On the fragmentation criteria of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

Abstract

We investigate the fragmentation criterion in massive self-gravitating discs. We present new analysis of the fragmentation conditions which we test by carrying out global three-dimensional numerical simulations. Whilst previous work has placed emphasis on the cooling timescale in units of the orbital timescale, β, we find that at a given radius the surface mass density (i.e. disc mass and profile) and star mass also play a crucial role in determining whether a disc fragments or not as well as where in the disc fragments form. We find that for shallow surface mass density profiles (p<2, where Σ\propto R^{-p}), fragments form in the outer regions of the disc. However for steep surface mass density profiles (p \gtrsim 2), fragments form in the inner regions of a disc. In addition, we also find that the critical value of the cooling timescale in units of the orbital timescale found in previous simulations is only applicable to certain disc surface mass density profiles and for particular disc radii and is not a general rule for all discs. We find an empirical fragmentation criteria between the cooling timescale in units of the orbital timescale, β, the surface mass density, the star mass and the radius.

Accepted for publication by MNRAS. 15 pages, 18 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799
• Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light Years from Earth
• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• The Two Modes of Gas Giant Planet Formation
• The impact of magnetic fields on single and binary star formation
• The Directly Imaged Planet around the Young Solar Analog 1RXS J160929.1-210524: Confirmation of Common Proper Motion, Temperature and Mass
• Can giant planets form by gravitational fragmentation of discs?
• Properties of gravitoturbulent accretion disks
• Exploring the conditions required to form giant planets via gravitational instability in massive protoplanetary discs
• The response of self-graviting protostellar discs to slow reduction in cooling timescale: the fragmentation boundary revisited

Cited by in corpus (47)

• Gravitational Instabilities in Circumstellar Disks
• Rapid inward migration of planets formed by gravitational instability
• On the convergence of the critical cooling timescale for the fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Formation of Giant Planets by Disk Instability on Wide Orbits Around Protostars with Varied Masses
• Formation of giant planets and brown dwarfs on wide orbits
• Treating gravity in thin disk simulations
• Direct formation of supermassive black holes in metal-enriched gas at the heart of high-redshift galaxy mergers
• The route to massive black hole formation via merger-driven direct collapse: a review
• A numerical simulation of a "super-Earth" core delivery from ~ 100 AU to ~ 8 AU
• Fu Ori outbursts and the planet-disc mass exchange
• On the gap-opening criterion of migrating planets in protoplanetary disks
• Does disk fragmentation prevent the formation of supermassive stars in protogalaxies?
• Convergence of the critical cooling rate for protoplanetary disk fragmentation achieved; the key role of numerical dissipation of angular momentum
• Multiple spiral patterns in the transitional disk of HD 100546
• Resolution requirements for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs
• The Heavy Element Composition of Disk Instability Planets Can Range From Sub- to Super-Nebular
• Numerical convergence in self-gravitating disc simulations: initial conditions and edge effects
• Planet formation from the ejecta of common envelopes
• Turbulent Disks are Never Stable: Fragmentation and Turbulence-Promoted Planet Formation
• How do Most Planets Form? -- Constraints on Disk Instability from Direct Imaging
• How to Detect the Signatures of Self-Gravitating Circumstellar Discs with the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array
• Radiative feedback from protoplanets in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• Fragmenting protostellar disks: properties and observational signatures
• The fragmentation of protostellar discs: the Hill criterion for spiral arms
• Viscosity prescription for gravitationally unstable accretion disks
• Generating large misalignments in gapped and binary discs
• Young and turbulent: the early life of massive galaxy progenitors
• Triggered fragmentation in self-gravitating discs: forming fragments at small radii
• Metal loading of giant gas planets
• Characterizing gravito-turbulence in 3D: turbulent properties and stability against fragmentation
• Dynamics of Circumstellar Disks III: The case of GG Tau A
• The Effect of Protoplanetary Disk Cooling Times on the Formation of Gas Giant Planets by Gravitational Instability
• Direct Formation of Planetary Embryos in Self-Gravitating Disks
• The evolution of planetesimal swarms in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• A two-step gravitational cascade for the fragmentation of self-gravitating discs
• Conditions for Gravitational Instability in Protoplanetary Disks
• Efficient radiative transfer techniques in hydrodynamic simulations
• Viscous accretion of a polytropic self-gravitating disk in the presence of wind
• Direct detection of precursors of gas giants formed by gravitational instability with the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array
• A Lower Angular Momentum Limit for Self-Gravitating Protostellar Disc Fragmentation
• Clump formation due to the gravitational instability of a multiphase medium in a massive protoplanetary disc
• Planet formation in post-common-envelope binaries
• Modeling gravitational instabilities in self-gravitating protoplanetary disks with adaptive mesh refinement techniques
• The Effect of the Approach to Gas Disk Gravitational Instability on the Rapid Formation of Gas Giant Planets
• Flux-Limited Diffusion Approximation Models of Giant Planet Formation by Disk Instability. II. Quadrupled Spatial Resolution
• Numerical study of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs
• On fragmentation of turbulent self-gravitating discs in the long cooling time regime