Related papers: Non-barotropic linear Rossby wave instability in t…
Protoplanetary discs may become dynamically unstable due to structure induced by an embedded giant planet. In this thesis, I discuss the stability of such systems and explore the consequence of instability on planetary migration. I begin…
The filamentary nature of accretion streams found around embedded sources suggest that protostellar disks experience heterogenous infall from the star-forming environment, consistent with the accretion behavior onto star-forming cores in…
We explore the linear stability of astrophysical discs exhibiting vertical shear, which arises when there is a radial variation in the temperature or entropy. Such discs are subject to a "vertical-shear instability", which recent nonlinear…
Many dynamical interactions can induce eccentricities in astrophysical accretion disks. Disk eccentricities in turn seed a variety of instabilities, even in ideal hydrodynamics. We use 3D nonlinear simulations and 2+1D linear calculations…
We are concerned with the nonlinear stability of vortex sheets for the relativistic Euler equations in three-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. This is a nonlinear hyperbolic problem with a characteristic free boundary. In this paper, we…
Magneto-rotational instability (MRI) and gravitational instability (GI) are the two principle routes to turbulent angular momentum transport in accretion disks. Protoplanetary disks may develop both. This paper aims to reinvigorate interest…
Resonant Drag Instabilities (RDIs) in protoplanetary discs are driven by the aerodynamic back-reaction of dust on gas and occur when the relative dust-gas motion resonate with a wave mode intrinsic to the gas fluid. Axisymmetric models…
Spiral density waves dominate several facets of accretion disc dynamics --- planet-disc interactions and gravitational instability (GI) most prominently. Though they have been examined thoroughly in two-dimensional simulations, their…
A high resolution fourth-order Pad\'e scheme is used to simulate locally isothermal 3D disk turbulence driven by the vertical shear instability (VSI) using 268.4 M points. In the early non-linear period of axisymmetric VSI, angular momentum…
Results from the laboratory experiments on the evolution of vortices (eddies) generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. The surface elevation and velocity fields are measured by the Altimetric Imaging…
We studied global nonaxisymmetric hydrodynamic instabilities in an extensive collection of hot, self-gravitating polytropic disk systems, systems that covered a wide expanse of the parameter space relevant to protostellar and protoplanetary…
Several observations of transition discs show lopsided dust-distributions. A potential explanation is the formation of a large-scale vortex acting as a dust-trap at the edge of a gap opened by a giant planet. Numerical models of gap-edge…
We outline a novel linear instability that may arise in the dead-zones of protostellar disks, and possibly the fluid interiors of planets and protoplanets. In essence it is an axisymmetric buoyancy instability, but one that would not be…
(Abriged) The existence of large-scale and long-lived 2D vortices in accretion discs has been debated for more than a decade. They appear spontaneously in several 2D disc simulations and they are known to accelerate planetesimal formation…
Vortices are the fundamental units of turbulent flow. Understanding their stability properties therefore provides fundamental insights on the nature of turbulence itself. In this contribution I briefly review the phenomenological aspects of…
It is believed that large-scale horseshoe-like brightness asymmetries found in dozens of transitional protoplanetary discs are caused by anticyclonic vortices. These vortices can play a key role in planet formation, as mm-sized dust -- the…
In an early work the Rossby Wave Instability (RWI) has been proposed to explain variability thought to originate in the close vicinity of black-holes but this was done in the pseudo-Newtonian approach. Here we present the first general…
Recent numerical simulations have revealed that dust clumping and planetesimal formation likely proceed in ring-like disc substructures, where dust gets trapped in weakly turbulent pressure maxima. The streaming instability has difficulty…
The linear stability of three-dimensional (3D) vortices in rotating, stratified flows has been studied by analyzing the non-hydrostatic inviscid Boussinesq equations. We have focused on a widely-used model of geophysical and astrophysical…
Numerical simulations are presented to study the stability of gaps opened by giant planets in 3D self-gravitating disks. In weakly self-gravitating disks, a few vortices develop at the gap edge and merge on orbital time-scales. The result…