"Ash-fall" induced by molecular outflow in protostar evolution

TL;DR

This paper proposes the 'ash-fall' mechanism, where dust entrained in molecular outflows falls back onto the outer disk, potentially overcoming the radial drift barrier and aiding planet formation at large orbital distances.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 'ash-fall' process driven by magnetic outflows that facilitates dust accumulation in outer disk regions, aiding planet formation.

Findings

Large dust is entrained and ejected by outflows.

Reaccretion of dust increases Stokes number, overcoming radial drift.

Potential formation pathway for wide-orbit planets.

Abstract

Dust growth and its associated dynamics play key roles in the first phase of planet formation in young stellar objects (YSOs). Observations have detected signs of dust growth in very young protoplanetary disks. Furthermore, signs of planet formation, gaps in the disk at a distance of several 10 astronomical units (AU) from the central protostar are also reported. From a theoretical point of view, however, it is not clear how planet form at the outer region of a disk despite the difficulty due to rapid inward drift of dust so called radial drift barrier. Here, on the basis of three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of disk evolution with the dust growth, we propose a mechanism named "ash-fall" phenomenon induced by powerful molecular outflow driven by magnetic field which may circumvent the radial drift barrier. We found that the large dust which grows to a size of $\sim \cm$ in the inner region of a disk is entrained by an outflow from the disk. Then large dust decoupled from gas is ejected from the outflow due to centrifugal force, enriching the grown dust in the envelope and is eventually fall onto the outer edge of the disk. The overall process is similar to behaviour of ash-fall from volcanic eruptions. In the ash-fall phenomenon, the Stokes number of dust increases by reaccreting to the less dense disk outer edge. This may make the dust grains overcome the radial drift barrier. Consequently, the ash-fall phenomenon can provide a crucial assist for making the formation of the planetesimals in outer region of the disk possible, and hence the formation of wide-orbit planets and the formation of the gaps.