N-Body Simulation of Planetesimal Formation through Gravitational Instability of a Dust Layer in Laminar Gas Disk

TL;DR

This paper uses local N-body simulations to explore how dust layers in laminar gas disks undergo gravitational instability, leading to planetesimal formation through a three-stage process involving wake formation, seed creation, and collisional growth.

Contribution

It demonstrates the detailed formation process of planetesimals via gravitational instability in a laminar gas disk, highlighting the importance of gas drag strength and the three-stage development.

Findings

Dust layer is secularly unstable despite Q > 1.

Gravitational instability growth is initially slower than sedimentation.

Wake-like structures form and fragment into planetesimal seeds.

Abstract

We investigate the formation process of planetesimals from the dust layer by the gravitational instability in the gas disk using local $N$-body simulations. The gas is modeled as a background laminar flow. We study the formation process of planetesimals and its dependence on the strength of the gas drag. Our simulation results show that the formation process is divided into three stages qualitatively: the formation of wake-like density structures, the creation of planetesimal seeds, and their collisional growth. The linear analysis of the dissipative gravitational instability shows that the dust layer is secularly unstable although Toomre's $Q$ value is larger than unity. However, in the initial stage, the growth time of the gravitational instability is longer than that of the dust sedimentation and the decrease in the velocity dispersion. Thus, the velocity dispersion decreases and the disk shrinks vertically. As the velocity dispersion becomes sufficiently small, the gravitational instability finally becomes dominant. Then wake-like density structures are formed by the gravitational instability. These structures fragment into planetesimal seeds. The seeds grow rapidly owing to mutual collisions.