No Arabic abstract
The recent rapid progress in observations of circumstellar disks and extrasolar planets has reinforced the importance of understanding an intimate coupling between star and planet formation. Under such a circumstance, it may be invaluable to attempt to specify when and how planet formation begins in star-forming regions and to identify what physical processes/quantities are the most significant to make a link between star and planet formation. To this end, we have recently developed a couple of projects. These include an observational project about dust growth in Class 0 YSOs and a theoretical modeling project of the HL Tauri disk. For the first project, we utilize the archive data of radio interferometric observations, and examine whether dust growth, a first step of planet formation, occurs in Class 0 YSOs. We find that while our observational results can be reproduced by the presence of large ($sim$ mm) dust grains for some of YSOs under the single-component modified blackbody formalism, an interpretation of no dust growth would be possible when a more detailed model is used. For the second project, we consider an origin of the disk configuration around HL Tauri, focusing on magnetic fields. We find that magnetically induced disk winds may play an important role in the HL Tauri disk. The combination of these attempts may enable us to move towards a comprehensive understanding of how star and planet formation are intimately coupled with each other.
The characterization of exoplanets and their birth protoplanetary disks has enormously advanced in the last decade. Benefitting from that, our global understanding of the planet formation processes has been substantially improved. In this review, we first summarize the cutting-edge states of the exoplanet and disk observations. We further present a comprehensive panoptic view of modern core accretion planet formation scenarios, including dust growth and radial drift, planetesimal formation by the streaming instability, core growth by planetesimal accretion and pebble accretion. We discuss the key concepts and physical processes in each growth stage and elaborate on the connections between theoretical studies and observational revelations. Finally, we point out the critical questions and future directions of planet formation studies.
How important is the magnetic (B-) field when compared to gravity and turbulence in the star-formation process? Does its importance depend on scale and location? We summarize submm dust polarization observations towards the large filamentary infrared dark cloud G34 and towards a dense core in the high-mass star-forming region W51. We detect B-field orientations that are either perpendicular or parallel to the G34 filament axis. These B-field orientations further correlate with local velocity gradients. Towards three cores in G34 we find a varying importance between B-field, gravity, and turbulence that seems to dictate varying types of fragmentation. At highest resolution towards the gravity-dominated collapsing core W51 e2 we resolve new B-field features, such as converging B-field lines and possibly magnetic channels.
The amount of dust present in circumstellar disks is expected to steadily decrease with age due to the growth from micron-sized particles to planetesimals and planets. Mature circumstellar disks, however, can be observed to contain significant amounts of dust and possess high dust-to-gas ratios. Using HD 163296 as our case study, we explore how the formation of giant planets in disks can create the conditions for collisionally rejuvenating the dust population, halting or reversing the expected trend. We combine N-body simulations with statistical methods and impact scaling laws to estimate the dynamical and collisional excitation of the planetesimals due to the formation of HD 163296s giant planets. We show that this process creates a violent collisional environment across the disk that can inject collisionally produced second-generation dust into it, significantly contributing to the observed dust-to-gas ratio. The spatial distribution of the dust production can explain the observed local enrichments in HD 163296s inner regions. The results obtained for HD 163296 can be extended to any disk with embedded forming giant planets and may indicate a common evolutionary stage in the life of such circumstellar disks. Furthermore, the dynamical excitation of the planetesimals could result in the release of transient, non-equilibrium gas species like H2O, CO2, NH3 and CO in the disk due to ice sublimation during impacts and, due to the excited planetesimals being supersonic with respect to the gas, could produce bow shocks in the latter that could heat it and cause a broadening of its emission lines.
We have observed the protoplanetary disk of the well-known young Herbig star HD 142527 using ZIMPOL Polarimetric Differential Imaging with the VBB (Very Broad Band, ~600-900nm) filter. We obtained two datasets in May 2015 and March 2016. Our data allow us to explore dust scattering around the star down to a radius of ~0.025 (~4au). The well-known outer disk is clearly detected, at higher resolution than before, and shows previously unknown sub-structures, including spirals going inwards into the cavity. Close to the star, dust scattering is detected at high signal-to-noise ratio, but it is unclear whether the signal represents the inner disk, which has been linked to the two prominent local minima in the scattering of the outer disk, interpreted as shadows. An interpretation of an inclined inner disk combined with a dust halo is compatible with both our and previous observations, but other arrangements of the dust cannot be ruled out. Dust scattering is also present within the large gap between ~30 and ~140au. The comparison of the two datasets suggests rapid evolution of the inner regions of the disk, potentially driven by the interaction with the close-in M-dwarf companion, around which no polarimetric signal is detected.
Planet formation models begin with proto-embryos and planetesimals already fully formed, missing out a crucial step, the formation of planetesimals/proto-embryos. In this work, we include prescriptions for planetesimal and proto-embryo formation arising from pebbles becoming trapped in short-lived pressure bumps, in thermally evolving viscous discs to examine the sizes and distributions of proto-embryos and planetesimals throughout the disc. We find that planetesimal sizes increase with orbital distance, from ~10 km close to the star to hundreds of kilometres further away. Proto-embryo masses are also found to increase with orbital radius, ranging from $10^{-6} M_{rm oplus}$ around the iceline, to $10^{-3} M_{rm oplus}$ near the orbit of Pluto. We include prescriptions for pebble and planetesimal accretion to examine the masses that proto-embryos can attain. Close to the star, planetesimal accretion is efficient due to small planetesimals, whilst pebble accretion is efficient where pebble sizes are fragmentation limited, but inefficient when drift dominated due to low accretion rates before the pebble supply diminishes. Exterior to the iceline, planetesimal accretion becomes inefficient due to increasing planetesimal eccentricities, whilst pebble accretion becomes more efficient as the initial proto-embryo masses increase, allowing them to significantly grow before the pebble supply is depleted. Combining both scenarios allows for more massive proto-embryos at larger distances, since the accretion of planetesimals allows pebble accretion to become more efficient, allowing giant planet cores to form at distances upto 10 au. By including more realistic initial proto-embryo and planetesimal sizes, as well as combined accretion scenarios, should allow for a more complete understanding in the beginning to end process of how planets and planetary systems form.