344 citations · 907 across the 26 of their papers we have counts for
19 papers · 1 filter
The Edges of Planetary Systems: Falling Off the Kuiper Cliff in a Dissipating Gas Disk
Rixin Li, Eugene Chiang
Probably the last planetesimals to have formed from dust in the solar nebula are Cold Classical Kuiper belt objects (CCKBOs). To the extent that they are isolated and unchanged sin…
A Comparative Study of the Streaming Instability: Unstratified Models with Marginally Coupled Grains
Stanley A. Baronett, Wladimir Lyra, Hossam Aly +19
The streaming instability is a leading mechanism for concentrating solids and initiating planetesimal formation in protoplanetary disks. Although numerous studies have explored its…
Azimuthal Dust Polarization from Aerodynamically Aligned Grains as Evidence for the Streaming Instability in Protoplanetary Disks
Zhe-Yu Daniel Lin, Jeonghoon Lim, Jacob B. Simon +8
(Sub)millimeter dust polarization in protoplanetary disks has revealed the presence of large (~ 100 um) dust grains that are aligned along their long axis following the azimuthal d…
Two-stage disruption of resonant chains
Nick Choksi, Yoram Lithwick, Eugene Chiang +1
TESS is enabling the discovery of transiting planets around young stars. These observations suggest that most close-in planets were born in chains of mean-motion resonances that br…
Discovery of H Emission from a Protoplanet Candidate Around the Young Star 2MASS J16120668-3010270 with MagAO-X
Jialin Li, Laird M. Close, Feng Long +32
2MASS J16120668-3010270 (hereafter 2MJ1612) is a young M0 star that hosts a protoplanetary disk in the Upper Scorpious star-forming region. Recent ALMA observations of 2MJ1612 show…
Dust Growth in ALMA Rings: II. Dusty Rossby Wave Instability
Can Cui, Konstantin Gerbig, Ya-Ping Li +5
Annular substructures serve as ideal venues for planetesimal formation. In this series, we investigate the linear stage of dust growth within rings. The first paper examines the gl…
The Resonant Remains of Broken Chains from Major and Minor Mergers
Rixin Li, Eugene Chiang, Nick Choksi +1
TESS and Kepler have revealed that practically all close-in sub-Neptunes form in mean-motion resonant chains, most of which unravel on timescales of 100 Myr. Using N-body integrati…
The Prevalence of Resonance Among Young, Close-in Planets
Fei Dai, Max Goldberg, Konstantin Batygin +11
Multiple planets undergoing disk migration may be captured into a chain of mean-motion resonances with the innermost planet parked near the disk's inner edge. Subsequent dynamical…
Migration of Accreting Planets and Black Holes in Disks
JT Laune, Rixin Li, Dong Lai
Nascent planets are thought to lose angular momentum (AM) to the gaseous protoplanetary disk via gravitational interactions, leading to inward migration. A similar migration proces…
Dust Accumulation near the Magnetospheric Truncation of Protoplanetary Discs. II. The Effects of Opacity and Thermal Evolution
Rixin Li, Yi-Xian Chen, Douglas N. C. Lin
Dust trapping in the global pressure bump induced by magnetospheric truncation offers a promising formation mechanism for close-in super-Earths/sub-Neptunes. These planets likely f…
Streaming Instability and Turbulence: Conditions for Planetesimal Formation
Jeonghoon Lim, Jacob B. Simon, Rixin Li +6
The streaming instability (SI) is a leading candidate for planetesimal formation, which can concentrate solids through two-way aerodynamic interactions with the gas. The resulting…
Planetesimal Initial Mass Functions following Diffusion Regulated Gravitational Collapse
Konstantin Gerbig, Rixin Li
The initial mass function (IMF) of planetesimals is of key importance for understanding the initial stages of planet formation, yet theoretical predictions so far have been insuffi…
Dust Accumulation near the Magnetospheric Truncation of Protoplanetary Discs around T Tauri Stars
Rixin Li, Yi-Xian Chen, Douglas N. C. Lin
The prevalence of short-period super-Earths that are independent of host metallicity challenges the theoretical construction of their origin. We propose that dust trapping in the g…
Binary Planetesimal Formation from Gravitationally Collapsing Pebble Clouds
David Nesvorny, Rixin Li, Jacob B. Simon +4
Planetesimals are compact astrophysical objects roughly 1-1000 km in size, massive enough to be held together by gravity. They can grow by accreting material to become full-size pl…
Protoplanetary Disk Rings as Sites for Planetesimal Formation
Daniel Carrera, Jacob B. Simon, Rixin Li +2
Axisymmetric dust rings are a ubiquitous feature of young protoplanetary disks. These rings are likely caused by pressure bumps in the gas profile; a small bump can induce a traffi…
Turbulence Regulates the Rate of Planetesimal Formation via Gravitational Collapse
Daniel A. Gole, Jacob B. Simon, Rixin Li +2
We study how the interaction between the streaming instability and intrinsic gas-phase turbulence affects planetesimal formation via gravitational collapse in protoplanetary disks.…
Trans-Neptunian Binaries as Evidence for Planetesimal Formation by the Streaming Instability
David Nesvorny, Rixin Li, Andrew N. Youdin +2
A critical step toward the emergence of planets in a protoplanetary disk consists in accretion of planetesimals, bodies 1-1000 km in size, from smaller disk constituents. This proc…
The Mass and Size Distribution of Planetesimals Formed by the Streaming Instability. II. The Effect of the Radial Gas Pressure Gradient
Charles P. Abod, Jacob B. Simon, Rixin Li +3
The streaming instability concentrates solid particles in protoplanetary disks, leading to gravitational collapse into planetesimals. Despite its key role in producing particle clu…
Evidence for universality in the initial planetesimal mass function
Jacob B. Simon, Philip J. Armitage, Andrew N. Youdin +1
Planetesimals may form from the gravitational collapse of dense particle clumps initiated by the streaming instability. We use simulations of aerodynamically coupled gas-particle m…