Large-Scale Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks: On the Observability of Possible Early Stages of Planet Formation

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of mapping large-scale anticyclonic vortices, resulting from a global baroclinic instability, as precursors of planet formation in protoplanetary disks with the planned Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). On the basis of three-dimensional radiative transfer simulations, images of a hydrodynamically calculated disk are derived that provide the basis for the simulation of ALMA. We find that ALMA will be able to trace the theoretically predicted large-scale anticyclonic vortex and will therefore allow testing of existing models of this very early stage of planet formation in circumstellar disks.