Self-gravitating discs with radiative transfer: their role in giant planet formation

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether self-gravitating discs with radiative transfer can cool efficiently enough to potentially fragment, which is crucial for understanding giant planet formation.

Contribution

It introduces a model using SPH with radiative transfer to study the thermal equilibrium and fragmentation potential of self-gravitating discs.

Findings

Discs can maintain thermal equilibrium under certain conditions

Cooling efficiency influences fragmentation likelihood

Preliminary results suggest possible pathways for giant planet formation

Abstract

We present preliminary results on the ability of self-gravitating discs to cool in response to their internal heating. These discs are modelled using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with radiative transfer (Whitehouse, Bate & Monaghan 2005) and we investigate the ability of these discs to maintain a state of thermal equilibrium with their boundaries as an indication of their likelihood to fragment.