Coagulation Of Dust Grains Research Articles

Protoplanetary Disk Chemistry

Planets form in disks of gas and dust around young stars. The disk molecular reservoirs and their chemical evolution affect all aspects of planet formation, from the coagulation of dust grains into pebbles to the elemental and molecular compositions of the mature planet. Disk chemistry also enables unique probes of disk structures and dynamics, including those directly linked to ongoing planet formation. We review the protoplanetary disk chemistry of the volatile elements H, O, C, N, S, and P; the associated observational and theoretical methods; and the links between disk and planet chemical compositions. Three takeaways from this review are: ▪The disk chemical composition, including the organic reservoirs, is set by both inheritance and in situ chemistry.▪Disk gas and solid O/C/N/H elemental ratios often deviate from stellar values due to a combination of condensation of molecular carriers, chemistry, and dynamics.▪Chemical, physical, and dynamical processes in disks are closely linked, which complicates disk chemistry modeling, but these links also present an opportunity to develop chemical probes of different aspects of disk evolution and planet formation.

Dust grain shattering in protoplanetary discs: collisional fragmentation or rotational disruption?

ABSTRACT In protoplanetary discs, the coagulation of dust grains into large aggregates still remains poorly understood. Grain porosity appears to be a promising solution to allow the grains to survive and form planetesimals. Furthermore, dust shattering has generally been considered to come only from collisional fragmentation; however, a new process was recently introduced, rotational disruption. We wrote a one-dimensional code that models the growth and porosity evolution of grains as they drift to study their final outcome when the two shattering processes are included. When simulating the evolution of grains in a disc model that reproduces observations, we find that rotational disruption is not negligible compared to the fragmentation and radial drift. Disruption becomes dominant when the turbulence parameter α ≲ 5 × 10−4, if the radial drift is slow enough. We show that the importance of disruption in the growth history of grains strongly depends on their tensile strength.

Effects of the Compressibility of Turbulence on the Dust Coagulation Process in Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract Planetesimals are believed to be formed by the coagulation of dust grains in the protoplanetary disk turbulence. However, the bouncing and fragmentation barriers have not been completely solved, particularly for silicate dust. To circumvent these barriers, the turbulent clustering of dust particles must be properly treated. According to the minimum-mass solar nebula (MMSN) model, the Mach number of the turbulence ranges from M rms ≃ 0.01–0.32, and thus the turbulence is often regarded as essentially incompressible. However, it has not been quantitatively investigated whether the incompressible limit is adequate for protoplanetary disk simulations. We therefore compare in this study the motions of inertial particles in direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of the Navier–Stokes equation between weakly compressible turbulence and incompressible turbulence. In the DNSs of compressible turbulence, we use an external force to set the total dissipation and the dilatational-to-solenoidal dissipation ratio. The DNSs reveal that despite the small Mach number M rms( ≲ 0.3), the compressible turbulence field notably differs from the incompressible field in terms of the density fluctuations, pressure fluctuations, and shocklet generation, depending on the ratio of the dilatational forcing. However, we quantitatively confirmed that these effects on the particle collision statistics are weak and that the motion of inertial particles in weakly compressible turbulence is dominated by the solenoidal velocity components. Therefore we can conclude that the incompressible assumption is appropriate for an investigation of the dust coagulation process in protoplanetary disk turbulence, as assumed in the MMSN model.

Evolution of grain size distribution in galactic discs

Context. Dust is formed out of stellar material and it is constantly affected by different mechanisms occurring in the interstellar medium. Depending on their size, the behaviour of dust grains vary under these mechanisms and, therefore, the dust grain size distribution evolves as part of the dust evolution itself. Following how the grain size distribution evolves is a difficult computing task that has only recently become the subject of consideration. Smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations of a single galaxy, together with cosmological simulations, are producing the first predictions of the evolution of dust grain size distribution. Aims. We compare, for the first time, the evolution of the dust grain size distribution as predicted by SPH simulations and results from observations. We are able to validate not only the predictions of the evolution of the small-to-large grain mass ratio (DS/DL) within a galaxy, but we also provide observational constraints for recent cosmological simulations that include the grain size distribution in the dust evolution framework. Methods. We selected a sample of three spiral galaxies with different masses: M 101, NGC 628, and M 33. We fitted the dust spectral energy distribution across the disc of each object and derived the abundance of the different grain types included in the dust model. We analysed how the radial distribution of the relative abundance of the different grain size populations changes over the whole disc within each galaxy. The DS/DL ratio as a function of the galactocentric distance and metallicity is directly compared to what has been predicted by the SPH simulations. Results. We find a good agreement between the observed radial distribution of DS/DL and what was obtained from the SPH simulations of a single galaxy. The comparison agrees with the expected evolutionary stage of each galaxy. We show that the central parts of NGC 628 at a high metallicity and with a high molecular gas fraction are mainly affected not only by accretion, but also by the coagulation of dust grains. The centre of M 33, having a lower metallicity and lower molecular gas fraction, presents an increase in the DS/DL ratio, demonstrating that shattering is very effective for creating a large fraction of small grains. Finally, the observational results provided by our galaxies confirm the general relations predicted by the cosmological simulations based on the two-grain size approximation. However, we also present evidence that the simulations could be overestimating the amount of large grains in high massive galaxies.

Ring Morphology with Dust Coagulation in Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract 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 that, under typical disk conditions, produces faster radial drifts, potentially threatening the dust ring formation. Utilizing 2D hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary disks that 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 submillimeter-sized grains often appears in the dust emission at the outer edge of the dust disk.

Formation of terrestrial planets

AbstractIn the standard formation scenario of planetary systems, planets form from a protoplanetary disk that consists of gas and dust. The scenario can be divided into three stages: (1) formation of planetesimals from dust, (2) formation of protoplanets from planetesimals, and (3) formation of planets from protoplanets. In stage (1), planetesimals form from dust through coagulation of dust grains and/or some instability of a dust layer. Planetesimals grow by mutual collisions to protoplanets or planetary embryos through runaway and oligarchic growth in stage (2). The final stage (3) of terrestrial planet formation is giant impacts among protoplanets while sweeping residual planetesimals. In the present paper, we review the elementary processes of terrestrial planet formation and discuss the extension of the standard scenario.

Heating of Porous Icy Dust Aggregates

Abstract At the beginning of planetary formation, highly porous dust aggregates are formed through coagulation of dust grains. Outside the snowline, the main component of an aggregate is H2O ice. Because H2O ice is formed in amorphous form, its thermal conductivity is extremely small. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of an icy dust aggregate is low. There is a possibility of heating inside an aggregate owing to the decay of radionuclides. It is shown that the temperature increases substantially inside an aggregate, leading to crystallization of amorphous ice. During the crystallization, the temperature further increases sufficiently to continue sintering. The mechanical properties of icy dust aggregates change, and the collisional evolution of dust aggregates is affected by the sintering.

DUST AND GAS IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS FROM THE HERITAGE HERSCHEL KEY PROJECT. II. GAS-TO-DUST RATIO VARIATIONS ACROSS INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM PHASES

The spatial variations of the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) provide constraints on the chemical evolution and lifecycle of dust in galaxies. We examine the relation between dust and gas at 10-50 pc resolution in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Herschel far-infrared (FIR), H I 21 cm, CO, and Halpha observations. In the diffuse atomic ISM, we derive the gas-to-dust ratio as the slope of the dust-gas relation and find gas-to-dust ratios of 380+250-130 in the LMC, and 1200+1600-420 in the SMC, not including helium. The atomic-to-molecular transition is located at dust surface densities of 0.05 Mo pc-2 in the LMC and 0.03 Mo pc-2 in the SMC, corresponding to AV ~ 0.4 and 0.2, respectively. We investigate the range of CO-to-H2 conversion factor to best account for all the molecular gas in the beam of the observations, and find upper limits on XCO to be 6x1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the LMC (Z=0.5Zo) at 15 pc resolution, and 4x 1021 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the SMC (Z=0.2Zo) at 45 pc resolution. In the LMC, the slope of the dust-gas relation in the dense ISM is lower than in the diffuse ISM by a factor ~2, even after accounting for the effects of CO-dark H2 in the translucent envelopes of molecular clouds. Coagulation of dust grains and the subsequent dust emissivity increase in molecular clouds, and/or accretion of gas-phase metals onto dust grains, and the subsequent dust abundance (dust-to-gas ratio) increase in molecular clouds could explain the observations. In the SMC, variations in the dust-gas slope caused by coagulation or accretion are degenerate with the effects of CO-dark H2. Within the expected 5--20 times Galactic XCO range, the dust-gas slope can be either constant or decrease by a factor of several across ISM phases. Further modeling and observations are required to break the degeneracy between dust grain coagulation, accretion, and CO-dark H2.

Giant planet formation with pebble accretion

In the core accretion model for giant planet formation, a solid core forms by coagulation of dust grains in a protoplanetary disk and then accretes gas from the disk when the core reaches a critical mass. Both stages must be completed in a few million years before the disk gas disperses. The slowest stage of this process may be oligarchic growth in which a giant-planet core grows by sweeping up smaller, asteroid-size planetesimals. Here, we describe new numerical simulations of oligarchic growth using a particle-in-a-box model. The simulations include several processes that can effect oligarchic growth: (i) planetesimal fragmentation due to mutual collisions, (ii) the modified capture rate of planetesimals due to a core’s atmosphere, (iii) drag with the disk gas during encounters with the core (so-called “pebble accretion”), (iv) modification of particle velocities by turbulence and drift caused by gas drag, (v) the presence of a population of mm-to-m size “pebbles” that represent the transition point between disruptive collisions between larger particles, and mergers between dust grains, and (vi) radial drift of small objects due to gas drag. Collisions between planetesimals rapidly generate a population of pebbles. The rate at which a core sweeps up pebbles is controlled by pebble accretion dynamics. Metre-size pebbles lose energy during an encounter with a core due to drag, and settle towards the core, greatly increasing the capture probability during a single encounter. Millimetre-size pebbles are tightly coupled to the gas and most are swept past the core during an encounter rather than being captured. Accretion efficiency per encounter increases with pebble size in this size range. However, radial drift rates also increase with size, so metre-size objects encounter a core on many fewer occasions than mm-size pebbles before they drift out of a region. The net result is that core growth rates vary weakly with pebble size, with the optimal diameter being about 10cm. The main effect of planetesimal size is to determine the rate of mutual collisions, fragment production and the formation of pebbles. 1-km-diameter planetesimals collide frequently and have low impact strengths, leading to a large surface density of pebbles and rapid core growth via pebble accretion. 100-km-diameter planetesimals produce fewer pebbles, and pebble accretion plays a minor role in this case. The strength of turbulence in the gas determines the scale height of pebbles in the disk, which affects the rate at which they are accreted. For an initial solid surface density of12g/cm2 at 5AU, with 10-cm diameter pebbles and a disk viscosity parameter α=10-4, a 10-Earth mass core can form in 3My for 1–10km diameter planetesimals. The growth of such a core requires longer than 3My if planetesimals are 100km in diameter.

Variation in dust properties in a dense filament of the Taurus molecular complex (L1506)

We observed the L1506 filament, which is located in the Taurus molecular complex, with the Herschel PACS and SPIRE instruments. Our aim is to prove the variation in grain properties along the entire length of the filament. In particular, we want to determine above which gas density this variation arises and what changes in the grain optical properties/size distribution are required. We use the 3D radiative transfer code CRT, coupled to the dust emission and extinction code DustEM, to model the emission and extinction of the dense filament. We test a range of optical properties and size distributions for the grains: dust of the diffuse interstellar medium (interstellar PAHs and amorphous carbons and silicates) and both compact and fluffy aggregates. We find that the grain opacity has to increase across the filament to fit simultaneously the near-IR extinction and Herschel emission profiles of L1506. We interpret this change to be a consequence of the coagulation of dust grains to form fluffy aggregates. Grains similar to those in the diffuse medium have to be present in the outer layers of the cloud, whereas aggregates must prevail above gas densities of a few 1000 H/cm3. This corresponds to line-of-sights with visual extinction in the V band of the order of 2 to 3. The dust opacity at 250 microns is raised by a factor of 1.8 to 2.2, while the grain average size is increased by a factor of 5. These exact numbers depend naturally on the dust model chosen to fit the data. Our findings agree with the constraints given by the study of the gas molecular lines. Using a simple approach, we show that the aggregates may have time to form inside the filament within the cloud lifetime. Our model also characterises the density structure of the filament, showing that the filament width is not constant along L1506 but instead varies by a factor of the order of 4.

Formation of a Trapped-Ion Cloud Around a Dust Particle in Low-Density Plasma

A self-consistent model for trapped-ion-cloud formation around a dust particle immersed in low-temperature low-density plasma is presented. The model is based on the solution of an integral balance equation for trapped-ion density, the free ion and electron densities, and the Poisson equation for electric potential distribution. It is shown that, in a weakly collisional regime in plasma, trapped ions form a spread “shell” with the maximum located at some distance from the negatively charged core (dust particle) proportional to an ion Debye length. The estimated polarizability of such dusty “quasi atoms” in an external electric field is very high, and their induced dipole moments can be responsible for the alignment of dust particles, the formation of chain and multilayer structures, and the coagulation of dust grains.

Shattering and coagulation of dust grains in interstellar turbulence

We investigate shattering and coagulation of dust grains in turbulent interstellar medium (ISM). The typical velocity of dust grain as a function of grain size has been calculated for various ISM phases based on a theory of grain dynamics in compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. In this paper, we develop a scheme of grain shattering and coagulation and apply it to turbulent ISM by using the grain velocities predicted by the above turbulence theory. Since large grains tend to acquire large velocity dispersions as shown by earlier studies, large grains tend to be shattered. Large shattering effects are indeed seen in warm ionized medium within a few Myr for grains with radius a 10 −6 cm. We also show that shattering in warm neutral medium can limit the largest grain size in ISM (a ∼ 2 × 10 −5 cm). On the other hand, coagulation tends to modify small grains since it only occurs when the grain velocity is small enough. Coagulation significantly modifies the grain size distribution in dense clouds (DC), where a large fraction of the grains with a < 10 −6 cm coagulate in 10 Myr. In fact, the correlation among RV , the carbon bump strength and the ultraviolet slope in the observed Milky Way extinction curves can be explained by the coagulation in DC. It is possible that the grain size distribution in the Milky Way is determined by a combination of all the above effects of shattering and coagulation. Considering that shattering and coagulation in turbulence are effective if dust-to-gas ratio is typically more than ∼1/10 of the Galactic value, the regulation mechanism of grain size distribution should be different between metal-poor and metal-rich

Coagulation of dust grains in the plasma of an RF discharge in argon

Results are presented from experimental studies of coagulation of dust grains of different sizes injected into a low-temperature plasma of an RF discharge in argon. A theoretical model describing the formation of dust clusters in a low-temperature plasma is developed and applied to interpret the results of experiments on the coagulation of dust grains having large negative charges. The grain size at which coagulation under the given plasma conditions is possible is estimated using the developed theory. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data.

Planet Formation with Migration

In the core-accretion model, gas-giant planets form solid cores which then accrete gaseous envelopes. Tidal interactions with disk gas cause a core to undergo inward type-I migration in 10^4 to 10^5 years. Cores must form faster than this to survive. Giant planets clear a gap in the disk and undergo inward type-II migration in <10^6 years if observed disk accretion rates apply to the disk as a whole. Type-II migration times exceed typical disk lifetimes if viscous accretion occurs mainly in the surface layers of disks. Low turbulent viscosities near the midplane may allow planetesimals to form by coagulation of dust grains. The radius r of such planetesimals is unknown. If r<0.5 km, the core formation time is shorter than the type-I migration timescale and cores will survive. Migration is substantial in most cases, leading to a wide range of planetary orbits, consistent with the observed variety of extrasolar systems. When r is of order 100m and midplane alpha is of order 3 times 10^-5, giant planets similar to those in the Solar System can form.

Modes of Gaseous Planet Formation

The discovery of gas giant planets around nearby stars has launched a new era in our understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. However, none of the over four dozen companions detected to date strongly resembles Jupiter or Saturn: their inferred masses range from sub-Saturn-mass to 10 Jupiter-masses or more, while their orbits extend from periods of a few days to a few years. Given this situation, it seems prudent to re-examine mechanisms for gas giant planet formation. The two extreme cases are top-down or bottom-up. The latter is the core accretion mechanism, long favored for our Solar System, where a roughly 10 Earth-mass solid core forms by collisional accumulation of planetesimals, followed by hydrodynamic accretion of a gaseous envelope. The former is the long-discarded disk instability mechanism, where the protoplanetary disk forms self-gravitating, gaseous protoplanets through a gravitational instability of the gas, accompanied by settling and coagulation of dust grains to form solid cores. Both of these mechanisms have a number of advantages and disadvantages, making a purely theoretical choice between them difficult at present. Observations should be able to decide the dominant mechanism by dating the epoch of gas giant planet formation: core accretion requires more than a million years to form a Jupiter-mass planet, whereas disk instability is much more rapid.

Effect of Charge Fluctuations on the Debye Shielding and Energy Loss of N × M Projectiles in a Dusty Plasma

The electrostatic potential and the energy loss by N × M projectiles propagating through a dusty plasma are derived within the frame work of dielectric theory for different dust parameters of interest. An interference contribution of these projectiles to the potential and energy loss is observed which depends upon the separation between them and their orientation. The dynamic dust charge produces a potential well instead of a coulombic type potential for a slowly moving test charge having small charge relaxation rate and energy is gained by the charged projectiles. However, fast charge relaxation enhances the energy loss and some peaks are also observed showing the excitation of some electrostatic modes. These results are useful to explain the coagulation of dust grains in laboratory and space plasma as well as in the field ion-beam driven ICF scheme.

Formation of gas and ice giant planets

Agreement about planetary formation processes deteriorates sharply with distance from the Sun. While the terrestrial planets are widely believed to have formed from the collisional accumulation of solid bodies, there are two competing mechanisms for the formation of the gas giant planets, basically ‘bottom-up’ or ‘top-down’. The former is the traditional core accretion mechanism, where a roughly 10 Earth-mass solid core forms by collisional accumulation, followed by hydrodynamic accretion of a gaseous envelope. The latter is the recently revived disk instability mechanism, where a protoplanetary disk forms self-gravitating protoplanets through a gravitational instability of the gaseous disk, followed by settling and coagulation of dust grains to form central solid cores. These same two mechanisms have been modified to explain the formation of the ice giant planets. Their solid cores are thought to form too slowly to accrete substantial gaseous envelopes prior to disk removal in the core accretion mechanism, while in the disk instability mechanism, radiation from nearby massive stars is hypothesized to remove most of the protoplanets’ gaseous envelopes following core formation. Both of these mechanisms for gas and ice giant planet formation have a number of advantages and disadvantages, making a purely theoretical choice between them challenging. However, the ongoing discovery of extrasolar planetary systems promises to provide considerable insight into which of these mechanisms is responsible for forming most gas and ice giant planets in the galaxy, and by inference, those in our own Solar System.

Effect of dust charge fluctuations on energy loss of a test dust charged particulate in a dusty plasma

The energy loss of a test charged particulate in an unmagnetized dusty plasma is calculated by employing the dusty dielectric response function which accounts for the dust charge fluctuation. It is found that the dust charge fluctuation introduces a new contribution to the energy loss, which enhances it for fast charge relaxation rates and reduces it for slow rates. In the energy loss curves drawn against the test charge velocity, some peaks are observed. These peaks diminish for large charge relaxation rates. Possible explanation for these peaks is also discussed. These results may be useful for understanding coagulation of dust grains in space and laboratory plasmas and for transport of dust particulates in the planetary rings.

Energy Loss of a Test Charge in Dusty Plasmas: Collective and Individual Particle Contributions

The energy loss of a test charge in dusty plasma with dust charge fluctuations has been calculated both analytically (within the frame work of dielectric theory) as well as numerically. The dust charge relaxation rate is found to have a significant effect on the total energy loss of a test charge which is the sum of collective response of the plasma and individual particle interaction. It is shown that the dust charge fluctuation enhances the energy loss due to the collective response of the plasma as well as the individual particle contributions. Further, the charge fluctuation converts the static Coulomb potential to a potential well for slow charge relaxation rates and a small test charge velocity. The test charge therefore gains energy instead of loosing. On the other hand for the large test charge velocity and fast charge relaxation rate, a shielded Debye Hückel type potential is formed and consequently the energy loss is enhanced. These results are useful for understanding coagulation of dust grains in space and laboratory plasmas.

Dust Evolution in Protoplanetary Disks

AbstractThe evolution of dust particles in circumstellar disk-like structures around protostars and young stellar objects is discussed. We especially consider the coagulation of grains due to collisional aggregation and the influence of this process on the optical properties of the particles. These dust opacities are important for both the derivation of the circumstellar dust mass from submillimetre continuum observations and the dynamical behaviour of the disks.We present first results of a numerical study of the coagulation of dust grains in a turbulent protoplanetary accretion disk described by a time-dependent one-dimensional (radial) “alpha” model. The influence of grain opacity changes due to dust coagulation on the dynamical evolution of a protostellar disk is investigated. In addition, we consider the grain motion in two-dimensional disks.