Dust and gas density evolution at a radial pressure bump in protoplanetary disks

Abstract

We investigate the simultaneous evolution of dust and gas density profiles at a radial pressure bump located in a protoplanetary disk. If dust particles are treated as test particles, a radial pressure bump traps dust particles that drift radially inward. As the dust particles become more concentrated at the gas pressure bump, however, the drag force from dust to gas (back-reaction), which is ignored in a test-particle approach, deforms the pressure bump. We find that the pressure bump is completely deformed by the back-reaction when the dust-to-gas mass ratio reaches ∼ 1 for a slower bump restoration. The direct gravitational instability of dust particles is inhibited by the bump destruction. In the dust-enriched region, the radial pressure support becomes ∼ 10-100 times lower than the global value set initially. Although the pressure bump is a favorable place for streaming instability (SI), the flattened pressure gradient inhibits SI from forming large particle clumps corresponding to 100-1000 km sized bodies, which has been previously proposed. If SI occurs there, the dust clumps formed would be 10-100 times smaller, that is, of about 1-100 km.