Related papers: Giant planet formation from disk instability; cool…
The increasing number of newly detected exoplanets at short orbital periods raises questions about their formation and migration histories. A particular puzzle that requires explanation arises from one of the key results of the Kepler…
We investigate the formation process of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks in unmagnetized molecular clouds. The angular momentum is redistributed by the action of gravitational torques in the massive disk during its early formation. We…
Our understanding of population III star formation is still in its infancy. They are formed in dark matter minihalos of $\rm 10^5-10^6 M_{\odot}$ at $z=20-30$. Recent high resolution cosmological simulations show that a protostellar disk…
The issue of fragmentation in self-gravitating gaseous accretion discs has implications both for the formation of stars in discs in the nuclei of active galaxies, and for the formation of gaseous planets or brown dwarfs in circumstellar…
Streaming instability is hypothesized to be triggered at particular protoplanetary disk locations where the volume density of the solid particles is enriched comparable to that of the gas. A ring of planetesimals thus forms when this…
In this Thesis I studied the formation of the four giant planets of the Solar System in the framework of the nucleated instability hypothesis. The model considers that solids and gas accretion are coupled in an interactive fashion, taking…
Extrasolar planet surveys have begun to detect gas giant planets in orbit around M dwarf stars. While the frequency of gas giant planets around M dwarfs so far appears to be lower than that around G dwarfs, it is clearly not zero. Previous…
We discuss the factors influencing the formation and gravitational fragmentation of protostellar discs. We start with a review of how observations of prestellar cores can be analysed statistically to yield plausible initial conditions for…
In the standard model of core accretion, the formation of giant planets occurs by two main processes: first, a massive core is formed by the accretion of solid material; then, when this core exceeds a critical value (typically greater than…
The observed wide eccentricity distribution of extrasolar giant planets is thought to be the result of dynamical instabilities and gravitational scattering among planets. Previously, it has been assumed that the orbits in giant planet…
We study the formation of the protoplanetary disk by the collapse of a primordial molecular cloud, and how its evolution leads to the selection of specific types of planets. We use a hydrodynamical code that accounts for the dynamics,…
Here we show preliminary calculations of the cooling and contraction of a 2 MJ planet. These calculations, which are being extended to 1-10 MJ, differ from other published "cooling tracks" in that they include a core accretion-gas capture…
The regular satellites found around Neptune ($\approx 17~M_{\Earth}$) and Uranus ($\approx 14.5~M_{\Earth}$) suggest that past gaseous circumplanetary disks may have co-existed with solids around sub-Neptune-mass protoplanets ($<…
The formation of giant planets requires accumulation of ~10 Earth mass in solids; but how do protoplanets acquire their mass? There are many, often competing processes that regulate the accretion rate of protoplanets. To assess their…
The processes of planet formation and migration depend intimately on the interaction between planetesimals and the gaseous disks in which they form. The formation of gaps in the disk can severely limit the mass of the planet and its…
Planets are formed from collisional growth of small bodies in a protoplanetary disk. Bodies much larger than approximately $1$\,m are mainly controlled by the gravity of the host star and experience weak gas drag; their orbits are mainly…
We present a series of calculations aimed at examining how an inner system of planetesimals/protoplanets, undergoing terrestrial planet formation, evolves under the influence of a giant planet undergoing inward type II migration through the…
It is well known that massive protoplanetary disc are gravitationally unstable beyond tens of AU from their parent star. The eventual fate of the self-gravitating gas clumps born in the disc is currently not understood, although the range…
Disk fragmentation resulting from the gravitational instability has been proposed as an efficient mechanism for forming giant planets. We use the planet Fomalhaut b, the triple-planetary system HR 8799, and the potential protoplanet…
The formation of planets with gaseous envelopes takes place in protoplanetary accretion discs on time-scales of several millions of years. Small dust particles stick to each other to form pebbles, pebbles concentrate in the turbulent flow…