Gap Opening in Protoplanetary Disks: Gas Dynamics from Global Non-ideal MHD Simulations with Consistent Thermochemistry [EPA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05972


Recent high angular resolution ALMA observations have revealed numerous gaps in protoplanetary disks. A popular interpretation has been that planets open them. Most previous investigations of planet gap-opening have concentrated on viscous disks. Here, we carry out 2D (axisymmetric) global simulations of gap opening by a planet in a wind-launching non-ideal MHD disk with consistent thermochemistry. We find a strong concentration of poloidal magnetic flux in the planet-opened gap, where the gas dynamics are magnetically dominated. The magnetic field also drives a fast (nearly sonic) meridional gas circulation in the denser disk regions near the inner and outer edges of the gap, which may be observable through high-resolution molecular line observations. The gap is more ionized than its denser surrounding regions, with a better magnetic field-matter coupling. In particular, it has a much higher abundance of molecular ion HCO$^+$, consistent with ALMA observations of the well-studied AS 209 protoplanetary disk that has prominent gaps and fast meridional motions reaching the local sound speed. Finally, we provide fitting formulae for the ambipolar and Ohmic diffusivities as a function of the disk local density, which can be used for future 3D simulations of planet gap-opening in non-ideal MHD disks where thermochemistry is too computationally expensive to evolve self-consistently with the magneto-hydrodynamics.

Read this paper on arXiv…

X. Hu, Z. Li, L. Wang, et. al.
Thu, 13 Apr 23
52/59

Comments: 12 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS. For animated figures, see: this https URL&list=PLPqbg5l-CV-t-TUePtpv7VtqPL1PHP1U5&ab_channel=FloridaKeys