Related papers: Observation of bottom-up formation for charged gra…
Recent work identified a growth barrier for dust coagulation that originates in the electric repulsion between colliding particles. Depending on its charge state, dust material may have the potential to control key processes towards planet…
In recent years, the tribocharging of colliding and bouncing submillimeter (submm) particles has been studied as a possible mechanism promoting the formation of large pebbles on centimeter (cm) to decimeter (dm) scales in protoplanetary…
Dust emission mechanisms as one aspect of wind-driven particle motion on planetary surfaces are still poorly understood. The microphysics is important though as it determines dust sizes and morphologies which set sedimentation speeds and…
The charging of dust grains in astrophysical environments has been investigated with the assumption these grains are homogeneous spheres. However, there is evidence which suggests many grains in astrophysical environments are…
Collisions of mm-size dust aggregates play a crucial role in the early phases of planet formation. We developed a laboratory setup to observe collisions of dust aggregates levitating at mbar pressures and elevated temperatures of 800 K. We…
The empirical observation of aggregation of dielectric particles under the influence of electrostatic forces lies at the origin of the theory of electricity. The growth of clusters formed of small grains underpins a range of phenomena from…
In recent years, collisional charging has been proposed to promote the growth of pebbles in early phases of planet formation. Ambient pressure in protoplanetary disks spans a wide range from below $10^{-9}$ mbar up to way beyond mbar. Yet,…
Aggregation of dust through sticking collisions is the first step of planet formation. Basic physical properties of the evolving dust aggregates strongly depend on the porosity of the aggregates, e.g. mechanical strength, thermal…
Recent research on the buildup of rocks from small dust grains has reaffirmed that grain growth in protoplanetary disks should occur quickly. Calculation of growth rates have been made for a variety of growth processes and generally predict…
Collisions electrically charge grains which promotes growth by coagulation. We present aggregation experiments with three large ensembles of basalt beads ($150\,\mu\mathrm{m} - 180\,\mu\mathrm{m})$, two of which are charged, while one…
In laboratory experiments, we studied collisions of ensembles of compact (filling factor 0.33) millimeter dust aggregates composed of micrometer quartz grains. We used cylindrical aggregates, triangular aggregates, square aggregates, and…
For grain growth to proceed effectively and lead to planet formation a number of barriers to growth must be overcome. One such barrier, relevant for compact grains in the inner regions of the disc, is the `bouncing barrier' in which large…
Context: Sticking of colliding dust particles through van der Waals forces is the first stage in the grain growth process in protoplanetary disks, eventually leading to the formation of comets, asteroids and planets. A key aspect of the…
Dust coagulation in protoplanetary disks is not straightforward and is subject to several slow-down mechanisms, such as bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift to the star. Furthermore, dust grains in UV-shielded disk regions are…
For dust aggregates in protoplanetary discs a transition between sticking and bouncing in individual collisions at mm to cm size has been observed in the past. This lead to the notion of a bouncing barrier for which growth gets stalled.…
Recent observations indicate that mm/cm-sized grains may exist in the embedded protostellar disks. How such large grains grow from the micron size (or less) in the earliest phase of star formation remains relatively unexplored. In this…
We conducted micro-gravity experiments to study the outcome of collisions between sub-mm-sized dust agglomerates consisting of \mu m-sized SiO2 monomer grains at velocities of several cm/s. Prior to the experiments, we used X-ray computer…
The interaction between dust grains is an important process in fields as diverse as planetesimal formation or the plasma processing of silicon wafers into computer chips. This interaction depends in large part on the material properties of…
The interaction between dust grains is an important process in fields as diverse as planetesimal formation or the plasma processing of silicon wafers into computer chips. This interaction depends in large part on the material properties of…
Context: Bouncing collisions of dust aggregates within the protoplanetary may have a significant impact on the growth process of planetesimals. Yet, the conditions that result in bouncing are not very well understood. Existing simulations…