Abstract Details
| Name: Prakruti Sudarshan Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy Conference ID: ASI2025_131 Title : How stellar irradiation affects the structure of a planet forming disk Authors and Co-Authors : Prakruti Sudarshan, Mario Flock Abstract Type : Oral Abstract Category : Sun, Solar System, Exoplanets, and Astrobiology Abstract : Protoplanetary disks observed in mm-continuum and scattered light show a variety of substructures. While embedded planets are a common explanation, various physical processes in the disk could also trigger such features. One such possibility that has been previously theorized for passive disks is the irradiation instability: the flaring disk solution may become unstable as directly illuminated regions puff up and cast shadows behind them. This in turn manifests as bright and dark rings in the outer regions of the disk. It has been studied with different methods — time-dependent linear theory, Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes, and in 1+1D. Unfortunately, there is little consensus in previous work involving 2.5D simulations owing to different thermal treatments and equilibrium states. We investigate this problem with global axisymmetric 2.5D hydrostatic+dynamical simulations including realistic radiation transport with frequency-dependent irradiation and flux-limited diffusion. We compare our treatment with the previously used moment transfer methods and the simpler radiation forcing to elucidate the importance of correct numerical treatment for this problem. We also create scattered light images of these disks with RADMC3D and discuss the caveats of substructure induced by such an instability. We finally highlight the role of small grains and dust feedback in this context. |