D. N. C. Lin

Publications (4)6.02 Total impact

• Article: The Importance of Disk Structure in Stalling Type I Migration

  Katherine A. Kretke, D. N. C. Lin
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  ABSTRACT: As planets form they tidally interact with their natal disks. Though the tidal perturbation induced by Earth and super-Earth mass planets is generally too weak to significantly modify the structure of the disk, the interaction is potentially strong enough to cause the planets to undergo rapid type I migration. This physical process may provide a source of short-period super-Earths, though it may also pose a challenge to the emergence and retention of cores on long-period orbits with sufficient mass to evolve into gas giants. Previous numerical simulations have shown that the type I migration rate sensitively depends upon the circumstellar disk's properties, particularly the temperature and surface density gradients. Here, we derive these structure parameters for 1) a self-consistent viscous-disk model based on a constant \alpha-prescription, 2) an irradiated disk model that takes into account heating due to the absorption of stellar photons, and 3) a layered-accretion disk model with variable \alpha-parameter. We show that in the inner viscously-heated regions of typical protostellar disks, the horseshoe and corotation torques of super-Earths can exceed their differential Lindblad torque and cause them to undergo outward migration. However, the temperature profile due to passive stellar irradiation causes type I migration to be inwards throughout much of the disk. For disks in which there is outwards migration, we show that location and the mass range of the "planet traps" depends on some uncertain assumptions adopted for these disk models. Competing physical effects may lead to dispersion in super-Earths' mass-period distribution.
  05/2012;
• Article: Structure of Magnetorotational Instability Active Protoplanetary Disks

  Katherine A. Kretke, D. N. C. Lin
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  ABSTRACT: The radial drift of planetary cores poses a challenge to efficient planet formation in standard disk models. However, the rate of this migration is sensitive to both the surface density and temperature profiles of protoplanetary disks. In this paper, we present a new model to self-consistently calculate the structure of a protoplanetary disk in which the magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives angular momentum transport. In this model, we calculate a quasi-steady-state disk model including a schematic representation involving efficient angular momentum transport in the active region with decreased (but non-zero) angular momentum transport in the dead zone. We find that MRI affects not only the surface density distribution but also the temperature profile. In this paper, we present our method and the key novel features evident in our fiducial model. In subsequent papers, we will use this model to study the impact of MRI on the formation and migration of planets.
  The Astrophysical Journal 09/2010; 721(2):1585. · 6.02 Impact Factor
• Article: Planet formation around intermediate mass stars

  Katherine A. Kretke, D. N. C. Lin, Neal J. Turner
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  ABSTRACT: We present a mechanism by which gas giants form efficiently around intermediate mass stars. MRI-driven turbulence effectively drives angular momentum transport in regions of the disk with sufficiently high ionization fraction. In the inner regions of the disk, where the midplane temperature is above 1000K, thermal ionization effectively couples the disk to the magnetic field, providing a relatively large viscosity. A pressure maximum will develop outside of this region as the gaseous disk approaches a steady-state surface density profile, trapping migrating solid material. This rocky material will coagulate into planetesimals which grow rapidly until they reach isolation mass. Around intermediate mass stars, viscous heating will push the critical radius for thermal ionization of the midplane out to around 1 AU. This will increase the isolation mass for solid cores. Planets formed here may migrate inwards due to type II migration, but they will induce the formation of subsequent giant planets at the outer edge of the gap they have opened. In this manner, gas giants can form around intermediate mass stars at a few AU.
  Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 09/2007; 3:293 - 300.
• Source

  Available from: ArXiv

  Article: Grain Retention and Formation of Planetesimals near the Snow Line in MRI-driven Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks

  Katherine A. Kretke, D. N. C. Lin
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  ABSTRACT: The first challenge in the formation of both terrestrial planets and the cores of gas giants is the retention of grains in protoplanetary disks. In most regions of these disks, gas attains sub-Keplerian speeds as a consequence of a negative pressure gradient. Hydrodynamic drag leads to orbital decay and depletion of the solid material in the disk, with characteristic timescales as short as only a few hundred years for meter-sized objects at 1 AU. In this paper, we suggest a particle retention mechanism which promotes the accumulation of grains and the formation of planetesimals near the water sublimation front or ``snow line.'' This model is based on the assumption that, in the regions most interesting for planet formation, the viscous evolution of the disk is due to turbulence driven by the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) in the surface layers of the disk. The depth to which MRI effectively generates turbulence is a strong function of the grain size and abundance. A sharp increase in the grain-to-gas density ratio across the snow line reduces the column depth of the active layer. As the disk evolves towards a quasi-steady-state, this change in the active layer creates a local maximum in radial distribution of the gas surface density and pressure, causing the gas to rotate at super-Keplerian speed and halting the inward migration of grains. This senario presents a robust process for grain retention which may aid in the formation of proto-gas-giant cores preferentially near the snow line. Comment: 12 pages in preprint format, 2 figures, accepted ApJ Letters
  06/2007;