The Thermal Regulation of Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

It is generally thought that protoplanetary disks embedded in envelopes are more massive and thus more susceptible to gravitational instabilities (GIs) than exposed disks. We present three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamics simulations of protoplanetary disks with the presence of envelope irradiation. For a disk with a radius of 40 AU and a mass of 0.07 Msun around a young star of 0.5 Msun, envelope irradiation tends to weaken and even suppress GIs as the irradiating flux is increased. The global mass transport induced by GIs is dominated by lower-order modes, and irradiation preferentially suppresses higher-order modes. As a result, gravitational torques and mass inflow rates are actually increased by mild irradiation. None of the simulations produce dense clumps or rapid cooling by convection, arguing against direct formation of giant planets by disk instability, at least in irradiated disks. However, dense gas rings and radial mass concentrations are produced, and these might be conducive to accelerated planetary core formation. Preliminary results from a simulation of a massive embedded disk with physical characteristics similar to one of the disks in the embedded source L1551 IRS5 indicate a long radiative cooling time and no fragmentation. The GIs in this disk are dominated by global two and three-armed modes.