Related papers: Grain sedimentation inside giant planet embryos
Grain growth during star formation affects the physical and chemical processes in the evolution of star-forming clouds. We investigate the origin of the millimeter (mm)-sized grains recently observed in Class I protostellar envelopes. We…
Context: Radius and mass measurements of short-period giant planets reveal that many of these planets contain a large amount of heavy elements, in sharp contrast with the expectations of the conventional core-accretion model for the origin…
(Abridged) Recent surveys of young star formation regions have shown that the average Class II object does not have enough dust mass to make the cores of giant planets. Younger Class 0/I objects have enough dust in their embedded disk,…
Icy pebbles may play an important role in planet formation close to the water ice line of protoplanetary discs. There, dust coagulation is more efficient and re-condensation of vapor on pebbles may enhance their growth outside the ice line.…
Aims: Grain growth has been suggested as one possible explanation for the diminished dust optical depths in the inner regions of protoplanetary "transition" disks. In this work, we directly test this hypothesis in the context of current…
Planet formation occurs within the gas and dust rich environments of protoplanetary disks. Observations of these objects show that the growth of primordial sub micron sized particles into larger aggregates occurs at the earliest stages of…
Interstellar dust grains can be spun up by radiative torques, and the resulting centrifugal force may be strong enough to disrupt large dust grains. We examine the effect of this rotational disruption on the evolution of grain size…
In the hot-start core accretion formation model for gas giants, the interior of a planet is usually assumed to be fully convective. By calculating the detailed internal evolution of a planet assuming hot start outer boundary conditions, we…
The origin of Uranus and Neptune has long been challenging to explain, due to the large orbital distances from the Sun. After a planetary embryo has been formed, the main accretion processes are likely pebble, gas and planetesimal…
Our current understanding of the physical conditions in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs is becoming increasingly challenged by the more detailed observational and theoretical explorations. Calculation of dust temperature is one of…
We investigate the critical core mass and the envelope growth timescale, assuming grain-free envelopes, to examine how small cores are allowed to form gas giants in the framework of the core accretion model. This is motivated by a…
Super-Earths are found in tighter orbits than the Earth's around more than one third of main sequence stars. It has been proposed that super-Earths are scaled-up terrestrial planets that formed similarly, through mutual accretion of…
Gas giant planets are far easier than terrestrial planets to detect around other stars, and are thought to form much more quickly than terrestrial planets. Thus, in systems with giant planets, the late stages of terrestrial planet formation…
Due to the gas rich environments of early circumstellar disks, the gravitational collapse of cool, dense regions of the disk form fragments largely composed of gas. During formation, disk fragments may attain increased metallicities as they…
Transitional discs have central regions characterised by significant depletion of both dust and gas compared to younger, optically-thick discs. However, gas and dust are not depleted by equal amounts: gas surface densities are typically…
Hundreds of circumstellar disks in the Orion nebula are being rapidly destroyed by the intense ultraviolet radiation produced by nearby bright stars. These young, million-year-old disks may not survive long enough to form planetary systems.…
If planetesimal formation is an efficient process, as suggested by several models involving gravitational collapse of pebble clouds, then, before long, a significant part of the primordial dust mass should be absorbed in many km sized…
Interstellar dust forms during stellar mass-loss events, occurring either during a star's giant phase or during supernova explosions. This PhD thesis provides an in-depth investigation into the theory of dust condensation and growth,…
We present a simple model for low-mass planet formation and subsequent evolution within "transition" discs. We demonstrate quantitatively that the predicted and observed structure of such discs are prime birthsites of planets. Planet…
We investigate the formation of dust grains in the ejecta of population III supernovae including pair--instability supernovae, applying a theory of non-- steady state nucleation and grain growth. In the calculations, the time evolution of…