Self-gravitating Protoplanetary Discs Research Articles

The influence of realistic cooling on the structure and spectrum of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

The influence of realistic cooling on the structure and spectrum of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

Formation of pebbles in (gravito-)viscous protoplanetary disks with various turbulent strengths

Aims. Dust plays a crucial role in the evolution of protoplanetary disks. We study the dynamics and growth of initially submicron dust particles in self-gravitating young protoplanetary disks with various strengths of turbulent viscosity. We aim to understand the physical conditions that determine the formation and spatial distribution of pebbles when both disk self-gravity and turbulent viscosity are at work. Methods. We performed thin-disk hydrodynamics simulations of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks over an initial time period of 0.5 Myr using the FEOSAD code. Turbulent viscosity was parameterized in terms of the spatially and temporally constant α parameter, while the effects of gravitational instability on dust growth were accounted for by calculating the effective parameter αGI. We considered the evolution of the dust component, including the momentum exchange with gas, dust self-gravity, and a simplified model of dust growth. Results. We find that the level of turbulent viscosity strongly affects the spatial distribution and total mass of pebbles in the disk. The α = 10−2 model is viscosity-dominated, pebbles are completely absent, and the dust-to-gas mass ratio deviates from the reference 1:100 value by no more than 30% throughout the extent of the disk. On the contrary, the α = 10−3 model and, especially, the α = 10−4 model are dominated by gravitational instability. The effective parameter α + αGI is now a strongly varying function of radial distance. As a consequence, a bottleneck effect develops in the innermost disk regions, which makes gas and dust accumulate in a ring-like structure. Pebbles are abundant in these models, although their total mass and spatial extent is sensitive to the dust fragmentation velocity and to the strength of gravitoturbulence. The use of the standard dust-to-gas mass conversion is not suitable for estimating the mass of pebbles. Conclusions. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that pebbles can already be abundant in protoplanetary disks at the initial stages of disk evolution. Dust growth models that consider disk self-gravity and ice mantles may be important for studying planet formation via pebble accretion.

Warping Away Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Discs

Abstract We perform three-dimensional smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations of warped, non-coplanar gravitationally unstable discs to show that as the warp propagates through the self-gravitating disk, it heats up the disk rendering it gravitationally stable, thus losing their spiral structure and appearing completely axisymmetric. In their youth, protoplanetary discs are expected to be massive and self-gravitating, which results in nonaxisymmetric spiral structures. However recent observations of young protoplanetary discs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have revealed that discs with large-scale spiral structure are rarely observed in the midplane. Instead, axisymmetric discs, with some also having ring and gap structures, are more commonly observed. Our work invloving warps, non-coplanar disk structures that are expected to commonly occur in young discs, potentially resolves this discrepancy between observations and theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that they are able to suppress the large-scale spiral structure of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs.

Jeans Instability of a Protoplanetary Circular Disk Taking into Account the Magnetic Field and Radiation in Nonextensive Tsallis Kinetics

Within the framework of Tsallis nonextensive statistics, the criteria for the Jeans gravitational instability are derived for a self-gravitating protoplanetary disk, whose substance consists of a mixture of a conducting ideal q-gas and modified radiation of a photon gas. The instability criteria are derived from the corresponding dispersion relations written for both neutral disk matter and magnetized plasma with modified blackbody radiation. The thermodynamics of a photon gas are constructed based on the nonextensive Tsallis quantum entropy, which depends on the deformation parameter. It is shown that blackbody q-radiation can stabilize the state of a nonextensive medium for a purely gaseous disk, and for an electrically conducting disk, the Jeans instability criterion is modified by the magnetic field and radiation pressure only in the transverse propagation mode of the disturbance wave.

Джинсовская неустойчивость протопланетного околозвездного диска с учетом магнитного поля и излучения в неэкстенсивной кинетике Тсаллиса

Within the framework of the Tsallis non-extensive statistics, a derivation of the Jeans gravitational instability criteria is given for a self-gravitating protoplanetary disk, the substance of which consists of a mixture of a conducting ideal q-gas and modified radiation of a photon gas. The instability criteria are derived from the corresponding dispersion relations written for both neutral disk matter and magnetized plasma with modified blackbody radiation. The thermodynamics of a photon gas is constructed based on the nonextensive quantum entropy Tsallis, which depends on the deformation parameter. It is shown that blackbody radiation can stabilize the state of a nonextensive medium for a purely gaseous disk, and for an electrically conducting disk, the Jeans instability criterion is modified by a magnetic field and radiation pressure only in the transverse regime of propagation of the disturbance wave.

Global Spiral Density Wave Modes in Protoplanetary Disks: Morphology of Spiral Arms

Abstract We analyze two-armed global spiral density wave modes generated by gravitational instability in razor-thin, nonviscous, self-gravitating protoplanetary disks to understand the dependence of spiral arm morphology (pitch angle α and amplitude) on various disk conditions. The morphologies of the resulting spiral density wave modes closely resemble observations. Their pitch angles and pattern speeds are insensitive to the boundary conditions adopted. Gaussian disks exhibit more tightly wound spirals (smaller pitch angle) than power-law disks under the same conditions. We find that at a fixed disk-to-star mass ratio (M d /M *), the pitch angle increases with average Toomre’s stability parameter ( ) or average disk aspect ratio ( ). For a given , density wave modes with higher M d /M * have larger pitch angles, while the behavior reverses for a given . The interdependence between pitch angle and disk properties can be roughly approximated by , where c s is the sound speed. Our gravitational instability-excited spiral density waves can be distinguished from planet-launched spirals: (1) massive cool disks have spiral pitch angle falling with radius, while low-mass hot disks have spiral pitch angle rising with radius; (2) the profile of spiral amplitude presents several dips and bumps. We propose that gravitational instability-excited density waves can serve as an alternative scenario to explain the observed spiral arms in self-gravitating protoplanetary disks.

Numerical study of toroidal magnetic field on the self-gravitating protoplanetary disks

In this paper, we study the self-gravitating accretion disks by considering the toroidal component of magnetic field, [Formula: see text] and wind/outflow in the flow and also investigate the effect of two parameters, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] corresponding to magnetic field on the latitudinal structure of such accretion disks. The cooling of the disk is parameterized simply as, [Formula: see text] (where [Formula: see text] is the internal energy and [Formula: see text] is the cooling timescale and [Formula: see text] is a free constant) and the heating rate is decomposed into two components, magnetic field and viscosity dissipations. We have shown that when the toroidal magnetic field becomes stronger, the heating process (viscous and resistivity) and the radiative cooling rate increase. Ohmic heating is much bigger than viscous heating and cooling, so we must consider the role of the magnetic field in the energy equation. Our numerical solutions show that the thickness of the disk decreases with strong toroidal component of magnetic field. The magnetic field leads to production of the outflow in the low latitude. So, by increasing the toroidal component of the magnetic field, the regions which belong to inflow decrease and the disk is cooled.

Planet migration in self-gravitating discs: survival of planets

ABSTRACT We carry out three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to study whether planets can survive in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs. The discs modelled here use a cooling prescription that mimics a real disc, which is only gravitationally unstable in the outer regions. We do this by modelling the cooling using a simplified method such that the cooling time in the outer parts of the disc is shorter than in the inner regions, as expected in real discs. We find that both giant (>MSat) and low-mass (<MNep) planets initially migrate inwards very rapidly, but are able to slow down in the inner gravitationally stable regions of the disc without needing to open up a gap. This is in contrast to previous studies where the cooling was modelled in a more simplified manner where, regardless of mass, the planets were unable to slow down their inward migration. This shows the important effect the thermodynamics has on planet migration. In a broader context, these results show that planets that form in the early stages of the discs’ evolution, when they are still quite massive and self-gravitating, can survive.

Global Simulations of Self-gravitating Magnetized Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract In the early stages of a protoplanetary disk, turbulence generated by gravitational instability (GI) should feature significantly in the disk’s evolution. At the same time, the disk may be sufficiently ionized for magnetic fields to play some role in the dynamics. In this paper, we report on global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of a self-gravitating protoplanetary disk using the meshless finite mass Lagrangian technique. We confirm that GI spiral waves trigger a dynamo that amplifies an initial magnetic field to nearly thermal amplitudes (plasma β < 10), an order of magnitude greater than that generated by the magnetorotational instability alone. We also determine the dynamo’s nonlinear back reaction on the gravito-turbulent flow: the saturated state is substantially hotter, with an associated larger Toomre parameter and weaker, more “flocculent” spirals. But perhaps of greater import is the dynamo’s boosting of accretion via a significant Maxwell stress; mass accretion is enhanced by factors of several relative to either pure GI or pure magnetorotational instability. Our simulations use ideal MHD, an admittedly poor approximation in protoplanetary disks, and thus, future studies should explore the full gamut of nonideal MHD. In preparation for that, we exhibit a small number of ohmic runs that reveal that the dynamo, if anything, is stronger in a nonideal environment. This work confirms that magnetic fields are a potentially critical ingredient in gravito-turbulent young disks, possibly controlling their evolution, especially via their enhancement of (potentially episodic) accretion.

Vortex stretching in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

Horseshoe-shaped brightness asymmetries of several transitional discs are thought to be caused by large-scale vortices. Anticyclonic vortices are efficiently collect dust particles, therefore they can play a major role in planet formation. Former studies suggest that the disc self-gravity weakens vortices formed at the edge of the gap opened by a massive planet in discs whose masses are in the range of 0.01<=M_disc/M_*<=0.1. Here we present an investigation on the long-term evolution of the large-scale vortices formed at the viscosity transition of the discs' dead zone outer edge by means of two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations taking disc self-gravity into account. We perform a numerical study of low mass, 0.001<=M_disc/M_*<=0.01, discs, for which cases disc self-gravity was previously neglected. The large-scale vortices are found to be stretched due to disc self-gravity even for low-mass discs with M_disc/M_*>=0.005 where initially the Toomre Q-parameter was <=50 at the vortex distance. As a result of stretching, the vortex aspect ratio increases and a weaker azimuthal density contrast develops. The strength of the vortex stretching is proportional to the disc mass. The vortex stretching can be explained by a combined action of a non-vanishing gravitational torque caused by the vortex, and the Keplerian shear of the disc. Self-gravitating vortices are subject to significantly faster decay than non-self-gravitating ones. We found that vortices developed at sharp viscosity transitions of self-gravitating discs can be described by a GNG model as long as the disc viscosity is low, i.e. alpha_dz<=10^-5.

Collision velocity of dust grains in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs.

We have conducted the first comprehensive numerical investigation of the relative velocity distribution of dust particles in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs with a view to assessing the viability of planetesimal formation via direct collapse in such environments. The viability depends crucially on the large sizes that are preferentially collected in pressure maxima produced by transient spiral features (Stokes numbers, St ∼ 1); growth to these size scales requires that collision velocities remain low enough that grain growth is not reversed by fragmentation. We show that, for a single-sized dust population, velocity driving by the disc's gravitational perturbations is only effective for St > 3, while coupling to the gas velocity dominates otherwise. We develop a criterion for understanding this result in terms of the stopping distance being of the order of the disc scaleheight. Nevertheless, the relative velocities induced by differential radial drift in multi-sized dust populations are too high to allow the growth of silicate dust particles beyond St ∼ 10− 2 or 10−1 (10 cm to m sizes at 30 au), such Stokes numbers being insufficient to allow concentration of solids in spiral features. However, for icy solids (which may survive collisions up to several 10 m s−1), growth to St ∼ 1 (10 m size) may be possible beyond 30 au from the star. Such objects would be concentrated in spiral features and could potentially produce larger icy planetesimals/comets by gravitational collapse. These planetesimals would acquire moderate eccentricities and remain unmodified over the remaining lifetime of the disc.

THE ROLE OF THE COOLING PRESCRIPTION FOR DISK FRAGMENTATION: NUMERICAL CONVERGENCE AND CRITICAL COOLING PARAMETER IN SELF-GRAVITATING DISKS

Protoplanetary disks fragment due to gravitational instability when there is enough mass for self-gravitation, described by the Toomre parameter, and when heat can be lost at a rate comparable to the local dynamical timescale, described by t_c=beta Omega^-1. Simulations of self-gravitating disks show that the cooling parameter has a rough critical value at beta_crit=3. When below beta_crit, gas overdensities will contract under their own gravity and fragment into bound objects while otherwise maintaining a steady state of gravitoturbulence. However, previous studies of the critical cooling parameter have found dependence on simulation resolution, indicating that the simulation of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks is not so straightforward. In particular, the simplicity of the cooling timescale t_c prevents fragments from being disrupted by pressure support as temperatures rise. We alter the cooling law so that the cooling timescale is dependent on local surface density fluctuations, a means of incorporating optical depth effects into the local cooling of an object. For lower resolution simulations, this results in a lower critical cooling parameter and a disk more stable to gravitational stresses suggesting the formation of large gas giants planets in large, cool disks is generally suppressed by more realistic cooling. At our highest resolution however, the model becomes unstable to fragmentation for cooling timescales up to beta = 10.

Planetesimal formation in self-gravitating discs – dust trapping by vortices

The mechanism through which meter-sized boulders grow to km-sized planetesimals in protoplanetary discs is a subject of active research, since it is critical for planet formation. To avoid spiralling into the protostar due to aerodynamic drag, objects must rapidly grow from cm-sized pebbles, which are tightly coupled to the gas, to large boulders of 1-100m in diameter. It is already well known that over-densities in the gaseous component of the disc provide potential sites for the collection of solids, and that significant density structures in the gaseous component of the disc (e.g., spiral density waves) can trap solids efficiently enough for the solid component of the disc to undergo further gravitational collapse due to their own self-gravity. In this work, we employ the PENCIL CODE to conduct local shearing sheet simulations of massive self-gravitating protoplanetary discs, to study the effect of anticyclonic transient vortices, or eddies, on the evolution of solids in these discs. We find that these types of structures are extremely efficient at concentrating small and intermediate-sized dust particles with friction times comparable to, or less than, the local orbital period of the disc. This can lead to significant over-densities in the solid component of the disc, with density enhancements comparable to, and even higher, than those within spiral density waves; increasing the rate of gravitational collapse of solids into bound structures.

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of gas and dust mixtures

We present a 'two-fluid' implementation of dust in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) in the test particle limit. The scheme is able to handle both short and long stopping times and reproduces the short friction time limit, which is not properly handled in other implementations. We apply novel tests to verify its accuracy and limitations, including multi-dimensional tests that have not been previously applied to the drag-coupled dust problem and which are particularly relevant to self-gravitating protoplanetary discs. Our tests demonstrate several key requirements for accurate simulations of gas-dust mixtures. Firstly, in standard SPH particle jitter can degrade the dust solution, even when the gas density is well reproduced. The use of integral gradients, a Wendland kernel and a large number of neighbours can control this, albeit at a greater computational cost. Secondly, when it is necessary to limit the artificial viscosity we recommend using the Cullen & Dehnen (2010) switch, since the alternative, using ${\alpha} \sim 0.1$, can generate a large velocity noise up to ${{\sigma}_v} \lesssim 0.3 c_s$ in the dust particles. Thirdly, we find that an accurate dust density estimate requires $>400$ neighbours, since, unlike the gas, the dust particles do not feel regularization forces. This density noise applies to all particle-based two-fluid implementations of dust, irrespective of the hydro solver and could lead to numerically induced fragmentation. Although our tests show accurate dusty gas simulations are possible, care must be taken to minimize the contribution from numerical noise.

Modeling gravitational instabilities in self-gravitating protoplanetary disks with adaptive mesh refinement techniques

The astonishing diversity in the observed planetary population requires theoretical efforts and advances in planet formation theories. Numerical approaches provide a method to tackle the weaknesses of current planet formation models and are an important tool to close gaps in poorly constrained areas. We present a global disk setup to model the first stages of giant planet formation via gravitational instabilities (GI) in 3D with the block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code ENZO. With this setup, we explore the impact of AMR techniques on the fragmentation and clumping due to large-scale instabilities using different AMR configurations. Additionally, we seek to derive general resolution criteria for global simulations of self-gravitating disks of variable extent. We run a grid of simulations with varying AMR settings, including runs with a static grid for comparison, and study the effects of varying the disk radius. Adopting a marginally stable disk profile (Q_init=1), we validate the numerical robustness of our model for different spatial extensions, from compact to larger, extended disks (R_disk = 10, 100 and 300 AU, M_disk ~ 0.05 M_Sun, M_star = 0.646 M_Sun). By combining our findings from the resolution and parameter studies we find a lower limit of the resolution to be able to resolve GI induced fragmentation features and distinct, turbulence inducing clumps. Irrespective of the physical extension of the disk, topologically disconnected clump features are only resolved if the fragmentation-active zone of the disk is resolved with at least 100 cells, which holds as a minimum requirement for all global disk setups. Our simulations illustrate the capabilities of AMR-based modeling techniques for planet formation simulations and underline the importance of balanced refinement settings to reproduce fragmenting structures.

The density and temperature dependence of the cooling timescale for fragmentation of self-gravitating disks

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influences of cooling timescale on fragmentation of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks. We assume the cooling timescale, expressed in terms of the dynamical timescale Ω tcool, has a power-law dependence on temperature and density, Ω tcool ∝ Σ−aT−b, where a and b are constants. We use this cooling timescale in a simple prescription for the cooling rate, du/dt = −u/tcool, where u is the internal energy. We perform our simulations using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. The simulations demonstrate that the disk is very sensitive to the cooling timescale, which depends on density and temperature. Under such a cooling timescale, the disk becomes gravitationally unstable and clumps form in the disk. This property even occurs for cooling timescales which are much longer than the critical cooling timescale, Ω tcool ≳ 7. We show that by adding the dependence of a cooling timescale on temperature and density, the number of clumps increases and the clumps can also form at smaller radii. The simulations imply that the sensitivity of a cooling timescale to density is more than to temperature, because even for a small dependence of the cooling timescale on density, clumps can still form in the disk. However, when the cooling timescale has a large dependence on temperature, clumps form in the disk. We also consider the effects of artificial viscosity parameters on fragmentation conditions. This consideration is performed in two cases, where Ω tcool is a constant and Ω tcool is a function of density and temperature. The simulations consider both cases, and results show the artificial viscosity parameters have rather similar effects. For example, using too small of values for linear and quadratic terms in artificial viscosity can suppress the gravitational instability and consequently the efficiency of the clump formation process decreases. This property is consistent with recent simulations of self-gravitating disks. We perform simulations with and without the Balsara form of artificial viscosity. We find that in the cooling and self-gravitating disks without the Balsara switch, the clumps can form more easily than those with the Balsara switch. Moreover, in both cases where the Balsara switch is present or absent, the simulations show that the cooling timescale strongly depends on density and temperature.

Radiative feedback from protoplanets in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

It is well known that massive protoplanetary disc are gravitationally unstable beyond tens of AU from their parent star. The eventual fate of the self-gravitating gas clumps born in the disc is currently not understood, although the range of uncertainty is well known. If clumps migrate inward rapidly, they are tidally disrupted, which may leave behind giant or terrestrial like planets. On the other hand, if clumps migrate less rapidly, they tend to accrete gas, becoming proto brown dwarfs or low mass companions to the parent star. Here we argue that radiative feedback of contracting clumps (protoplanets) on their discs is an important effect that has been overlooked in previous calculations. We show analytically that temperature in clump's vicinity may be high enough to support a quasi-static atmosphere if the clump mass is below a critical value, $M_{\rm cr} \sim 6$ Jupiter masses ($M_J$). This may arrest further gas accretion onto the clump and thus promote formation of planets rather than low mass companions. We use numerical simulations to evaluate these analytical conclusions by studying migration and accretion of gas clumps as a function of their initial mass, $M_i$. Simulations neglecting the radiative preheating effect show that gas clumps with mass less than $\sim 2 M_J$ migrate inward rapidly; more massive clumps result in low mass companions. In contrast, simulations that include radiative preheating from the clump show that clumps as massive as $8 M_J$ migrate inward rapidly and end up tidally disrupted in the inner disc. We conclude that, with other parameters being equal, previous simulations neglecting radiative feedback from self-gravitating clumps over-estimated the population of brown dwarfs and low mass stellar companions and under-estimated the population of planets.

A SEMI-ANALYTICAL DESCRIPTION FOR THE FORMATION AND GRAVITATIONAL EVOLUTION OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

We investigate the formation process of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks in unmagnetized molecular clouds. The angular momentum is redistributed by the action of gravitational torques in the massive disk during its early formation. We develop a simplified one-dimensional accretion disk model that takes into account the infall of gas from the envelope onto the disk and the transfer of angular momentum in the disk with an effective viscosity. First we evaluate the gas accretion rate from the cloud core onto the disk by approximately estimating the effects of gas pressure and gravity acting on the cloud core. We formulate the effective viscosity as a function of the Toomre Q parameter that measures the local gravitational stability of the rotating thin disk. We use a function for viscosity that changes sensitively with Q when the disk is gravitationally unstable. We find a strong self-regulation mechanism in the disk evolution. During the formation stage of protoplanetary disks, the evolution of the surface density does not depend on the other details of the modeling of effective viscosity, such as the prefactor of the viscosity coefficient. Next, to verify our model, we compare the time evolution of the disk calculated with our formulation with that of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. The structures of the resultant disks from the one-dimensional accretion disk model agree well with those of the three-dimensional simulations. Our model is a useful tool for the further modeling of chemistry, radiative transfer, and planet formation in protoplanetary disks.

The evolution of planetesimal swarms in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

We investigate the kinematic evolution of planetesimals in self-gravitating discs, combining Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamical (SPH) simulations of the disc gas with a gravitationally coupled population of test particle planetesimals. We find that at radii of 10s of au (which is where we expect planetesimals to be possibly formed in such discs) the planetesimals' eccentricities are rapidly pumped to values $>$ 0.1 within the timescales for which the disc is in the self-gravitating regime. The high resulting velocity dispersion and the lack of planetesimal concentration in the spiral arms means that the collision timescale is very long and that the effect of those collisions that do occur is destructive rather than leading to further planetesimal growth. We also use the SPH simulations to calibrate Monte Carlo dynamical experiments: these can be used to evolve the system over long timescales and can be compared with analytical solutions of the diffusion equation in particle angular momentum space. We find that if planetesimals are only formed in a belt at large radius then there is significant scattering of objects to small radii; nevertheless the majority of planetesimals remain at large radii. If planetesimals indeed form at early evolutionary stages, when the disc is strongly self-gravitating, then the results of this study constrain their spatial and kinematic distribution at the end of the self-gravitating phase.

An SPH simulation for cooling and self-gravitating protoplanetary disks

We investigate the effects of the cooling function in the formation of clumps of protoplanetary disks using two-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations. We use a simple prescription for the cooling rate of the flow, du/dt = −u/τcool, where u and τcool are the internal energy and cooling timescale, respectively. We assume the ratio of local cooling to dynamical timescale, Ωτcool = β, to be a constant and also a function of the local temperature. We found that for the constant β and γ = 5/3, fragmentation occurs only for β ≲ 7. However, in the case of β having temperature dependence and γ = 5/3, fragmentation can also occur for largervalues of β. By increasing the temperature dependence of the cooling timescale, the mass accretion rate decreases, the population of clumps/fragments increases, and the clumps/fragments can also form in the smaller radii. Moreover, we found that the clumps can form even in a low mass accretion rate, ≲ 10−7M⊙ yr−1, in the case of temperature-dependent β. However, clumps form with a larger mass accretion rate, > 10−7M⊙ yr−1, in the case of constant β.