Description:

Title: Observational Signatures of Young Planets in Disks

Speaker: Zhaohuan Zhu, Princeton University

Host: Sourav Chatterjee

Abstract: Transitional disks are protoplanetary disks with gaps and holes. Although young planets can lead to gaps and holes in disks, recent near-IR polarization imaging (e.g. SEEDS, VLT) and submm (e.g. SMA, ALMA) observations have posed several puzzles. Such as, dust and gas seems to decouple in these disks and the decoupling can occur non-axisymmetrically in disks. Spiral patterns are also discovered in these disks. To understand these new findings, I have carried out hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic global simulations with young planets in disks. Moreover, both dust particle dynamics and non-ideal MHD effects have been considered for the first time. By comparing such realistic simulations with observations, I have constrained protoplanetary disk properties and revealed the early stage of planet formation. Finally, I will discuss the observational strategies to directly find young planets in protoplanetary disks and suggest that accreting circumplanetary disks could be the key to detect young planets directly. Finally, I will suggest that current direct imaging observations have already found some circumplanetary disk candidates and there are more to come.

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics