* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Protoplanetary Disk Dust

Blobrana · L

Title: Colliding Decimetre Dust
Authors: Johannes Deckers, Jens Teiser

Collisional evolution is a key process in planetesimal formation and decimetre bodies play a key role in the different models. However, the outcome of collisions between two dusty decimetre bodies has never been studied experimentally. Therefore, we carried out microgravity collision experiments in the Bremen drop tower. The agglomerates consist of quartz with irregularly shaped micrometre-sized grains and the mean volume filling factor is 0.437 ± 0.004. The aggregates are cylindrical with 12 cm in height and 12 cm in diameter and typcial masses are 1.5 kg. These are the largest and most massive dust aggregates studied in collisions to date. We observed rebound and fragmentation but no sticking in the velocity range between 0.8 and 25.7 cm s^{-1}. The critical fragmentation velocity for split up of an aggregate is 16.2 ± 0.4 cm s^{-1}. At lower velocities the aggregates bounce of each other. In this velocity range the coefficient of restitution decreases with increasing collision velocity from 0.8 to 0.3. While the aggregates are very weak the critical specific kinetic energy for fragmentation Q_{µ=1} is a factor 6 larger than expected. Collisions of large bodies in protoplanetary discs are supposed to be much faster and the generation of smaller fragments is likely. In planetary rings collision velocities are of the order of a few cm s^{-1} and are thereby in the same range investigated in these experiments. The coefficient of restitution of dust agglomerates and regolith covered ice particles, which are common in planetary rings, are similar.

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Blobrana · L

Title: From Planetesimals to Dust: Low Gravity Experiments on Recycling Solids at the Inner Edge of Protoplanetary Disks
Authors: Caroline De Beule, Thorben Kelling, Gerhard Wurm, Jens Teiser, Tim Jankowski

Transporting solids of different sizes is an essential process in the evolution of protoplanetary disks and planet formation. Large solids are supposed to drift inward; high-temperature minerals found in comets are assumed to have been transported outward. From low-gravity experiments on parabolic flights we studied the light-induced erosion of dusty bodies caused by a solid-state greenhouse effect and photophoresis within a dust bed's upper layers. The gravity levels studied were 0.16g, 0.38g, 1g, and 1.7g. The light flux during the experiments was 12 ± 2 kW/m² and the ambient pressure was 6 ± 0.9 mbar. Light-induced erosion is strongly gravity dependent, which is in agreement with a developed model. In particular for small dusty bodies ((sub)-planetesimals), efficient erosion is possible at the optically thin inner edges of protoplanetary disks. Light-induced erosion prevents significant parts of a larger body from moving too close to the host star and be being subsequently accreted. The small dust produced continues to be subject to photophoresis and is partially transported upward and outward over the surface of the disk; the resulting small dust particles observed over the disk's lifetime. The fraction of eroded dust participates in subsequent cycles of growth during planetesimal formation. Another fraction of dust might be collected by a body of planetary size if this body is already present close to the disk edge. Either way, light induced erosion is an efficient recycling process in protoplanetary disks.

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Blobrana · L

Title: Dust-trapping Rossby vortices in protoplanetary disks
Authors: H. Meheut, Z. Meliani, P. Varniere, W. Benz

One of the most challenging steps in planet formation theory is the one leading to the formation of planetesimals of kilometre size. A promising scenario involves the existence of vortices able to concentrate a large amount of dust and grains in their centres. Up to now this scenario has been studied mostly in 2D razor thin disks. A 3D study including, simultaneously, the formation and resulting dust concentration of the vortices with vertical settling, was still missing. The Rossby wave instability self-consistently forms 3D vortices, which have the unique quality of presenting a large scale vertical velocity in their centre. Here we aim to study how this newly discovered effect can alter the dynamic evolution of the dust. We perform global 3D simulations of the RWI in a radially and vertically stratified disk using the code MPI-AMRVAC. After the growth phase of the instability, the gas and solid phases are modelled by a bi-fluid approach, where the dust is considered as a fluid without pressure. Both the drag force of the gas on the dust and the back-reaction of the dust on the gas are included. Multiple grain sizes from 1mm to 5cm are used with a constant density distribution. We obtain in a short timescale a high concentration of the largest grains in the vortices. Indeed, in 3 rotations the dust-to-gas density ratio grows from 10^-2 to unity leading to a concentration of mass up to that of Mars in one vortex. The presence of the radial drift is also at the origin of a dust pile-up at the radius of the vortices. Lastly, the vertical velocity of the gas in the vortex causes the sedimentation process to be reversed, the mm size dust is lifted and higher concentrations are obtained in the upper layer than in the mid-plane.

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Blobrana · L

Title: Experiments on centimetre-sized dust aggregates and their implications for planetesimal formation
Authors: Thorsten Meisner, Jens Teiser, Gerhard Wurm

The first macroscopic bodies in protoplanetary disks are dust aggregates. We report on a number of experimental studies with dust aggregates formed from micron-size quartz grains. We confirm in laboratory collision experiments an earlier finding that producing macroscopic bodies by the random impact of sub-mm aggregates results in a well-defined upper-filling factor of 0.31 ± 0.01. Compared to earlier experiments, we increase the projectile mass by about a factor of 100. The collision experiments also show that a highly porous dust-aggregate can retain its highly porous core if collisions get more energetic and a denser shell forms on top of the porous core. We measure the mechanical properties of cm-sized dust samples of different filling factors between 0.34 and 0.50. The tensile strength measured by a Brazilian test, varies between 1 kPa and 6 kPa. The sound speed is determined by a runtime measurement to range between 80 m/s and 140 m/s while Young's modulus is derived from the sound speed and varies between 7MPa and 25MPa. The samples were also subjected to quasi-static omni- and uni-directional compression to determine their compression strengths and flow functions. Applied to planet formation, our experiments provide basic data for future simulations, explain the specific collisional outcomes observed in earlier experiments, and in general support a scenario where collisional growth of planetesimals is possible.

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Blobrana · L

Protoplanetary "transition" disks

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Dust filtration" mechanism

Blobrana · L

RE: Protoplanetary Disk Dust

Blobrana · L

Title: Chemistry in protoplanetary disks (short review in Russian)
Authors: Dmitry A. Semenov (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany)

In this lecture I discuss recent progress in the understanding of the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks that resemble our Solar system during the first ten million years. At the verge of planet formation, strong variations of temperature, density, and radiation intensities in these disks lead to a layered chemical structure. In hot, dilute and heavily irradiated atmosphere only simple radicals, atoms, and atomic ions can survive, formed and destroyed by gas-phase processes. Beneath the atmosphere a partly UV-shielded, warm molecular layer is located, where high-energy radiation drives rich chemistry, both in the gas phase and on dust surfaces. In a cold, dense, dark disk midplane many molecules are frozen out, forming thick icy mantles where surface chemistry is active and where complex (organic) species are synthesised.

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Blobrana · L

Title: Shadows, gaps, and ring-like structures in protoplanetary disks
Authors: Ralf Siebenmorgen, Frank Heymann

We study the structure of passively heated disks around T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars, and present a vectorised Monte Carlo dust radiative transfer model of protoplanetary disks. The vectorisation provides a speed up factor of 100 when compared to a scalar version of the code. Disks are composed of either fluffy carbon and silicate grains of various sizes or dust of the diffuse ISM. The IR emission and the midplane temperature derived by the MC method differ from models where the radiative transfer is solved in slab geometry of small ring segments. In the MC treatment, dusty halos above the disks are considered. Halos lead to an enhanced IR emission and warmer midplane temperature than do pure disks. Under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium we find that the disk in the inner rim puffs up, followed by a shadowed region. The shadow reduces the temperature of the midplane and decreases the height of the extinction layer of the disk. It can be seen as a gap in the disk unless the surface is again exposed to direct stellar radiation. There the disk puffs up a second time, a third time and so forth. Therefore several gaps and ring-like structures are present in the disk surface and appear in emission images. They result from shadows in the disks and are present without the need to postulate the existence of any companion or planet. As compared to Herbig Ae stars, such gaps and ring-like structures are more pronounced in regions of terrestrial planets around T Tauri stars.

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