Related papers: A high resolution simulation of protoplanetary dis…
High-resolution ALMA observations have revealed asymmetric dust crescents in several protoplanetary disks, suggesting efficient dust trapping mechanisms potentially linked to gas vortices. While such features have been associated with…
In the context of planet formation, anticyclonic vortices have recently received lots of attention for the role they can play in planetesimals formation. Radial migration of intermediate size solids toward the central star may prevent their…
High-resolution, 2-D hydrodynamical simulations with a large dynamic range are performed to study the turbulent nature of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galactic disks. The simulations are global, where the self-gravity of the ISM,…
Many dynamical interactions can induce eccentricities in astrophysical accretion disks. Disk eccentricities in turn seed a variety of instabilities, even in ideal hydrodynamics. We use 3D nonlinear simulations and 2+1D linear calculations…
The streaming instability for solid particles in protoplanetary disks is re-examined assuming the familiar alpha ($\alpha$) model for isotropic turbulence. Turbulence always reduces the growth rates of the streaming instability relative to…
Identifying the mechanisms responsible for angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks, and the extent to which those mechanisms produce turbulence, is a crucial problem in understanding planet formation. The bulk of the gas in…
(abridged) We study the nonlinear evolution of the Rossby wave instability in thin disks using global 2D hydrodynamic simulations. The key questions we are addressing in this paper are: (1) What happens when the instability becomes…
We have performed time-dependent numerical simulations of the interstellar medium (ISM) which account for galactic shear and magnetic fields, vertical gravity, and a radiative cooling function for atomic gas. This allows us to study the…
We present high-resolution computer simulations of dust dynamics and planetesimal formation in turbulence generated by the magnetorotational instability. We show that the turbulent viscosity associated with magnetorotational turbulence in a…
We discuss the possibility that astrophysical accretion disks are dynamically unstable to non-axisymmetric disturbances with characteristic scales much smaller than the vertical scale height. The instability is studied using three methods:…
At certain radii protoplanetary discs may sustain a form of oscillatory convection (`convective overstability'; COS) due to localised adverse entropy gradients. The resulting hydrodynamical activity can produce coherent structures, such as…
Several simulations of turbulence in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst. 62, 2875 (1991)] are energetically analyzed and compared with each other and with the experiment. The simulations use the same model,…
We carry out a series of local, vertically stratified shearing box simulations of protoplanetary disks that include ambipolar diffusion and a net vertical magnetic field. The ambipolar diffusion profiles we employ correspond to 30AU and…
We investigate the effect of shear viscosity and Ohmic resistivity on the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in vertically stratified accretion disks through a series of local simulations with the Athena code. First, we use a series of…
The collapse of dust particle clouds directly to km-sized planetesimals is a promising way to explain the formation of planetesimals, asteroids and comets. In the past, this collapse has been studied in stratified shearing box simulations…
The Rossby wave instability, associated with density bumps in differentially rotating discs, may arise in several different astrophysical contexts, such as galactic or protoplanetary discs. While the linear phase of the instability has been…
One of the main questions in planet formation theory is how to cross the metre-scale barrier. In this two-part series, we assess the merits of vortex-based theories by investigating the effect of backreacting dust on vortices. Specifically,…
The Streaming Instability (SI) is a mechanism to concentrate solids in protoplanetary disks. Nonlinear particle clumping from the SI can trigger gravitational collapse into planetesimals. To better understand the numerical robustness of the…
Protoplanetary discs may become dynamically unstable due to structure induced by an embedded giant planet. In this thesis, I discuss the stability of such systems and explore the consequence of instability on planetary migration. I begin…
Gravitational instability (GI) controls the dynamics of young massive protoplanetary discs. Apart from facilitating gas accretion on to the central protostar, it must also impact on the process of planet formation: directly through…