Related papers: Weighing protoplanetary discs with kinematics: phy…
Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter array (ALMA) have dramatically improved our understanding of the site of exoplanet formation: protoplanetary discs. However, many basic properties of these discs are not…
Recent observations of protoplanetary discs reveal disc substructures potentially caused by embedded planets. We investigate how the gas surface density in discs changes the observed morphology in scattered light and dust continuum…
When imaged at high-resolution, many proto-planetary discs show gaps and rings in their dust sub-mm continuum emission profile. These structures are widely considered to originate from local maxima in the gas pressure profile. The…
Young protoplanetary discs are expected to be gravitationally unstable, which can drive angular momentum transport as well as be a potential mechanism for planet formation. Gravitational instability is most prevalent in the outer disc where…
To date, most simulations of the chemistry in protoplanetary discs have used 1+1D or 2D axisymmetric $\alpha$-disc models to determine chemical compositions within young systems. This assumption is inappropriate for non-axisymmetric,…
Disc-driven planet migration is integral to the formation of planetary systems. In standard, gas-dominated protoplanetary discs, low-mass planets or planetary cores undergo rapid inwards migration and are lost to the central star. However,…
A giant planet creates a gap in a protoplanetary disk, which might explain the observed gaps in protoplanetary disks. The width and depth of the gaps depend on the planet mass and disk properties. We have performed two--dimensional…
The mass of a protoplanetary disk limits the formation and future growth of any planet. Masses of protoplanetary disks are usually calculated from measurements of the dust continuum emission by assuming an interstellar gas-to-dust ratio. To…
A recent ALMA image revealed several concentric gaps in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HL Tau. We consider the hypothesis that these gaps are carved by planets, and present a general framework for understanding the…
The formation of multiple stellar systems is a natural by-product of the star-formation process, and its impact on the properties of protoplanetary discs and on the formation of planets is still to be fully understood. To date, no detailed…
The total gas mass of a protoplanetary disk is a fundamental, but poorly determined, quantity. A new technique \citep{bergin+13} has been demonstrated to assess directly the bulk molecular gas reservoir of molecular hydrogen using the HD…
Many of the most intriguing features, including spirals and cavities, in the current disc observations are found in binary systems like GG Tau, HD 142527 or HD 100453. Such features are evidence of the dynamic interaction between binary…
Understanding how accretion proceeds in proto-planetary discs and more generally their dynamics is a crucial issue for explaining the conditions in which planets form. The role that accretion of gas from the surrounding molecular cloud onto…
It is likely that young protostellar disks undergo a self-gravitating phase. Such systems are characterized by the presence of a spiral pattern that can be either in a quasi-steady state or in a nonlinear unstable condition. This spiral…
We test whether the radii of circumstellar disks can be reliably determined in observations applying the results of a numerical simulation. Firstly, we execute a core collapse simulation which starts from a rotating magnetized spherical…
Young protostellar discs provide the initial conditions for planet formation. The properties of these discs may be different from those of late-phase (T Tauri) discs due to continuing infall from the envelope and protostellar variability…
Semi-analytic models of self-gravitating discs often approximate the angular momentum transport generated by the gravitational instability using the phenomenology of viscosity. This allows the employment of the standard viscous evolution…
The disks that surround young stars are mostly composed of molecular gas, which is harder to detect and interpret than the accompanying dust. Disk mass measurements have therefore relied on large and uncertain extrapolations from the dust…
We use two-dimensional Fourier transformation to measure the pitch angle ($\varphi$) of the dominant spiral Fourier mode of well-defined spiral arms in 13 protoplanetary disks, making use of near-infrared scattered-light images of AB Aur,…
Recent observations of the Class 0 protostar L1527 IRS have revealed a rotationally supported disc with an outer radius of at least 100 au. Measurements of the integrated flux at 870 microns suggest a disc mass that is too low for…