PF-02-0001

Probing the secular evolution of embedded protoplanetary discs

Jonah Mauxion

Protoplanetary discs are expected to be the birthplace of planets around forming protostars. In the early class 0/I stages of their evolution, they are embedded in an infalling envelope, remnant of the collapse phase, that makes them difficult to observe. Late stages however, such as class II, evolve in a mostly depleted surroundings and are therefore better constrained.

The large amount of information concerning these objects - large discs gathering a small fraction of the total mass, with a magnetic field intensity of the order of 1 mG and outflow signatures - contrasts with the few constraints on early stages, provided by both simulations and observations : by the time of its formation, the disc is small and massive (compared to the protostar mass) with a strong magnetic field inherited from the isothermal collapse phase.

This raises the question of a continuity between pre-stellar core simulations and class II disc models. In this poster, I will present recent 3D simulations of embedded protoplanetary discs performed with the GPU-accelerated code IDEFIX, starting from the collapse stage and designed for a large timescale integration in order to achieve class I stage. I will first present the models I have computed, then I will detail their secular evolution properties and discuss the driving mechanism for accretion.

[Poster PDF File]