particle sizes compared to models that assume sticking at all collision velocities. We find that a turbulence parameter of alpha = 10^-2 is needed to keep the dust atmospheres dusty, but such strong turbulence can produce only small particles at the midplane which is not favorable for planetesimal formation models. We also see that the particles are larger at the midplane and smaller at the upper layers of the disk. At 3-4 pressure scale heights micron-sized particles are produced. These particle sizes are needed to explain the 10 micron feature of disk SEDs. Turbulence may therefore help to keep small dust particles in the disk atmosphere.
Content: For up to a few millions of years, pebbles must provide a quasi-steady inflow of solids from the outer parts of protoplanetary disks to their inner regions. Aims: We wish to understand how a significant fraction of the pebbles grows into planetesimals instead of being lost to the host star. Methods:We examined analytically how the inward flow of pebbles is affected by the snow line and under which conditions dust-rich (rocky) planetesimals form. When calculating the inward drift of solids that is due to gas drag, we included the back-reaction of the gas to the motion of the solids. Results: We show that in low-viscosity protoplanetary disks (with a monotonous surface density similar to that of the minimum-mass solar nebula), the flow of pebbles does not usually reach the required surface density to form planetesimals by streaming instability. We show, however, that if the pebble-to-gas-mass flux exceeds a critical value, no steady solution can be found for the solid-to-gas ratio. This is particularly important for low-viscosity disks (alpha < 10^(-3)) where we show that inside of the snow line, silicate-dust grains ejected from sublimating pebbles can accumulate, eventually leading to the formation of dust-rich planetesimals directly by gravitational instability. Conclusions: This formation of dust-rich planetesimals may occur for extended periods of time, while the snow line sweeps from several au to inside of 1 au. The rock-to-ice ratio may thus be globally significantly higher in planetesimals and planets than in the central star.
The first challenge in the formation of both terrestrial planets and the cores of gas giants is the retention of grains in protoplanetary disks. In most regions of these disks, gas attains sub-Keplerian speeds as a consequence of a negative pressure gradient. Hydrodynamic drag leads to orbital decay and depletion of the solid material in the disk, with characteristic timescales as short as only a few hundred years for meter-sized objects at 1 AU. In this paper, we suggest a particle retention mechanism which promotes the accumulation of grains and the formation of planetesimals near the water sublimation front or ``snow line. This model is based on the assumption that, in the regions most interesting for planet formation, the viscous evolution of the disk is due to turbulence driven by the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) in the surface layers of the disk. The depth to which MRI effectively generates turbulence is a strong function of the grain size and abundance. A sharp increase in the grain-to-gas density ratio across the snow line reduces the column depth of the active layer. As the disk evolves towards a quasi-steady-state, this change in the active layer creates a local maximum in radial distribution of the gas surface density and pressure, causing the gas to rotate at super-Keplerian speed and halting the inward migration of grains. This senario presents a robust process for grain retention which may aid in the formation of proto-gas-giant cores preferentially near the snow line.
We present a study on the formation of planetary systems around low mass stars similar to Trappist-1, through the accretion of either planetesimals or pebbles. The aim is to determine if the currently observed systems around low mass stars favour one scenario over the other. We ran numerous N-body simulations, coupled to a thermally evolving viscous disc model, including prescriptions for planet migration and photoevaporation. We examine the differences between the pebble and planetesimal accretion scenarios, but also look at the influences of disc mass, planetesimal size, and the percentage of solids locked up within pebbles. When comparing the resulting planetary systems to Trappist-1, we find that a wide range of initial conditions for both accretion scenarios can form planetary systems similar to Trappist-1, in terms of planet mass, periods, and resonant configurations. Typically these planets formed exterior to the water iceline and migrated in resonant convoys to close to the central star. When comparing the planetary systems formed from pebbles to those formed from planetesimals, we find a large number of similarities, including average planet masses, eccentricities, inclinations and period ratios. One major difference was that of the water content of the planets. When including the effects of ablation and full recycling of the planets envelope with the disc, planets formed from pebbles were extremely dry, whilst those formed from planetesimals were extremely wet. If the water content is not fully recycled and instead falls to the planets core, or if ablation of the water is neglected, then the planets formed from pebbles are extremely wet, similar to those formed from planetesimals. Should the water content of the Trappist-1 planets be determined accurately, this could point to a preferred formation pathway for planetary systems, or to specific physics that may be at play.
Tidal interactions between the embedded planets and their surrounding protoplanetary disks are often postulated to produce the observed complex dust substructures, including rings, gaps, and asymmetries. In this Letter, we explore the consequences of dust coagulation on the dust dynamics and ring morphology. Coagulation of dust grains leads to dust size growth which, under typical disk conditions, produces faster radial drifts, potentially threatening the dust ring formation. Utilizing 2D hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary disks which include a full treatment of dust coagulation, we find that if the planet does not open a gap quickly enough, the formation of an inner ring is impeded due to dust coagulation and subsequent radial drift. Furthermore, we find that a buildup of sub-mm sized grains often appears in the dust emission at the outer edge of the dust disk.
The low water content of the terrestrial planets in the solar system suggests that the protoplanets formed within the water snow line. Accurate prediction of the snow line location moving with time provides a clue to constrain the formation process of the planets. In this paper, we investigate the migration of the snow line in protoplanetary disks whose accretion is controlled by laminar magnetic fields, which have been proposed by various nonideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. We propose an empirical model of the disk temperature based on our nonideal MHD simulations, which show that the accretion heating is significantly less efficient than in turbulent disks, and calculate the snow line location over time. We find that the snow line in the magnetically accreting laminar disks moves inside the current Earths orbit within 1 Myr after star formation, whereas the time for the conventional turbulent disk is much longer than 1 Myr. This result suggests that either the rocky protoplanets formed in such an early phase of the disk evolution, or the protoplanets moved outward to the current orbits after they formed close to the protosun.