Numerical simulations of planet-disk interactions and SEEDS observations of protoplanetary disks

Ruobing Dong

June 07, 2012

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Abstract: I will discuss some theoretical work on planet-disk interactions in protoplanetary disks on one side, and SEEDS observations of protoplanetary disks on the other. On the theory side, we carry out 2D shearing sheet simulations to study density waves excited by low mass planets in protoplanetary disks. We achieve percent level agreement with analytical predictions for the wave density profile, torque, position of the nonlinear shock, and the growth and damping rates. We identify and explain a “negative torque density” phenomenon present in the simulations. On the observational side, I’ll talk about a Subaru survey project (SEEDS) which takes high resolution polarized intensity images of protoplanetary disks at NIR bands. Particularly, transitional and pretransitional disks have large depleted regions at their centers, suggested by a distinctive infrared deficit in their SED, and sometimes directly revealed by sub-mm observations. However, most of the SEEDs observations of pre/transitional disks show no evidence for such a cavity. I will propose a new (pre-)transitional disk model to simultaneously reconcile all three observations (SED, NIR, and sub-mm).