PF-02-0047

Photoevaporation creates new pathways for accretion onto planets

Michael Lukas Weber, Giovanni Picogna, Barbara Ercolano

Disc winds and planet-disc interactions are two essential mechanisms that drive the evolution of protoplanetary discs. While winds are capable of removing material from the disc, eventually dispersing it from the inside-out, massive planets can shape the disc by creating sub-structures such as gaps and spiral arms.

We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of photoevaporating discs that host a jupiter-like planet with the aim to study the interplay between disc winds and the sub-structures that are created by the planet. By tracing gas-flows in the disc and wind, we are able to study how photoevaporation, in combination with a planetary gap, redistributes material along different disc radii.

We will present new results that show how the wind can transport gas from the inner disc (~2 au) into the planetary gap as well as across the gap to the outer disc and that photoevaporation can significantly increase the accretion rate onto the planet. We will also show that this opens up new accretion pathways that lead through the wind, allowing material from the inner disc to be accreted that can not reach the planet in models without a wind. Tracking the environment along the different pathways will eventually allow us to study the effect on the chemistry and composition of accreting matter and to explore how photoevaporative winds may be able to explain the abundances of refractory inclusions in meteoritic records from our own solar system.

[Poster PDF File]