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Title: PARTICLE TRAPPING AND STREAMING INSTABILITY IN VORTICES IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg (Germany)
  2. Division of Geological and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd MC 150-12, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

We analyze the concentration of solid particles in vortices created and sustained by radial buoyancy in protoplanetary disks, e.g., baroclinic vortex growth. Besides the gas drag acting on particles, we also allow for back-reaction from dust onto the gas. This becomes important when the local dust-to-gas ratio approaches unity. In our two-dimensional, local, shearing sheet simulations, we see high concentrations of grains inside the vortices for a broad range of Stokes numbers, St. An initial dust-to-gas ratio of 1:100 can easily be reversed to 100:1 for St = 1.0. The increased dust-to-gas ratio triggers the streaming instability, thus counter-intuitively limiting the maximal achievable overdensities. We find that particle trapping inside vortices opens the possibility for gravity assisted planetesimal formation even for small particles (St = 0.01) and a low initial dust-to-gas ratio of 1:10{sup 4}, e.g., much smaller than in the previously studied magnetohydrodynamic zonal flow case.

OSTI ID:
22522476
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 804, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English