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Protoplanetary disks are dust-rich structures around young stars. The crystalline and amorphous materials contained within these disks are variably thermally processed and accreted to make bodies of a wide range of sizes and compositions,…
Recently, gas disks have been discovered around main sequence stars well beyond the usual protoplanetary disk lifetimes (i.e., > 10 Myrs), when planets have already formed. These gas disks, mainly composed of CO, carbon, and oxygen seem to…
We address two outstanding issues in the sequential accretion scenario for gas giant planet formation, the retention of dust grains in the presence of gas drag and that of cores despite type I migration. The efficiency of these processes is…
The evolution of protoplanetary discs embedded in stellar clusters depends on the age and the stellar density in which they are embedded. Stellar clusters of young age and high stellar surface density destroy protoplanetary discs by…
We aim to investigate the influence of the eccentricity and inclination damping due to planet-disc interactions on the final configurations of the systems, generalizing previous studies on the combined action of the gas disc and…
Our recent N-body simulations of planetary system formation, incorporating models for the main physical processes thought to be important during the building of planets (i.e. gas disc evolution, migration, planetesimal/boulder accretion,…
According to the sequential accretion model, giant planet formation is based first on the formation of a solid core which, when massive enough, can gravitationally bind gas from the nebula to form the envelope. In order to trigger the…
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…
Recent observations have detected excess H$\alpha$ emission from young stellar systems with an age of several Myr such as PDS 70. One-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic models of shock-heated flows that we developed previously demonstrate…
Planet formation encompasses processes that span a remarkable 40 magnitudes in mass, ranging from collisions between micron-sized grains inherited from the ISM to the accretion of gas by giant planets. The planet formation process takes…
We present the results of hydrodynamic simulations of the growth and orbital evolution of giant planets embedded in a protoplanetary disk with a dead-zone. The aim is to examine to what extent the presence of a dead-zone affects the rates…
Super-Earths are by far the most dominant type of exoplanet, yet their formation is still not well understood. In particular, planet formation models predict that many of them should have accreted enough gas to become gas giants. Here we…
Models of terrestrial planet formation for our solar system have been successful in producing planets with masses and orbits similar to those of Venus and Earth. However, these models have generally failed to produce Mars-sized objects…
We present a statistical study of the post-formation migration of giant planets in a range of initial disk conditions. For given initial conditions we model the evolution of giant planet orbits under the influence of disk, stellar, and mass…
We present the results of N--body simulations which examine the effect that gas giant planet migration has on the formation of terrestrial planets. The models incorporate a 0.5 Jupiter mass planet undergoing type II migration through an…
Combining isotopic constraints from meteorite data with dynamical models of planet formation proves to be advantageous in identifying the best model for terrestrial planet formation. Prior studies have shown that the probability of…
Forming giant planets are accompanied by circumplanetary disks, as indicated by considerations of angular momentum conservation, observations of candidate protoplanets, and the satellite systems of planets in our Solar System. This paper…
Pebbles of millimeter sizes are abundant in protoplanetary discs around young stars. Chondrules inside primitive meteorites - formed by melting of dust aggregate pebbles or in impacts between planetesimals - have similar sizes. The role of…
Identification of the main planet formation site is fundamental to understanding how planets form and migrate to the current locations. We consider the heavy-element content trend of observed exoplanets derived from improved measurements of…
Much recent work on planet formation has focused on the growth of planets by accretion of grains whose aerodynamic properties make them marginally coupled to the nebular gas, a theory commonly referred to as "pebble accretion". While pebble…