Related papers: The impact of initial density profile on protoplan…
(Abridged) We analyse the stability and evolution of power-law accretion disc models. These have midplane densities that follow radial power-laws, and have either temperature or entropy distributions that are power-law functions of…
Agglomeration processes occur in many different realms of science such as colloid and aerosol formation or formation of bacterial colonies. We study the influence of primary particle density in agglomerate structure using…
A key problem in protoplanetary disc evolution is understanding the efficiency of dust radial drift. This process makes the observed dust disc sizes shrink on relatively short timescales, implying that discs started much larger than what we…
Irradiation from the central star controls the temperature structure in protoplanetary discs. Yet simulations of gravitational instability typically use models of stellar irradiation with varying complexity, or ignore it altogether,…
We carry out a large set of very high resolution, three dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations describing the evolution of gravitationally unstable gaseous protoplanetary disks. We consider a broad range of initial…
We use N-body simulations to study the shape of mean cluster density and velocity profiles formed via gravitational instability. The dependence of the final structure on both cosmology and initial density field is examined, using a grid of…
Observational studies show that the probability of finding gas giant planets around a star increases with the star's metallicity. Our latest simulations of disks undergoing gravitational instabilities (GIs) with realistic radiative cooling…
It is expected that an average protostar will undergo at least one impulsive interaction with a neighbouring protostar whilst a large fraction of its mass is still in a massive, extended disc. Such interactions must have a significant…
We investigate the motion of a particle around a low mass planet embedded in a non-turbulent gaseous disk. We take into account the effect of the gas structure that is modified by the gravitational interaction between the planet. We derive…
The motion of solid particles embedded in gaseous protoplanetary disks is influenced by turbulent fluctuations. Consequently, the dynamics of moderately to weakly coupled solids can be distinctly different from the dynamics of the gas.…
Gravitational instabilities (GIs) are most likely a fundamental process during the early stages of protoplanetary disc formation. Recently, there have been detections of spiral features in young, embedded objects that appear consistent with…
This review introduces physical processes in protoplanetary disks relevant to accretion and the initial stages of planet formation. After a brief overview of the observational context, I introduce the elementary theory of disk structure and…
A generalized version of the Spherical Infall Model (SIM) is used to study the effect of angular momentum on the final density profile of a spherical structure. The numerical method presented is able to handle a variety of initial density…
The structure of protoplanetary disks plays an essential role in planet formation. Disks that are highly inclined, or ''edge-on'', are of particular interest since their geometry provides a unique opportunity to study the disk's vertical…
The consequences of a protoplanetary disk collision with a gas stream are being studied using three-dimensional numerical gas-dynamic simulation. The influence of orbital parameters and the stream mass on the accretion activity of the star…
The study of protoplanetary disc evolution and planet formation has mainly concentrated on solar (and low) mass stars since they host the majority of the confirmed exoplanets. Nevertheless, the numerous planets found orbiting stars up to…
Protoplanetary discs should exhibit a weak vertical variation in their rotation profiles. Typically this `vertical shear' issues from a baroclinic effect driven by the central star's radiation field, but it might also arise during the…
Luminosities of pre-main sequence stars evolve during the protoplanetary disc lifetime. This has a significant impact on the heating of their surrounding protoplanetary disks, the natal environments of planets. Moreover, stars of different…
The streaming instability is a popular candidate for planetesimal formation by concentrating dust particles to trigger gravitational collapse. However, its robustness against physical conditions expected in protoplanetary disks is unclear.…
Discs of gas and dust are ubiquitous around protostars. Hypothetical disc viscosity is thought to cause the gas and dust to accrete onto the star. Turbulence within the disc might be the source of this disc viscosity. However, observed…