Which planets trigger longer-lived vortices: low-mass or high-mass?

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to explore how low-mass and high-mass planets influence vortex formation and longevity in protoplanetary discs, revealing that low-mass planets can generate multiple vortices and that disc aspect ratio affects vortex survival.

Contribution

It demonstrates that low-mass planets can produce multiple vortices in low-viscosity discs and links vortex behavior to observed disc features, advancing understanding of planet-disc interactions.

Findings

Low-mass planets can trigger multiple vortices in low-viscosity discs.

Vortices with higher aspect ratio ($H/r=0.08$) survive over 6000 orbits.

Long-lived vortices may explain observed asymmetries in certain discs.

Abstract

Recent ALMA observations have found many protoplanetary discs with rings that can be explained by gap-opening planets less massive than Jupiter. Meanwhile, recent studies have suggested that protoplanetary discs should have low levels of turbulence. Past computational work on low-viscosity discs has hinted that these two developments might not be self-consistent because even low-mass planets can be accompanied by vortices instead of conventional double rings. We investigate this potential discrepancy by conducting hydrodynamic simulations of growing planetary cores in discs with various aspect ratios ($H/r=0.04$, 0.06, 0.08) and viscosities ($1.5 \times 10^{-5} \lesssim \alpha \lesssim 3 \times 10^{-4}$), having these cores accrete their gas mass directly from the disc. With $\alpha < 10^{-4}$, we find that sub-Saturn-mass planets in discs with $H/r \le 0.06$ are more likely to be accompanied by dust asymmetries compared to Jupiter-mass planets because they can trigger several generations of vortices in succession. We also find that vortices with $H/r = 0.08$ survive $>6000$ planet orbits regardless of the planet mass or disc mass because they are less affected by the planet's spiral waves. We connect our results to observations and find that the outward migration of vortices with $H/r \ge 0.08$ may be able to explain the cavity in Oph IRS 48 or the two clumps in MWC 758. Lastly, we show that the lack of observed asymmetries in the disc population in Taurus is unexpected given the long asymmetry lifetimes in our low viscosity simulations ($\alpha \sim 2 \times 10^{-5}$), a discrepancy we suggest is due to these discs having higher viscosities.