Related papers: The dynamically disrupted gap in HD 142527
Giant protoplanets evacuate a gap in their host protoplanetary disc, which gas must cross before it can be accreted. A magnetic field is likely carried into the gap, potentially influencing the flow. Gap crossing has been simulated with…
We present the results of our recent study on the interactions between a giant planet and a self-gravitating gas disk. We investigate how the disk's self-gravity affects the gap formation process and the migration of the giant planet. Two…
There is much evidence that planet formation is occurring in the disk around the Herbig Be star HD100546. To learn more about the processes occurring in this disk we conducted high resolution imaging at 43/45 GHz with the Australia…
The observation of massive exoplanets at large separation from their host star, like in the HR 8799 system, challenges theories of planet formation. A possible formation mechanism involves the fragmentation of massive self-gravitating discs…
Protoplanetary discs are now routinely observed and exoplanets, after the numerous indirect discoveries, are starting to be directly imaged. To better understand the planet formation process, the next step is the detection of forming…
With the uniquely high contrast within 0.1" (\Delta mag(L') = 5-6.5 magnitudes) available using Sparse Aperture Masking (SAM) with NACO at VLT, we detected asymmetry in the flux from the Herbig Fe star HD 142527 with a barycenter emission…
Super-thermal gas giant planets or their progenitor cores are known to open deep gaps in protoplanetary disks, which stop large, drifting dust particles on their way to the inner disk. The possible separation of the disk into distinct…
Transitional and pre--transitional disks can be explained by a number of mechanisms. This work aims to find a single observationally detectable marker that would imply a planetary origin for the gap and, therefore, indirectly indicate the…
Giant planets embedded in circumstellar discs are expected to open gaps in these discs. We examine the vertical structure of the gap edges. We find that the planet excites spiral arms with significant (Mach number of a half) vertical motion…
Large-scale vortices in protoplanetary disks are thought to form and survive for long periods of time. Hence, they can significantly change the global disk evolution and particularly the distribution of the solid particles embedded in the…
Recent disk observations have revealed multiple indirect signatures of forming gas giant planets, but high-contrast imaging has rarely confirmed the presence of the suspected perturbers. Here, we exploit a unique opportunity provided by the…
The tidal perturbation of embedded protoplanets on their natal disks has been widely attributed to be the cause of gap-ring structures in sub-mm images of protoplanetary disks around T Tauri stars. Numerical simulations of this process have…
We investigate the crucial role of self-gravity in the formation of warps in debris disks, focusing on the HD 110058 system as an example. Using advanced, GPU-accelerated $N$-body simulations, we model the gravitational dynamics of a…
Circumstellar disks are thought to experience a rapid "transition" phase in their evolution that can have a considerable impact on the formation and early development of planetary systems. We present new and archival high angular resolution…
Nearly-axisymmetric gaps and rings are commonly observed in protoplanetary discs. The leading theory regarding the origin of these patterns is that they are due to dust trapping at the edges of gas gaps induced by the gravitational torques…
Direct imaging observations of protoplanetary disks at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths have revealed structures of potentially planetary origin. Investigations of observational signatures from planet-induced features have so far focused on…
The radial transport, or drift, of dust has taken a critical role in giant planet formation theory. However, it has been challenging to identify dust drift pile ups in the hard-to-observe inner disk. We find that the IM Lup disk shows…
We present Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) observations of AU Microscopii, a young M dwarf with an edge-on, dusty debris disk. Integral field spectroscopy and broadband imaging polarimetry were obtained during the commissioning of GPI. In our…
Formed in protoplanetary disks around young stars, giant planets can leave observational features such as spirals and gaps in their natal disks through planet-disk interactions. Although such features can indicate the existence of giant…
Recent high-resolution, near-infrared images of protoplanetary disks have shown that these disks often present spiral features. Spiral arms are among the structures predicted decades ago by numerical simulations of disk-planet interaction…