Evolution of dust in a protoplanetary disc driven by stellar flybys: implications for the streaming instability

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamical simulations to explore how stellar flybys influence dust dynamics and the potential for planetesimal formation in protoplanetary discs, revealing complex interactions that can either inhibit or promote dust clumping.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of dust evolution during stellar flybys in weakly coupled regimes, highlighting their effects on dust concentration and streaming instability conditions.

Findings

Flybys create spiral structures affecting dust distribution.

Low-mass flybys suppress dust clumping over time.

Equal-mass flybys can enhance conditions for dust clumping.

Abstract

Stellar flybys are a common dynamical process in young stellar clusters and can significantly reshape protoplanetary discs. However, their impact on dust dynamics remains poorly understood, particularly in the weakly coupled regime (St$\gg$1). We present three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of parabolic stellar flybys-both coplanar and inclined-interacting with a gaseous and dusty protoplanetary disc. Dust species with Stokes numbers ranging from 15 to 100, corresponding to four grain sizes under a uniform initial gas surface density, are included. Perturber masses of 0.1 and 1$\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ are considered. The induced spiral structures exhibit distinct dynamical behaviours in gas and dust: dust spirals retain a nearly constant pattern speed, while gas spirals gradually decelerate. The pitch angles of both components decrease over time, with dust evolving more rapidly. In the weakly coupled regime, gas and dust spirals are spatially offset, facilitating dust accumulation around both structures. Equal-mass flybys truncate the disc at approximately $\sim$0.55$r_{\mathrm{Hill}}$, producing tightly wound, ring-like spirals that promote dust concentration. By mapping the streaming instability growth rates in the solid abundance-Stokes number space across three evolutionary phases, we find that a low-mass flyby suppresses dust concentration below the critical clumping threshold after periastron and maintains this suppression over time, indicating long-lasting inhibition of dust clumping. An equal-mass flyby raises local solid abundance well above the threshold, suggesting that such encounters may foster conditions favourable for dust clumping. Flyby-induced spirals play a central role in shaping dust evolution, leading to distinct spatial and temporal behaviours in weakly coupled discs.