Abstract
Latest developments in the dynamics of density waves and vortices in selfgravitating protoplanetary discs is reviewed. It is well established by now that in discs, vortices are dynamically coupled with density waves due to the disc’s differential rotation, or shear. On the other hand, density waves play a central role in the theory of self-gravitating discs and recently revealed their coupling with vortices implies that the latter can also be subject to self-gravity effects, thus taking active part in defining overall dynamics of self-gravitating discs. We describe the specific features of vortex dynamics and evolution in self-gravitating discs with and without driving by baroclinic or Rossby wave instabilities and point out differences between these two case.
Highlights
Research in the field of dynamics and evolution of protoplanetary discs is mainly focused on studying two basic kinds of perturbations – density waves and vortices – that occur in them
We briefly reviewed specific dynamics and evolution of vortices in selfgravitating discs and brought out key features that make it different from more often studied vortices in non-self-gravitating discs
First of all we should note that in both cases, vortices are coupled with and generate density waves due to the linear mode coupling phenomenon induced by disc flow shear
Summary
Research in the field of dynamics and evolution of protoplanetary discs is mainly focused on studying two basic kinds of perturbations – density waves and vortices – that occur in them. The local shearing sheet simulations of radially unstructured (i.e., without driving by the baroclinic or RW instabilities) discs indicate that vortices in a quasi-steady gravitoturbulence are transient short-lived structures undergoing repeated cycles of formation, growth to sizes comparable to the local Jeans length, and eventual shearing and destruction by self-gravity and Keplerian shear [25] This process lasts a few orbital periods, and results in a very different to the non-self-gravitating case evolutionary picture with many small, less organized irregularly-shaped vortices at various stages of evolution (Fig. 2), rather than the relatively larger scale, well organized vortices gradually growing via slow mergers. This is in agreement with previous above-mentioned results that self-gravity favours smaller (of the order of Jeans length) vortices in discs
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