Related papers: Circumstellar discs: What will be next?
The study of protoplanetary disc evolution and planet formation has mainly concentrated on solar (and low) mass stars since they host the majority of the confirmed exoplanets. Nevertheless, the numerous planets found orbiting stars up to…
I briefly review recent developments in the study of circumstellar debris disks, particularly at infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths, and discuss possible avenues of research for the near future.
Circumstellar disks are the sites of planet formation, and the very high incidence of extrasolar planets implies that most of them actually form planetary systems. Studying the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks can thus place…
We study the evolution and final dispersal of protoplanetary discs that evolve under the action of internal and external photoevaporation, and different degrees of viscous transport. We identify five distinct dispersal pathways, which are…
The current picture painted by the observations of circumstellar dust at white dwarfs, and the consequent atmospheric pollution, is of a surviving planetary system. This chapter recounts in detail both the discovery and empirical…
Recent observations have suggested that circumstellar disks may commonly form around young stellar objects. Although the formation of circumstellar disks can be a natural result of the conservation of angular momentum in the parent cloud,…
Most stars form in a clustered environment. Therefore, it is important to assess how this environment influences the evolution of protoplanetary discs around young stars. In turn, this affects their ability to produce planets and ultimately…
Flattened, rotating disks of cool dust and gas extending for tens to hundreds of AU are found around almost all low mass stars shortly after their birth. These disks generally persist for several Myr, during which time some material…
Circumstellar disks have long been regarded as windows into planetary systems. The advent of high sensitivity, high resolution imaging in the submillimetre where both the solid and gas components of disks can be detected opens up new…
In multiple stellar systems interactions among the companion stars and their discs affect planet formation. In the circumstellar case tidal truncation makes protoplanetary discs smaller, fainter and less long-lived than those evolving in…
Discs of gas and dust are ubiquitous around protostars. Hypothetical disc viscosity is thought to cause the gas and dust to accrete onto the star. Turbulence within the disc might be the source of this disc viscosity. However, observed…
The great diversity of extrasolar planetary systems has challenged our understanding of how planets form, and how their orbits evolve as they form. Among the various processes that may account for this diversity, the gravitational…
A clear understanding of the chemical processing of matter, as it is transferred from a molecular cloud to a planetary system, depends heavily on knowledge of the physical conditions endured by gas and dust as these accrete onto a disk and…
The origins of planets, and perhaps life itself, is intrinsically linked to the chemistry of planet formation. In this chapter we will attempt to explore the chemistry of planet-forming disks from the perspective of knowledge gained from…
Over the past decade, advancement of observational capabilities, specifically the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and SPHERE instrument, alongside theoretical innovations like pebble accretion, have reshaped our…
The solid content of circumstellar disks is inherited from the interstellar medium: dust particles of at most a micrometer in size. Protoplanetary disks are the environment where these dust grains need to grow at least 13 orders of…
The chemical environment in circumstellar discs is a unique diagnostic of the thermal, physical and chemical environment. In this paper we examine the structure of star formation regions giving rise to low mass stars, and the chemical…
Dust constitutes only about one percent of the mass of circumstellar disks, yet it is of crucial importance for the modeling of planet formation, disk chemistry, radiative transfer and observations. The initial growth of dust from…
The crucial initial step in planet formation is the agglomeration of micron-sized dust into macroscopic aggregates. This phase is likely to happen very early during the protostellar disc formation, which is characterised by active gas…
This is a draft chapter for a book, entitled Physical Processes in Circumstellar Disks around Young Stars, which is scheduled for publication by the University of Chicago Press as one of its Theoretical Astrophysics Series volumes. Sect. 1…