Related papers: Steeper Scattered Disks Buckle Faster
We study a warping instability of a geometrically thin, non-self-gravitating disk surrounding binary supermassive black holes on a circular orbit. Such a circumbinary disk is subject to not only tidal torques due to the binary gravitational…
We identify a new secular instability of eccentric stellar disks around supermassive black holes. We show that retrograde precession of the stellar orbits, due to the presence of a stellar cusp, induces coherent torques that amplify…
The Solar System's orbital structure is thought to have been sculpted by an episode of dynamical instability among the giant planets. However, the instability trigger and timing have not been clearly established. Hydrodynamical modeling has…
We present a new instability driven by a combination of coagulation and radial drift of dust particles. We refer to this instability as ``coagulation instability" and regard it as a promising mechanism to concentrate dust particles and…
Current planet formation theories rely on initially compact orbital configurations undergoing a (possibly extended) phase of giant impacts following the dispersal of the dissipative protoplanetary disk. The orbital architectures of observed…
The large scale structure of the Solar System has been shaped by a transient dynamical instability that may have been triggered by the interaction of the giants planets with a massive primordial disk of icy debris. In this work, we…
Gravitational scattering between massive planets has been invoked to explain the eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets. For scattering to occur, the planets must either form in -- or migrate into -- an unstable configuration. In…
Structure of a quasi-stationary stellar cluster is modelled assuming that it is embedded in the gravitational field of a super-massive black hole. Gradual orbital decay of stellar trajectories is caused by the dissipative interaction with…
There are growing amount of very high-resolution polarized scattered light images of circumstellar disks. Nascent giant planets planets are surrounded by their own circumplanetary disks which may scatter and polarize both the planetary and…
We examine whether massive-star accretion disks are likely to fragment due to self-gravity. Rapid accretion and high angular momentum push these disks toward fragmentation, whereas viscous heating and the high protostellar luminosity…
In this article, we proceed to study convection as a possible factor of episodic accretion in protoplanetary disks. Within the model presented in Article~I, the accretion history is analyzed at different rates and areas of matter inflow…
Protoplanetary disks often appear as multiple concentric rings in dust continuum emission maps and scattered light images. These features are often associated with possible young planets in these disks. Many non-planetary explanations have…
We study the effect of a massive planetesimal disk on the dynamical stability of the outer planets assuming, as has been suggested recently, that these were initially locked in a compact and multiresonant configuration as a result of…
Gas giant planets are expected to accrete most of their mass via a circumplanetary disk. If the planet is unmagnetized and initially slowly rotating, it will accrete gas via a radially narrow boundary layer and rapidly spin up. Radial…
It is difficult to imagine a planet formation model that does not at some stage include a gravitationally unstable disc. Initially unstable gas-dust discs may form planets directly, but the high surface density required has motivated the…
The relaxed distribution of stars around a massive black hole is known to follow a cusp profile $\rho(r)\propto r^{-\alpha}$ with characteristic slope $\alpha=7/4$. This follows from energy conservation and a scattering rate as given by two…
Transitional disks are protoplanetary disks with large and deep central holes in the gas, possibly carved by young planets. Dong, R., & Dawson, R. 2016, ApJ, 825, 7 simulated systems with multiple giant planets that were capable of carving…
Molecular gas disks are generally Toomre stable ($Q_T>$1) and yet clearly gravitationally unstable to structure formation as evidenced by the existence of molecular clouds and ongoing star formation. This paper adopts a 3D perspective to…
Growth rates for gravitational instabilities in a thick disk of gas and stars are determined for a turbulent gas that dissipates on the local crossing time. The scale heights are derived from vertical equilibrium. The accuracy of the usual…
In the solar-neighbourhood, older stars have larger random velocities than younger ones. It is argued that the increase in velocity dispersion with time is predominantly a gradual process rather than one induced by discrete events such as…