Gravitational Instabilities induced by Cluster Environment? - The encounter-induced angular momentum transfer in discs

Abstract

AIM:The aim of this work is to understand to what extend gravitational interactions between the stars in high-density young stellar clusters, like the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), change the angular momentum in their protoplanetary discs. METHOD:Two types of simulations were combined -- N-body simulations of the dynamics of the stars in the ONC, and angular momentum loss results from simulations of star-disc encounters. RESULTS:It is shown that in a star-disc encounter the angular momentum loss is usually larger than the mass loss, so that the disc remnant has a lower specific angular momentum. Assuming an age of 1-2 Myr for the ONC, the disc angular momentum in the higher density region of the Trapezium is reduced by 15-20% on average. Encounters therefore play an important part in the angular momentum transport in these central regions but are not the dominant process. More importantly, even in the outer cluster regions the angular momentum loss is on average 3-5%. Here it is shown that a 3-5% loss in angular momentum might be enough to trigger gravitational instabilities even in low-mass discs - a possible prerequisite for the formation of planetary systems.

9 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&A

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Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Sizes of protoplanetary discs after star-disc encounters
• Strong effect of the cluster environment on the size of protoplanetary discs?
• Cluster dynamics largely shapes protoplanetary disc sizes
• The Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks in the Arches Cluster
• How do disks and planetary systems in high-mass open clusters differ from those around field stars?
• Stellar orbit evolution in close circumstellar disc encounters
• Disc-mass distribution in star-disc encounters
• Effects of inclined star-disk encounter on protoplanetary disk size
• Encounters in the ONC - observing imprints of star-disc interactions
• Angular Momentum and the Formation of Stars and Black Holes
• Binary Capture Rates for Massive Protostars
• Creating retrogradely orbiting planets by prograde stellar fly-bys
• Does the mass distribution in discs influence encounter-induced losses in young star clusters?
• The evolution of circumstellar discs in the Galactic Centre: an application to the G-clouds
• Planet population synthesis: The role of stellar encounters
• DESTINY: Database for the Effects of STellar encounters on dIsks and plaNetary sYstems