NSF Award
2407671
Disk features like gaps and cavities are commonly attributed to planets. But other mechanisms can create similar features, e.g. the radiation pressure instability, resulting from fundamental interactions of radiation, gas, and dust. Moreover, even when planets are the root cause of the disk’s features, such instabilities can be triggered. That effect needs to be taken into account to infer planetary properties using the features. Researchers at Clemson University, in the EPSCoR state of South Carolina, are funded to study these physical systems with PEnGUIn, an open-source, aggressively optimized hydrodynamics code that runs on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). They aim to produce a unified picture of the co-evolution of super-Earth systems and their natal disks. The project will also design and carry out interdisciplinary projects with art students, giving scientists and artists a chance to learn from each other. It will also enhance the Emerging Scholar program at Clemson, promoting college-culture in the underprivileged areas of South Carolina. <br/><br/>The dynamics of radiation-gas-dust interaction in low-viscosity protoplanetary disks, with or without planets, still has many unknowns. Accurate simulations of these systems will require either high resolution to track complex gas flow in the disks, or tracking long term evolution over millions of years, or both. This project develops a more physically-motivated thermal treatment to replace the commonly assumed isothermal equation of state or simple thermal relaxation prescription. The researchers will study whether planet-shepherded rings remain stable against the Rossby wave instability. They will study whether super-Earths, the most abundant type of known planets, can open large cavities in disks; if so, the rarer giant planets will not need to be invoked to explain cavities. They will also study whether planets may drive disk evolution by quantifying the amount of planet-induced disk transport and whether gapped disks may turn into transition disks. Working with art students in both fine arts and in digital arts, art-pieces will be produced that can be used to engage the public. As part of the Emerging Scholar program, the PI will help design and teach summer classes for high school students and provide them with research opportunities within this project.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
