Pebble growth and drift across gaps carved by giant planets

The intricate processes governing the birth of planets take place inside gaseous protoplanetary discs around young stars.

When planets grow beyond Neptune in mass, their gravitational influence perturbs the gas density in their vicinity, creating pressure bumps or shallow gaps that effectively halts the inward drift of millimetre to centimetre-sized dust aggregates, often referred to as pebbles, from the outer reaches of the disc.

Consequently, pebbles accumulate at these pressure bumps, creating dust rings observable through observatories such as ALMA.

Classical numerical simulations of planet formation frequently assume a monodisperse pebble size distribution, contrary to revelations from prototoplanetary disc observations, where pebbles come in various sizes and compositions, influencing the dynamics of planet formation.

The PLANETDISKOS project aims to develop a comprehensive model that considers grain size evolution and pebble filtration by gas giants, while accounting for variations in pebble composition and porosity. A novel methodology is proposed to model self-consistent grain size evolution and pebble filtration by gas giants.

This approach promises to enhance our understanding of the prevalence of Super-Earths in the presence of outer Jupiter-like planets and the heavy element content of gas giants.

Synthetic exoplanet simulations will be conducted, integrating compositional properties, to compare with observed exoplanet populations.

Early results from my numerical simulations of pebble filtration demonstrate the potential to achieve the goals of the project.

Working with a team of experts in planet formation and cosmochemistry at StarPlan, I will acquire the needed skill set to execute the PLANETDISKOS project, opening new avenues for advancing the theoretical framework of (exo)planet formation.