Planet Shadows in Protoplanetary Disks. I: Temperature Perturbations

TL;DR

This paper models how embedded planets cause temperature and density perturbations in protoplanetary disks, revealing the importance of self-consistent calculations and disk surface shape for accurate thermal structure predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent 3D model of disk perturbations caused by planets, improving upon previous plane-parallel assumptions and emphasizing the role of disk surface shape.

Findings

Temperature perturbations are smaller than previously thought.

Perturbation size is larger due to 3D modeling.

Disk surface shape critically affects temperature structure.

Abstract

Planets embedded in optically thick passive accretion disks are expected to produce perturbations in the density and temperature structure of the disk. We calculate the magnitudes of these perturbations for a range of planet masses and distances. The model predicts the formation of a shadow at the position of the planet paired with a brightening just beyond the shadow. We improve on previous work on the subject by self-consistently calculating the temperature and density structures under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium and taking the full three-dimensional shape of the disk into account rather than assuming a plane-parallel disk. While the excursion in temperatures is less than in previous models, the spatial size of the perturbation is larger. We demonstrate that a self-consistent calculation of the density and temperature structure of the disk has a large effect on the disk model. In addition, the temperature structure in the disk is highly sensitive to the angle of incidence of stellar irradition at the surface, so accurately calculating the shape of the disk surface is crucial for modeling the thermal structure of the disk.