Project F
Dust under the carpet: do gaps and rings in protoplanetary discs hint at proto-planets?
Claudia Toci, Haochang Jiang & Enrique Macias
While they are forming, stars are surrounded by prototoplanetary discs of dust and gas. As these structures are also the birth-place of planets, we can indirectly infer the presence of proto-planets in the disc from studying the effect of planet–disc interaction by comparing numerical models and observations. Join us on this journey!
Thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the instrument SPHERE on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), in the last 10 years we have collected astonishing images of protoplanetary disks showing gaps, rings and asymmetries. These images are rapidly and radically changing our understanding of the planet formation process. Indeed, many observed gaps and ring-like structures can be explained with the presence of one or more already formed planets, interacting with the parental discs. To better understand their properties and their formation, it is then crucial to study the interaction between the disc and the planets that are forming inside of them, using observational results in synergy with current theoretical models and numerical simulations. Work with us to devise and run a numerical simulation of a protoplanetary disc, and then compare your results with gas and dust observations!
The aim of this project is to select a scientifically relevant target among all the protoplanetary discs recently observed at different wavelengths with ALMA. After a preliminary analysis of the source, we will perform a hydrodynamical simulation of the system, with the aim of reproducing its more relevant features, and studying its dynamical evolution. We will then couple our numerical simulations with one of the commonly used radiative-transfer codes (RADMC3D, MCFOST) to obtain synthetic observations of dust and gas emission; finally, we will compare the results with the ALMA images.
The future student will have the opportunity to learn how to use an hydrodynamical code to set up and evolve numerical simulations, as well as to learn the basics usage of protoplanetary discs’ data analysis. Moreover, the student will acquire basics knowledges of protoplanetary discs and proto-planet formation and evolution.