Puffed-up Edges of Planet-opened Gaps in Protoplanetary Disks. I. Hydrodynamic Simulations
Abstract Dust gaps and rings appear ubiquitous in bright protoplanetary disks. Disk–planet interaction with dust trapping at the edges of planet-induced gaps is one plausible explanation. However, the sharpness of some observed dust rings indicate that sub-millimeter-sized dust grains have settled t...
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Published in | The Astrophysical journal Vol. 912; no. 2; pp. 107 - 116 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Philadelphia
The American Astronomical Society
01.05.2021
IOP Publishing |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract
Dust gaps and rings appear ubiquitous in bright protoplanetary disks. Disk–planet interaction with dust trapping at the edges of planet-induced gaps is one plausible explanation. However, the sharpness of some observed dust rings indicate that sub-millimeter-sized dust grains have settled to a thin layer in some systems. We test whether or not such dust around gas gaps opened by planets can remain settled by performing three-dimensional, dust-plus-gas simulations of protoplanetary disks with an embedded planet. We find planets massive enough to open gas gaps stir small, sub-millimeter-sized dust grains to high disk elevations at the gap edges, where the dust scale height can reach ∼70% of the gas scale height. We attribute this dust “puff up” to the planet-induced meridional gas flows previously identified by Fung & Chiang and others. We thus emphasize the importance of explicit 3D simulations to obtain the vertical distribution of sub-millimeter-sized grains around gas gaps opened by massive planets. We caution that the gas-gap-opening planet interpretation of well-defined dust rings is only self-consistent with large grains exceeding millimeter size. |
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Bibliography: | AAS26970 Interstellar Matter and the Local Universe |
ISSN: | 0004-637X 1538-4357 |
DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/abef6b |