Poster Presentation

Lifting dust particles in protoplanetary disks by the vertical shear instability

Author(s): Min-Kai Lin (ASIAA)

Presenter: Min-Kai Lin (ASIAA)

Recent, state-of-the art simulations show that magnetic fields do not lead to widespread turbulence in protoplanetary disks. Thus, the origin of turbulence in protoplanetary disks may be hydrodynamic. An important example is the vertical shear instability (VSI), which feeds off the vertical gradient in the disk's angular velocity profile. The VSI involves large-scale vertical motions, which could have significant implications for dust dynamics and thus planet formation. I will present a numerical study of dust-settling against the VSI using a newly developed theoretical framework to simulate dusty gas. This method only requires a minor modification to standard hydrodynamic codes. I show that the VSI-turbulence presents an obstacle to planetesimal formation as it prevents small dust particles from settling to the disk midplane.