No Arabic abstract
Context: Around 30 per cent of the observed exoplanets that orbit M dwarf stars are gas giants that are more massive than Jupiter. These planets are prime candidates for formation by disc instability. Aims: We want to determine the conditions for disc fragmentation around M dwarfs and the properties of the planets that are formed by disc instability. Methods: We performed hydrodynamic simulations of M dwarf protostellar discs in order to determine the minimum disc mass required for gravitational fragmentation to occur. Different stellar masses, disc radii, and metallicities were considered. The mass of each protostellar disc was steadily increased until the disc fragmented and a protoplanet was formed. Results: We find that a disc-to-star mass ratio between $sim 0.3$ and $sim 0.6$ is required for fragmentation to happen. The minimum mass at which a disc fragments increases with the stellar mass and the disc size. Metallicity does not significantly affect the minimum disc fragmentation mass but high metallicity may suppress fragmentation. Protoplanets form quickly (within a few thousand years) at distances around $sim50$ AU from the host star, and they are initially very hot; their centres have temperatures similar to the ones expected at the accretion shocks around planets formed by core accretion (up to 12,000K). The final properties of these planets (e.g. mass and orbital radius) are determined through long-term disc-planet or planet-planet interactions. Conclusions: Disc instability is a plausible way to form gas giant planets around M dwarfs provided that discs have at least 30% the mass of their host stars during the initial stages of their formation. Future observations of massive M dwarf discs or planets around very young M dwarfs are required to establish the importance of disc instability for planet formation around low-mass stars.
Direct imaging searches have revealed many very low-mass objects, including a small number of planetary mass objects, as wide-orbit companions to young stars. The formation mechanism of these objects remains uncertain. In this paper we present the predictions of the disc fragmentation model regarding the properties of the discs around such low-mass objects. We find that the discs around objects that have formed by fragmentation in discs hosted by Sun-like stars (referred to as parent discs and parent stars) are more massive than expected from the ${M}_{rm disc}-M_*$ relation (which is derived for stars with masses $M_*>0.2 {rm M}_{odot}$). Accordingly, the accretion rates onto these objects are also higher than expected from the $dot{M}_*-M_*$ relation. Moreover there is no significant correlation between the mass of the brown dwarf or planet with the mass of its disc nor with the accretion rate from the disc onto it. The discs around objects that form by disc fragmentation have larger than expected masses as they accrete gas from the disc of their parent star during the first few kyr after they form. The amount of gas that they accrete and therefore their mass depend on how they move in their parent disc and how they interact with it. Observations of disc masses and accretion rates onto very low-mass objects are consistent with the predictions of the disc fragmentation model. Future observations (e.g. by ALMA) of disc masses and accretion rates onto substellar objects that have even lower masses (young planets and young, low-mass brown dwarfs), where the scaling relations predicted by the disc fragmentation model diverge significantly from the corresponding relations established for higher-mass stars, will test the predictions of this model.
We investigate the formation and early evolution and fragmentation of an accretion disk around a forming massive protostar. We use a grid-based self-gravity-radiation-hydrodynamics code including a sub-grid module for stellar and dust evolution. On purpose, we do not use sink particles to allow for all paths of fragment formation and destruction, but instead keeping the spatial grid resolution high enough to properly resolve the physical length scales of the problem. We use a 3D grid in spherical coordinates with a logarithmic scaling in the radial direction and cosine scaling in the polar direction. Because of that, roughly 25% of the total number of grid cells, corresponding to $sim$ 26 million grid cells, are used to model the disk physics. They constitute the highest resolution simulations performed up to now on disk fragmentation around a forming massive star with the physics considered here. We study the convergence of our results by performing the same simulation for 5 different resolutions. We start from the collapse of a molecular cloud; a massive (proto)star is formed in its center, surrounded by a fragmenting Keplerian-like accretion disk with spiral arms. The fragments have masses of $sim 1 M_odot$, and their continuous interactions with the disk, spiral arms and other fragments results in eccentric orbits. Fragments form hydrostatic cores, surrounded by secondary disks with spiral arms that also produce new fragments. We identified several mechanisms of fragment formation, interaction and destruction. Central temperatures of the fragments can reach the hydrogen dissociation limit, form second Larson cores and evolve into companion stars. Based on this, we study the multiplicity predicted by the simulations and find $sim 6$ companions at different distances from the primary: from possible spectroscopic multiples, to companions at distances between 1000 and 2000 au.
Cool M dwarfs outnumber sun-like G stars by ten to one in the solar neighborhood. Due to their proximity, small size, and low mass, M-dwarf stars are becoming attractive targets for exoplanet searches via almost all current search methods. But what planetary systems can form around M dwarfs? Following up on the Cool Stars~16 Splinter Session Planet Formation Around M Dwarfs, we summarize here our knowledge of protoplanetary disks around cool stars, how they disperse, what planetary systems might form and can be detected with current and future instruments.
Recent observations have suggested that circumstellar disks may commonly form around young stellar objects. Although the formation of circumstellar disks can be a natural result of the conservation of angular momentum in the parent cloud, theoretical studies instead show disk formation to be difficult from dense molecular cores magnetized to a realistic level, owing to efficient magnetic braking that transports a large fraction of the angular momentum away from the circumstellar region. We review recent progress in the formation and early evolution of disks around young stellar objects of both low-mass and high-mass, with an emphasis on mechanisms that may bridge the gap between observation and theory, including non-ideal MHD effects and asymmetric perturbations in the collapsing core (e.g., magnetic field misalignment and turbulence). We also address the associated processes of outflow launching and the formation of multiple systems, and discuss possible implications in properties of protoplanetary disks.
We present spectroscopic determinations of the effective temperatures, surface gravities and metallicities for 21 M-dwarfs observed at high-resolution (R $sim$ 22,500) in the textit{H}-band as part of the SDSS-IV APOGEE survey. The atmospheric parameters and metallicities are derived from spectral syntheses with 1-D LTE plane parallel MARCS models and the APOGEE atomic/molecular line list, together with up-to-date H$_{2}$O and FeH molecular line lists. Our sample range in $T_{rm eff}$ from $sim$ 3200 to 3800K, where eleven stars are in binary systems with a warmer (FGK) primary, while the other 10 M-dwarfs have interferometric radii in the literature. We define an $M_{K_{S}}$--Radius calibration based on our M-dwarf radii derived from the detailed analysis of APOGEE spectra and Gaia DR2 distances, as well as a mass-radius relation using the spectroscopically-derived surface gravities. A comparison of the derived radii with interferometric values from the literature finds that the spectroscopic radii are slightly offset towards smaller values, with $Delta$ = -0.01 $pm$ 0.02 $R{star}$/$R_{odot}$. In addition, the derived M-dwarf masses based upon the radii and surface gravities tend to be slightly smaller (by $sim$5-10%) than masses derived for M-dwarf members of eclipsing binary systems for a given stellar radius. The metallicities derived for the 11 M-dwarfs in binary systems, compared to metallicities obtained for their hotter FGK main-sequence primary stars from the literature, shows excellent agreement, with a mean difference of [Fe/H](M-dwarf - FGK primary) = +0.04 $pm$ 0.18 dex, confirming the APOGEE metallicity scale derived here for M-dwarfs.