Related papers: Disc fragmentation. II. Ejection of low mass Free …
More than half of Solar-type stars are found in binary systems. The numbers of exoplanets within binary systems in s-type orbits now numbers over 700. However, whilst the numbers have increased, there still does not exist a global model of…
Many protoplanetary discs are self-gravitating early in their lives. If they fragment under their own gravity, they form bound gaseous clumps which may evolve to become giant planets. Today, the fraction of discs that undergo fragmentation,…
It appears that most stars are born in clusters, and that at birth most stars have circumstellar discs which are comparable in size to the separations between the stars. Interactions between neighbouring stars and discs are therefore likely…
Observations in the past decade have revealed extrasolar planets with a wide range of orbital semimajor axes and eccentricities. Based on the present understanding of planet formation via core accretion and oligarchic growth, we expect that…
We explore the dynamical evolution of a planet embedded in a disk surrounding a star part of a binary system where the orbital plane of the binary is significantly tilted respect to the initial disk plane. Our aim is to test whether the…
Recent observations point to the presence of structured dust grains in the discs surrounding young brown dwarfs, thus implying that the first stages of planet formation take place also in the sub-stellar regime. Here, we investigate the…
Direct imaging searches have begun to detect planetary and brown dwarf companions and to place constraints on the presence of giant planets at large separations from their host star. This work helps to motivate such planet searches by…
Firstly, we study the final masses of giant planets growing in protoplanetary disks through capture of disk gas, by employing an empirical formula for the gas capture rate and a shallow disk gap model, which are both based on hydrodynamical…
Earth-sized planets were observed in close-in orbits around M dwarfs. While more and more planets are expected to be uncovered around M dwarfs, theories of their formation and dynamical evolution are still in their infancy. We investigate…
The ejection of planets by the instability of planetary systems is a potential source of free-floating planets. We numerically simulate multi-planet systems to study the evolution process, the properties of surviving systems, and the…
Transition discs are expected to be a natural outcome of the interplay between photoevaporation (PE) and giant planet formation. Massive planets reduce the inflow of material from the outer to the inner disc, therefore triggering an earlier…
To date, several exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars with close binary companions (a~<30 AU). The fact that planets can form in these dynamically challenging environments implies that planet formation must be a robust process.…
Our first aim is to calculate the minimum mass for Primary Fragmentation in a variety of potential star-formation scenarios, i.e. (i) hierarchical fragmentation of a 3-D medium; (ii) one-shot, 2-D fragmentation of a shock-compressed layer;…
In this article, I examine several observational trends regarding protoplanetary disks, debris disks and exoplanets in binary systems in an attempt to constrain the physical mechanisms of planet formation in such a context. Binaries wider…
Accretion discs at sub-pc distances around supermassive black holes are likely to cool rapidly enough that self-gravity results in fragmentation. Here, we use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of a simplified disc model to study how…
We present N-body simulations of planetary system formation in thermally-evolving, viscous disc models. The simulations incorporate type I migration (including corotation torques and their saturation), gap formation, type II migration, gas…
Disc instability (DI) is a model aimed at explaining the formation of companions through the fragmentation of the circumstellar gas disc. Furthermore, DI could explain the formation of part of the observed exoplanetary population. We aim to…
It has been suggested that long-period giant planets, such as HD 95086b and HR 8799bcde, may have formed through gravitational instability of protoplanetary discs. However, self-gravitating disc-satellite interaction can lead to the…
Free-floating planets are a new class of planets recently discovered. These planets don't orbit within stellar systems, instead living a nomadic life within the galaxy. How such objects formed remains elusive. Numerous works have explored…
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…