Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation

Details Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...210.3304b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 210, #33.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.145

Physics

Geophysics

Scientific paper

Disk instability is an attractive yet controversial means for the rapid formation of giant planets in our solar system and elsewhere. Recent concerns regarding the first adiabatic exponent of molecular hydrogen gas are addressed and shown not to lead to spurious clump formation in the author's disk instability models. A number of disk instability models have been calculated in order to further test the robustness of the mechanism, exploring the effects of changing the pressure equation of state, the vertical temperature profile, and other parameters affecting the temperature distribution. These variations are shown not to have a major effect on the outcome of a phase of disk instability. Possible reasons for differences in results obtained by other workers are discussed, with the leading reasons for different outcomes being spatial resolution, accuracy of the gravitational potential solver, and numerical heating in the inner disk. Handling of the boundary conditions for the disk's radiative energy losses is another possibility that is still under investigation by the author, though the models presented here suggest that this may not be a dominant effect. Based on all of these concerns and other test cases previously performed, disk instability appears to remain as a plausible formation mechanism for giant planets. This research was supported in part by NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics grant NNG05GH30G and is contributed in part to NASA Astrobiology Institute grant NCC2-1056. The calculations were performed on the Carnegie Alpha Cluster, the purchase of which was partially supported by NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant MRI-9976645.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Testing Disk Instability Models for Giant Planet Formation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1030101