Turbulence Regulates the Rate of Planetesimal Formation via Gravitational Collapse

Abstract

We study how the interaction between the streaming instability and intrinsic gas-phase turbulence affects planetesimal formation via gravitational collapse in protoplanetary disks. Turbulence impedes the formation of particle clumps by acting as an effective turbulent diffusivity, but it can also promote planetesimal formation by concentrating solids, for example in zonal flows. We quantify the effect of turbulent diffusivity using numerical simulations of the streaming instability in small local domains, forced with velocity perturbations that establish approximately Kolmogorov-like turbulence. We find that planetesimal formation is suppressed by turbulence once velocity fluctuations exceed $⟨\delta v^2⟩\simeq 10^{-3.5}-10^{-3}{c}_s^2$. Turbulence whose strength is just below the threshold reduces the rate at which solids are bound into clumps. Our results suggest that the well-established turbulent thickening of the mid-plane solid layer is the primary mechanism by which turbulence influences planetesimal formation and that planetesimal formation requires a mid-plane solid-to-gas ratio $\epsilon \gtrsim 0.5$. We also quantify the initial planetesimal mass function using a new clump-tracking method to determine each planetesimal mass shortly after collapse. For models in which planetesimals form, we show that the mass function is well-described by a broken power law, whose parameters are robust to the inclusion and strength of imposed turbulence. Turbulence in protoplanetary disks is likely to substantially exceed the threshold for planetesimal formation at radii where temperatures $T\gtrsim 10^3\mathrm{K}$ lead to thermal ionization. Planetesimal formation may therefore be unviable in the inner disk out to 2-3 times the dust sublimation radius.

arXiv commentAccepted to ApJ after revisions

References in corpus (58)

• Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar discs
• Streaming Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks
• Athena: A New Code for Astrophysical MHD
• Particle Stirring in Turbulent Gas Disks: Including Orbital Oscillations
• FARGO: a fast eulerian transport algorithm for differentially rotating disks
• Dynamics of Protoplanetary Disks
• Planetesimal Formation by Gravitational Instability
• Dust and Gas in the disc of HL Tauri: Surface density, dust settling, and dust-to-gas ratio
• HOP: A New Group-Finding Algorithm for N-body Simulations
• Forming Planetesimals in Solar and Extrasolar Nebulae
• Particle Clumping and Planetesimal Formation Depend Strongly on Metallicity
• Zonal Flows and Long-Lived Axisymmetric Pressure Bumps in Magnetorotational Turbulence
• Runaway migration and the formation of hot Jupiters
• The Mass and Size Distribution of Planetesimals Formed by the Streaming Instability. I. The Role of Self-Gravity
• Concentrating small particles in protoplanetary disks through the streaming instability
• A Three-Dimensional View of Turbulence: Constraints on Turbulent Motions in the HD 163296 Protoplanetary Disk using DCO${}^{+}$
• How to form planetesimals from mm-sized chondrules and chondrule aggregates
• In Situ Formation and Dynamical Evolution of Hot Jupiter Systems
• Local Study of Accretion Disks with a Strong Vertical Magnetic Field: Magnetorotational Instability and Disk Outflow
• Multiple-Planet Scattering and the Origin of Hot Jupiters
• Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries by Gravitational Collapse
• Dust dynamics during protoplanetary disc clearing
• Turbulence in the TW Hya Disk
• Hall-effect Controlled Gas Dynamics in Protoplanetary Disks: II. Full 3D Simulations toward the Outer Disk
• On the Formation of Planetesimals via Secular Gravitational Instabilities with Turbulent Stirring
• Initial mass function of planetesimals formed by the streaming instability
• Turbulence In the Outer Regions of Protoplanetary Disks. II. Strong Accretion Driven by a Vertical Magnetic Field
• Two-Component Secular Gravitational Instability in a Protoplanetary Disk: A Possible Mechanism for Creating Ring-Like Structures
• Magnetically driven accretion in protoplanetary discs
• Planetesimal formation by the streaming instability in a photoevaporating disk
• Particle-Gas Dynamics with Athena: Method and Convergence
• Implementation of the Shearing Box Approximation in Athena
• Accretion disc dynamo activity in local simulations spanning weak-to-strong net vertical magnetic flux regimes
• Particle Pile-ups and Planetesimal Formation
• High-resolution simulations of planetesimal formation in turbulent protoplanetary discs
• Resonant Drag Instabilities in protoplanetary disks: the streaming instability and new, faster-growing instabilities
• Turbulence In the Outer Regions of Protoplanetary Disks. I. Weak Accretion with No Vertical Magnetic Flux
• Asymptotically stable numerical method for multispecies momentum transfer: gas and multifluid-dust test suite and implementation in FARGO3D
• Evidence for universality in the initial planetesimal mass function
• Can photo-evaporation trigger planetesimal formation?
• Resistivity-driven State Changes in Vertically Stratified Accretion Disks
• Ambipolar Diffusion in the Magnetorotational Instability
• On the Linear Stability of Weakly-Ionized, Magnetized Planar Shear Flows
• TURBULENCE IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS
• Particle Trapping and Streaming Instability in Vortices
• The Mass and Size Distribution of Planetesimals Formed by the Streaming Instability. II. The Effect of the Radial Gas Pressure Gradient
• Locality of MHD Turbulence in Isothermal Disks
• Demographics of Planetesimals Formed by the Streaming Instability
• Streaming Instability for Particle-Size Distributions
• The initial conditions for planet formation: Turbulence driven by hydrodynamical instabilities in disks around young stars
• Diffusion and Concentration of Solids in the Dead Zone of a Protoplanetary Disk
• Streaming Instability in Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks
• Simulations of Magnetorotational Turbulence with a Higher-Order Godunov Scheme
• On the Numerical Robustness of the Streaming Instability: Particle Concentration and Gas Dynamics in Protoplanetary Disks
• On the coexistence of the streaming instability and the vertical shear instability in protoplanetary disks
• Gas Properties and Implications for Galactic Star Formation in Numerical Models of the Turbulent, Multiphase ISM
• Jet launching from accretion discs in the local approximation
• The Nature of Turbulence in the Outer Regions of Protoplanetary Disks

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Thresholds for Particle Clumping by the Streaming Instability
• Contemporary formation of early solar system planetesimals at two distinct radial locations
• Dust growth and evolution in protoplanetary disks
• Annular substructures in the transition disks around LkCa 15 and J1610
• Streaming Instability with Multiple Dust Species: I. Favourable Conditions for the Linear Growth
• Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). II. Limited Dust Settling and Prominent Snow Surfaces in the Edge-on Class I Disk IRAS 04302+2247
• Testing the Jeans, Toomre and Bonnor-Ebert concepts for planetesimal formation: 3D streaming instability simulations of diffusion regulated formation of planetesimals
• Nucleation and growth of iron pebbles explains the formation of iron-rich planets akin to Mercury
• The Streaming Instability Cannot Form Planetesimals from mm-size Grains in Pressure Bumps
• Dust Settling and Clumping in MRI Turbulent Outer Protoplanetary Disks
• From Pebbles and Planetesimals to Planets and Dust: the Protoplanetary Disk--Debris Disk Connection
• Polydisperse Streaming Instability III. Dust evolution encourages fast instability
• Stratified and vertically-shearing streaming instabilities in protoplanetary disks
• Formation of Comets
• The coexistence of the streaming instability and the vertical shear instability in protoplanetary disks: Planetesimal formation thresholds explored in two-dimensional global models
• Planetesimal Initial Mass Functions following Diffusion Regulated Gravitational Collapse
• Dust Settling Instability in Protoplanetary Discs
• Turbulent Dust-trapping Rings as Efficient Sites for Planetesimal Formation
• Resilience of Planetesimal Formation in Weakly-Reinforced Pressure Bumps
• Coagulation Instability in Protoplanetary Disks: A Novel Mechanism Connecting Collisional Growth and Hydrodynamical Clumping of Dust Particles
• An inflationary disk phase to explain extended protoplanetary dust disks
• Planetesimal formation around the snow line: I. Monte Carlo simulations of silicate dust pile-up in a turbulent disk
• Streaming instabilities in accreting and magnetized laminar protoplanetary disks
• Two saturated states of the vertical shear instability in protoplanetary disks with vertically varying cooling times
• Streaming instability on different scales. I. Planetesimal mass distribution variability
• Growth after the streaming instability: The radial distance dependence of the planetary growth
• Turbulence in particle laden midplane layers of planet forming disks
• The effect of the streaming instability on protoplanetary disc emission at millimetre wavelengths
• Formation of the First Planetesimals via the Streaming Instability in Globally Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks?
• Nonlinear evolution of streaming instabilities in accreting protoplanetary disks
• Planetesimal formation via the streaming instability in simulations of infall dominated young disks
• Formation of multiple-planet systems in resonant chains around M dwarfs
• On Secular Gravitational Instability in Vertically Stratified Disks
• Clusters of heavy particles in two-dimensional Keplerian turbulence
• A minimal model for vertical shear instability in protoplanetary accretion disks
• Strong clumping in global streaming instability simulations with a dusty fluid
• Takeout and Delivery: Erasing the Dusty Signature of Late-stage Terrestrial Planet Formation
• The Prospects for Hurricane-like Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks
• Streaming instabilities in accreting protoplanetary disks: A parameter study