Forming pressure-traps at the snow-line to isolate isotopic reservoirs in the absence of a planet

Abstract

Pressure maxima are regions in protoplanetary disks where pebbles can be trapped because of the local absence of pressure gradient. These regions could be ideal places to form planetesimals or to isolate isotopic reservoirs. Observations of protoplanetary disks show that dusty rings structures are common, and pressure maxima are sometime invoked as a possible explanation. In our Solar System, pressure bumps have been suggested as a possible mechanism for separating reservoirs with different nucleosynthetic compositions. In this letter we detail a mechanism by which pressure maxima form just inward the snow-line in stratified disks. This mechanism does not need the presence of a planet. Using a combination of analytical and numerical investigation we explore the range of conditions for a pressure maximum to form inside the dead-zone and just inward the snow-line. When the vertically averaged $\alpha$ is a decreasing function of surface density then the release of water vapor at the snow-line lowers the sound velocity, and in turn, a pressure bump appears. This requires a constant inflow of icy pebbles with pebbles influx to gas influx $>0.6$ for a power law disk with $1\%$ ice/gas ratio, and $>1.8$ for a disk with ice/gas ratio $\sim 0.3\%$. If these conditions are met, then a Pressure-maximum appears just inward the snow-line due to a process coupling the dead and active layers at the evaporation front. The pressure bump survives as long as the icy pebble flux is high enough. The formation of the pressure bump is triggered by the drop of sound velocity inward the snow-line, due to the release of water vapor. This mechanism is promising for isolating early reservoirs carrying different isotopic signatures in the Solar System and for promoting dry planetesimal formation inward the snow-line, provided the vertically averaged description of a dead-zone is valid.

12 pages, 6 Figures, 1 Figures in Appendix, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

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Cited by in corpus (18)

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• Planetesimal rings as the cause of the Solar System's planetary architecture
• Origin of isotopic diversity among carbonaceous chondrites
• Reduced late bombardment on rocky exoplanets around M-dwarfs
• Distant formation and differentiation of outer main belt asteroids and carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies
• Sequential giant planet formation initiated by disc substructure
• Global Modeling of Nebulae With Particle Growth, Drift, and Evaporation Fronts. II. The Influence of Porosity on Solids Evolution
• The Curie line in protoplanetary disks and the formation of Mercury-like planets
• Global Modeling of Nebulae With Particle Growth, Drift, and Evaporation Fronts. III. Redistribution of Refractories and Volatiles
• On the interaction of pebble accreting embryos with the gaseous disc: importance of thermal forces
• Formation of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes from rings of planetesimals
• A "no-drift" runaway pile-up of pebbles in protoplanetary disks II. Characteristics of the resulting planetesimal belt
• The late formation of chondrites as a consequence of Jupiter-induced gaps and rings
• The Dissolution of Planetesimals in Electrostatic Fields
• Callisto's Nonresonant Orbit as an Outcome of Circum-Jovian Disk Substructure
• Formation of Water-rich Giant Planet Satellites at Decretion Disk Ice Lines
• Nucleosynthetic Pt isotope anomalies and the Hf-W chronology of core formation in inner and outer solar system planetesimals