Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T02:42:14.684Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Gravitational Instabilities in Circumstellar Disks and the Formation of Binary Companions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Fred C. Adams
Affiliation:
Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Willy Benz
Affiliation:
Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We review recent work on gravitational instabilities in circumstellar disks and discuss implications for the possibility of forming binary companions within these disks. Linear stability analysis indicates that self-gravitating modes with azimuthal wavenumber m = 1 will grow strongly in star/disk systems with the physical properties observed in astrophysical systems. Smooth particle hydrodynamic simulations indicate that these self-gravitating instabilities (with m = 1 and higher) will grow into the nonlinear regime. In many cases, a spiral arm will collapse into a gravitationally bound “knot” of gas; these knots typically contain 1% of the mass of the disk and travel on elliptical orbits about the central star.

Type
Theoretical Aspects
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1992

References

Abt, H.A. 1983, ARA&A, 21, 343 Google Scholar
Adams, F.C., Emerson, J.E., & Fuller, G.A. 1989a, ApJ, 357, 606 Google Scholar
Adams, F.C., Lada, C.J., & Shu, F.H. 1987, ApJ, 312, 788 Google Scholar
Adams, F.C., Lada, C.J., & Shu, F.H. 1988, ApJ, 326, 865 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, F.C., Ruden, S.P., & Shu, F.H. 1989b, ApJ 347, 959 (ARS)Google Scholar
Appenzeller, I. & Mundt, R. 1989, ARA&A, 1, 291 Google Scholar
Bens, W. 1990, In Numerical Modeling of Nonlinear Stellar Pulsations: Problems and Prospects (Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Press)Google Scholar
Bens, W., Bowers, R.L., Cameron, A.G.W., & Press, W.H. 1990, ApJ, 348, 647 Google Scholar
Bens, W. & Adams, F.C. 1992, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Bertout, C. 1989, ARA&A, 27, 351 Google Scholar
Cassen, P. & Moosman, A. 1981, Icarus, 48, 353 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, S., Cabrit, S., Strom, S.E., Heyer, I., Strom, K.M., & Anderson, E. 1987, ApJ, 321 473 Google Scholar
Lada, C.J. & Shu, F.H. 1990, Science 1111, 1222 Google Scholar
Ladd, E.F., Adams, F.C., Casey, S., Davidson, J.A., Fuller, G.A., Harper, D.A., Myers, P.C., & Padman, R. 1991, ApJ, 382, 555 Google Scholar
Lin, C.C. & Lau, Y.Y. 1979, Studies in Applied Math., 60, 97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostriker, E.C., Shu, F.H., & Adams, F.C. 1992, ApJ, in pressGoogle Scholar
Shu, F.H., Adams, F.C, & Lizano, S. 1987, ARA&A, 25 23 Google Scholar
Shu, F.H., Tremarne, S., Adams, F.C., Ruden, S.P. 1990, ApJ, 358, 495 (STAR)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomley, L., Cassen, P., & Steiman-Cameron, T. 1991, ApJ, 382 530 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toomre, A. 1964, ApJ, 139, 1217 Google Scholar