Related papers: The formation of planets by disc fragmentation
Gas giant planets play a fundamental role in shaping the orbital architecture of planetary systems and in affecting the delivery of volatile materials to terrestrial planets in the habitable zones. Current theories of gas giant planet…
It is estimated that ~60% of all stars (including brown dwarfs) have masses below 0.2Msun. Currently, there is no consensus on how these objects form. I will briefly review the four main theories for the formation of low-mass objects:…
It is likely that most protostellar systems undergo a brief phase where the protostellar disc is self-gravitating. If these discs are prone to fragmentation, then they are able to rapidly form objects that are initially of several Jupiter…
We argue that gravitational instability of typical protostellar disks is not a viable mechanism for the fragmentation into multiple systems -- binary stars, brown dwarf companions, or gas giant planets -- except at periods above roughly…
The role of magnetic fields for the formation of planets is reviewed. Protoplanetary disc turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability has a huge influence on the early stages of planet formation. Small dust grains are transported…
The composition of gas and solids in protoplanetary discs sets the composition of planets that form out of them. Recent chemical models have shown that the composition of gas and dust in discs evolves on Myr time-scales, with volatile…
We discuss the factors influencing the formation and gravitational fragmentation of protostellar discs. We start with a review of how observations of prestellar cores can be analysed statistically to yield plausible initial conditions for…
Context. The model of disc fragmentation due to gravitational instabilities offers an alternate formation mechanism for gas giant planets, especially those on wide orbits. Aims. Our goal is to determine the 3D structure of disc-instability…
Depending on the stellar densities, protoplanetary discs in stellar clusters undergo background heating, disc truncation-driven by stellar encounter, and photo-evaporation. Disc truncation leads to reduced characteristic sizes and disc…
Giant planets have been discovered at large separations from the central star. Moreover, a striking number of young circumstellar disks have gas and/or dust gaps at large orbital separations, potentially driven by embedded planetary…
Star formation is thought to be triggered by gravitational collapse of the dense cores of molecular clouds. Angular momentum conservation during the collapse results in the progressive increase of the centrifugal force, which eventually…
The initial stages of planet formation in circumstellar gas discs proceed via dust grains that collide and build up larger and larger bodies (Safronov 1969). How this process continues from metre-sized boulders to kilometre-scale…
After reviewing the difficulties faced by the conventional theory of planet formation (based upon the aggregation of microscopic dust particles), we describe an alternative hypothesis. We propose that planets form by gravitational collapse…
We investigate under what circumstances an embedded planet in a protoplanetary disc may sculpt the dust distribution such that it observationally presents as a `transition' disc. We concern ourselves with `transition' discs that have large…
The occurrence rate of cold Jupiters was found to depend on stellar mass. The formation environment in the protoplanetary disks regulates core formation and the subsequent gas accretion. In this study, we simulate giant planet formation via…
Evidence of mutually inclined planetary orbits has been reported for giant planets these last years. Here we aim to study the impact of eccentric and inclined massive giant planets on the terrestrial planet formation process, and…
Protoplanetary discs are dynamic environments where the interplay between chemical processes and mass transport shapes the composition of gas and dust available for planet formation. We investigate the combined effects of volatile chemistry…
We consider trends resulting from two formation mechanisms for short-period super-Earths: planet-planet scattering and migration. We model scenarios where these planets originate near the snow line in ``cold finger'' circumstellar disks.…
We investigate how a protoplanetary disc's susceptibility to gravitational instabilities and fragmentation depends on the mass of its host star. We use 1D disc models in conjunction with 3D SPH simulations to determine the critical…
Giant planet embryos are believed to be spawned by gravitational instability in massive extended (R ~ 100 AU) protostellar discs. In a recent paper we have shown that dust can sediment inside the embryos, as argued earlier by Boss (1998) in…