Streaming instabilities in accreting and magnetized laminar protoplanetary disks

TL;DR

This study investigates how magnetic fields influence the streaming instability in protoplanetary disks, revealing that magnetic effects can enhance or suppress the instability, impacting planetesimal formation processes.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the streaming instability under realistic magnetized, laminar disk conditions, highlighting new mechanisms of instability driven by magnetic torques and azimuthal drift.

Findings

Magnetic torques can enhance the streaming instability.

The instability can persist without a radial pressure gradient.

Magneto-rotational instability can be damped by dust feedback.

Abstract

The streaming instability is one of the most promising pathways to the formation of planetesimals from pebbles. Understanding how this instability operates under realistic conditions expected in protoplanetary disks is therefore crucial to assess the efficiency of planet formation. Contemporary models of protoplanetary disks show that magnetic fields are key to driving gas accretion through large-scale, laminar magnetic stresses. However, the effect of such magnetic fields on the streaming instability has not been examined in detail. To this end, we study the stability of dusty, magnetized gas in a protoplanetary disk. We find the streaming instability can be enhanced by passive magnetic torques and even persist in the absence of a global radial pressure gradient. In this case, instability is attributed to the azimuthal drift between dust and gas, unlike the classical streaming instability, which is driven by radial drift. This suggests that the streaming instability can remain effective inside dust-trapping pressure bumps in accreting disks. When a live vertical field is considered, we find the magneto-rotational instability can be damped by dust feedback, while the classic streaming instability can be stabilized by magnetic perturbations. We also find that Alfv\'en waves can be destabilized by dust-gas drift, but this instability requires nearly ideal conditions. We discuss the possible implications of these results for dust dynamics and planetesimal formation in protoplanetary disks.