Kinematics and dynamics of self-gravitating protostellar discs

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• Cristiano Longarini (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge)
• Monday 25 November 2024, 14:00-15:00
• MR14 DAMTP and online.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Thomas Jannaud.

Protoplanetary discs are the link between stars and planet: they form with the star, and they are the environments where planet formation takes place. Nowadays, thanks to the incredible images of ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array), we have the possibility to investigate planet formation in real time. ALMA observations show that planet formation is ubiquitous, and occurs very early in the disc lifetime, when the disc is still massive. In such massive environments, gravitational instabilities are likely to occur, playing a crucial role in disc evolution. In this seminar, I will discuss the kinematical and dynamical effects of self-gravity and gravitational instability in protoplanetary discs. From a kinematical perspective, disc self-gravity alters the equilibrium state, producing a super-Keplerian rotation curve. Measuring this deviation allows us to constrain key properties of protoplanetary discs, such as their mass. Moreover, gravitational instabilities leave distinct kinematic signatures, observable with ALMA , that provide crucial insights into angular momentum transport in these systems. I will illustrate these concepts by comparing theoretical predictions with ALMA observations of two protoplanetary discs likely to exhibit gravitational instabilities. Secondly, I will explore the process of planet formation in gravitationally unstable discs. Specifically, I will highlight how the interplay with dust dynamics enables the formation of planetary cores via dust collapse in the outer disc regions. This mechanism bypasses the planetesimal formation barrier within the core accretion model of planet formation. I will present hydrodynamical simulations demonstrating dust collapse in gas spiral arms and examine the early evolution of the resulting planetary cores.

This talk is part of the DAMTP Astrophysics Seminars series.

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