Structures in Ionized Models of Dusty Protoplanetary Disks

Understanding how planets form in disks around young stars is a fundamental part of astrophysical research.

With the advent of the Atacama Large (Sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) and other large-scale telescopes and interferometers, the field of planet formation has been transformed by the stunningly complex structures observed in disks around young stars in the solar neighborhood.

But at the same time, theoretical models have struggled to explain these observations, in part because many physical processes are investigated individually.Therefore, a more comprehensive model of protoplanetary disks is needed.

With the SimplyDisks project, I will perform the first global 3D Magneto-Hydrodynamic simulations that treat the interaction of dust, gas and magnetic fields within protoplanetary disks self-consistently.

The simulations will focus on the outer regions of the protoplanetary disk, where ambipolar diffusion suppresses the development of the MRI, and where the Vertical Shear Instability is active in the midplane regions. The self-consistent treatment will be achieved through the development of an extended ambipolar diffusion module.

With these models, I will be able to (1) analyze magnetic and pure hydrodynamic processes occurring in protoplanetary disks in context and unveil if they are the driving forces behind the observed structures, and (2) find locations of dust concentration that survive long enough to trigger the formation of planets.

Together with observations, the results from these self-consistent models will help us understand where and how planets form, and thus why our solar system looks different from many systems observed around other stars.