Gap Opening in 3D: Single Planet Gaps

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates through simulations that giant planets can carve gaps in 3D disks similarly to 2D, revealing complex flow patterns and stability features that impact disk composition and evolution.

Contribution

It shows that gap formation physics in 2D applies to 3D disks, with detailed flow dynamics and stability characteristics explored via direct simulations.

Findings

Surface density profiles are similar in 2D and 3D.

Gap surface density scales with planet mass as q^{-2}.

3D flows include extensive meridional circulations and occasional gap edge shedding.

Abstract

Giant planets can clear deep gaps when embedded in 2D (razor-thin) viscous circumstellar disks. We show by direct simulation that giant planets are just as capable of carving out gaps in 3D. Surface density maps are similar between 2D and 3D, even in detail. In particular, the scaling $\Sigma_{\rm gap} \propto q^{-2}$ of gap surface density with planet mass, derived from a global "zero-dimensional" balance of Lindblad and viscous torques, applies equally well to results obtained at higher dimensions. Our 3D simulations reveal extensive, near-sonic, meridional flows both inside and outside the gaps; these large-scale circulations might bear on disk compositional gradients, in dust or other chemical species. At high planet mass, gap edges are mildly Rayleigh unstable and intermittently shed streams of material into the gap - less so in 3D than in 2D.