Dust's Effects on Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks

Effects of dust feedback on vortices in protoplanetary disks

Authors:

Fu et al

Abstract:

We carried out two-dimensional high-resolution simulations to study the effect of dust feedback on the evolution of vortices induced by massive planets in protoplanetary disks. Various initial dust to gas disk surface density ratios (0.001 -- 0.01) and dust particle sizes (Stokes number 4×10−4 -- 0.16) are considered. We found that while dust particles migrate inwards, vortices are very effective in collecting them. When dust density becomes comparable to gas density within the vortex, a dynamical instability is excited and it alters the coherent vorticity pattern and destroys the vortex. This dust feedback effect is stronger with higher initial dust/gas density ratio and larger dust grain. Consequently, we found that the disk vortex lifetime can be reduced up to a factor of 10. We discuss the implications of our findings on the survivability of vortices in protoplanetary disks and planet formation.