Shadow-Induced Warps in Protoplanetary disks

TL;DR

This study uses 3D radiation-hydrodynamical simulations to show that shadows cast by inclined inner disks induce significant warps and accretion flows in protoplanetary disks, with observable signatures for ALMA and NIR telescopes.

Contribution

It demonstrates that inclined inner disk shadows can cause strong disk warps and accretion effects, expanding understanding beyond symmetric shadow cases.

Findings

Inclined shadows lead to stronger accretion than polar cases.

Outer disk develops a tilt and twist, forming a warp.

The warp is driven by thermally induced bending waves, especially the m=1, n=1 mode.

Abstract

Shadows are commonly observed in protoplanetary disks in near-infrared and (sub)millimeter images, often cast by misaligned inner disks or other obscuring material. While recent studies show that shadows can alter disk dynamics, only the case symmetric across the midplane (e.g., from a polar-aligned inner disk) has been studied. Here we study shadows cast by an inner disk with a $30^\circ$ mutual inclination using 3D radiation-hydrodynamical simulations. Given the same shadow shape and amplitude, the $30^\circ$ inclined shadow leads to a much stronger accretion compared with the polar case, reaching $\alpha \sim$ 1, because the disk is squeezed twice in one azimuth, leading to shocks and strong radial flows near the midplane. The outer disk develops a warp: the inner disk region tilts toward alignment with the shadow, while the outer, exponentially tapered disk tilts and twists in a different direction, inclined $\sim$ 32$^\circ$ relative to the inner region. Locally isothermal simulations with a prescribed temperature structure reproduce the effect, confirming that it is thermally driven. Fourier-Hermite analysis shows that it is the m=1, n=1 temperature perturbation that drives the warp by launching bending waves, with the tilting response of the disk approximately proportional to the modal amplitude. This mode always exists unless the shadow is coplanar or polar. Given a fixed temperature contrast, the m=1,n=1 mode peaks at $\sim$15$^\circ$ mutual inclination, but still contributes substantially across 3$^\circ$ to 30$^\circ$. Shadows cause disk warps--they are not only a consequence of them. We discuss testable predictions for current and future ALMA and NIR observations.