Related papers: Planet Formation Imager (PFI): Introduction and Te…
Submillimeter observations with ALMA will be the essential next step in our understanding of how stars and planets form. Key projects range from detailed imaging of the collapse of pre-stellar cores and measuring the accretion rate of…
The intermediate phases of planet formation are not directly observable due to lack of emission from planetesimals. Planet formation is, however, a dynamically active process resulting in collisions between the evolving planetesimals and…
This article presents recent work to constrain the physical and chemical properties in high-mass star formation based largely on interferometric high-spatial-resolution continuum and spectral line studies at (sub)mm wavelengths. After…
High contrast imaging instruments such as GPI and SPHERE are discovering gap structures in protoplanetary disks at an ever faster pace. Some of these gaps may be opened by planets forming in the disks. In order to constrain planet formation…
Photo-evaporation and planet formation have both been proposed as mechanisms responsible for the creation of a transition disc. We have studied their combined effect through a suite of 2d simulations of protoplanetary discs undergoing X-ray…
Observations of protoplanetary disks provide information on planet formation and the reasons for the diversity of planetary systems. The key to understanding planet formation is the study of dust evolution from small grains to pebbles.…
This review is based on lectures given at the 45th Saas-Fee Advanced Course 'From Protoplanetary Disks to Planet Formation' held in March 2015 in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Starting with an overview of the main characterictics of the…
Magnetic fields are a fundamental part of the interstellar medium (ISM) and remain a challenge for building a comprehensive understanding of galactic properties. Their study requires far-infrared polarimetric observations, which provide an…
Planets are common objects in the Universe, observationally as well as theoretically. However, the standard theory of their formation encounters many difficulties, such as dust fall and disk lifetime problems. We positively analyze them,…
The Gemini Planet (GPI) imager is an "extreme" adaptive optics system being designed and built for the Gemini Observatory. GPI combines precise and accurate wavefront control, diffraction suppression, and a speckle-suppressing science…
In an effort to transcend the limitations of differential imaging of exoplanets in the era of extremely large telescopes (ELTs), the first paper in this series established a rigorous, fully polarimetric framework for determining the science…
In the past decade, ALMA observations have revealed that a large fraction of protoplanetary discs contains rings in the dust continuum. These rings are the locations where pebbles accumulate, which is beneficial for planetesimal formation…
We present the first results from simulations of processes leading to planet formation in protoplanetary disks with different metallicities. For a given metallicity, we construct a two-dimensional grid of disk models with different initial…
Two basic routes for planetesimal formation have been proposed over the last few decades. One is a classical "slow-growth" scenario. Another one is particle concentration models, in which small pebbles are concentrated locally and then…
The formation of circumplanetary disks is central to our understanding of giant planet formation, influencing their growth rate during the post-runaway phase and observability while embedded in protoplanetary disks. We use 3D global…
We are developing the super broad band interferometer by applying the Fourier Transform Spectrometer(FTS) to aperture synthesis system in mm and sub-mm bands. We have constructed a compact system based on the Martin and Puplett type Fourier…
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…
The next generation of solar telescopes will enable us to resolve the fundamental scales of the solar atmosphere, i.e., the pressure scale height and the photon mean free path. High-resolution observations of small-scale structures with…
Observations of extrasolar planets using Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS), if coupled with an extreme Adaptive Optics system and analyzed with a Simultaneous Differential Imaging technique (SDI), are a powerful tool to detect and…
Theories of planet formation predict the birth of giant planets in the inner, dense, and gas-rich regions of the circumstellar disks around young stars. These are the regions from which strong CO emission is expected. Observations have so…