Studies of Gas Disks in Binary Systems

• There are over 300 exoplanets detected through radial velocity surveys and photometric studies showing a tremendous variety of masses, compositions and orbital parameters. Understanding the way these planets formed and evolved within the circumstellar disks they were initially embedded in is a crucial issue. In the first part of this thesis we study the physical interaction between a gaseous protoplanetary disk and an embedded planet using numerical simulations. In order to trust the results from simulations it is important to compare different methods. However, the standard test problems for hydrodynamic codes differ considerably from the case of a protoplanetary disk interacting with an embedded planet. We have carried out a code comparison in which the problem of a massive planet in a protoplanetary disk was studied with various numerical schemes. We compare the surface density, potential vorticity and azimuthally averaged density profiles at several times. There is overall good agreement between our codes for Neptune and Jupiter-sized planets. We performed simulations for each planet in an inviscid disk and including physical viscosity. The surface density profiles agree within about 5% for the grid-based schemes while the particle codes have less resolution in the low density regions and weaker spiral wakes. In Paper II, we study hydrodynamical instabilities in disks with planets. Vortices are generated close to the gap in our numerical models in agreement with the linear modal analysis. The vortices exert strong perturbations on the planet as they move along the gap and can change its migration rate. In addition, disk viscosity can be modified by the presence of vortices. The last part of this thesis studies the mass transfer in symbiotic binaries and close T Tauri binary systems. Our simulations of gravitationally focused wind accretion in binary systems show the formation of stream flows and enhanced accretion rates onto the compact component.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomi

Astronomy

astronomi

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

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