Related papers: How Empty are Disk Gaps Opened by Giant Planets?

Protoplanetary disks with large inner dust cavities are thought to host massive planetary or substellar companions. These disks show asymmetries and rings in the millimeter continuum, caused by dust trapping in pressure bumps, and…

Sub-Saturns straddle the boundary between gas-rich Jupiters and gas-poor super-Earths/sub-Neptunes. Their large radii (4--8$R_\oplus$) suggest that their gas-to-core mass ratios range $\sim$0.1--1.0. With their envelopes as massive as their…

While numerical simulations have been playing a key role in the studies of planet-disk interaction, testing numerical results against observations has been limited so far. With the two directly imaged protoplanets embedded in its…

Density waves excited by planets embedded in protoplanetary disks play a central role in planetary migration and gap opening processes. We carry out 2D shearing sheet simulations to study the linear regime of wave evolution with the…

Understanding how dust evolves in protoplanetary disks is crucial to constraining the initial conditions of planet formation. The apparent "mass budget problem", which stems from the comparison of the observed disk masses to the ones…

Some exoplanets have much higher densities than expected from stellar abundances of planet-forming elements. There are two theories - metal-rich formation hypothesis and naked core hypothesis - that explain how formation and evolution can…

Planets form in disks around young stars. Interactions with these disks cause them to migrate and thus affect their final orbital periods. We suggest that the connection between planets and disks may be deeper and involve a symbiotic…

Disks around young stars are known to evolve from optically thick, gas-dominated protoplanetary disks to optically thin, almost gas-free debris disks. It is thought that the primordial gas is largely removed at ages of ~10 Myr, but it is…

Giant planets are expected to form at orbital radii that are relatively large compared to transit and radial velocity detections (>1 AU). As a result, giant planet formation is best observed through direct imaging. By simulating the…

We propose a mechanism by which dust rings in protoplanetary disks can form and be long-lasting compared to gas rings. This involves the existence of a pressure maximum which traps dust either in between two gap-opening planets or at the…

We have completed a high-contrast direct imaging survey for giant planets around 57 debris disk stars as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. We achieved median H-band contrasts of 12.4 mag at 0.5" and 14.1 mag at 1" separation.…

Planets with sizes between those of Earth and Neptune divide into two populations: purely rocky bodies whose atmospheres contribute negligibly to their sizes, and larger gas-enveloped planets possessing voluminous and optically thick…

Recent observations of large-scale asymmetric features in protoplanetary disks suggest that large-scale vortices exist in such disks. Massive planets are known to be able to produce deep gaps in protoplanetary disks. The gap edges could…

We study the effect of a Jovian planet on the gas distribution of a protoplanetary disc, using a new numerical scheme that allows us to take into consideration the global evolution of the disc, down to an arbitrarily small inner physical…

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…

The gas surface density profile of protoplanetary disks is one of the most fundamental physical properties to understand planet formation. However, it is challenging to determine the surface density profile observationally, because the…

We present stellar mass surface density profiles of a mass-selected sample of 177 galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2.5, obtained using very deep HST optical and near-infrared data over the GOODS-South field, including recent CANDELS data. Accurate…

We investigate whether photoevaporation alone can open and sustain gaps in protoplanetary discs by coupling the evolving disc structure with the photoevaporative flow in two dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations. Our results show…

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…

We present H- and Ks-band imaging data resolving the gap in the transitional disk around LkCa 15, revealing the surrounding nebulosity. We detect sharp elliptical contours delimiting the nebulosity on the inside as well as the outside,…