Simulations of unstable gaseous disks and the origin of giant planets

Abstract

We study the evolution of cold, gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks performing 3D SPH simulations with up to a million particles on large parallel machines. We show that self-gravitating protoplanets can form in disks with initial $Q_{min}\sim 1.4$ provided that disks are evolved with a locally isothermal equation of state until localized regions reach a sufficiently high density. Lower resolution simulations carried out for as long as a thousand years show that systems of giant protoplanets with masses and orbits comparable to those of the observed extrasolar planets arise naturally.

4 pages, 2 Figures, to appear on the Proceedings of the International Conference "Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets", ASP Conference Series. Images and movies can be found at http://www.astro.washington.edu/mayer/

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