Convection in protoplanetary disks: friend or foe?

Min-Kai Lin^1*

¹Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

* Presenter:Min-Kai Lin, email:mklin@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw

Hydrodynamic instabilities likely operate in protoplanetary disks. One candidate, convective overstability (COS) or radial convection, can develop in particular disk regions. The ensuing turbulence and flow structures are expected to affect planet formation. We present high-resolution simulations of the COS using local Boussinesq shearing box and global compressible cylindrical models with and without embedded dust grains. Under axisymmetry, we show that the COS generates zonal flows that trap dust; however, unsteady flows and dust feedback effects can limit dust concentrations. Global 3D simulations reveal that COS induces outward mass transport and large-scale vortex formation that significantly modifies the disk structure. Furthermore, these COS-produced vortices efficiently concentrate dust, particularly for larger grains at solar and supersolar metallicities. These findings highlight the COS’s role in shaping disk structures and dust distributions, offering insights into observed dust rings and asymmetries in protoplanetary disks, with implications for planet formation processes.

Keywords: planet formation, protoplanetary disks, hydrodynamics