2006/11/30 by Mark Petersen, Mark R. Petersen, G. R. Stewart +2 · 104 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Angular momentum #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Baroclinity #Classical mechanics #Mechanics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Radiative cooling #Radiative transfer #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Vortex #Vorticity #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/511523
published in The Astrophysical Journal 658(2), 1252-1263 (IOP Publishing) · Originally submitted to The Astrophysical Journal April 3, 2006; resubmitted November 3, 2006; accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Dec 5, 2006
arxiv created 2006/12/05 · openalex publication_date 2007/03/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The factors affecting vortex growth in convectively stable protoplanetary disks are explored using numerical simulations of a two-dimensional anelastic-gas model that includes baroclinic vorticity production and radiative cooling. The baroclinic feedback, in which anomalous temperature gradients produce vorticity through the baroclinic term and vortices then reinforce these temperature gradients, is found to be an important process in the rate of growth of vortices in the disk. Factors that strengthen the baroclinic feedback include fast radiative cooling, high thermal diffusion, and large radial temperature gradients in the background temperature. When the baroclinic feedback is sufficiently strong, anticyclonic vortices form from initial random perturbations and maintain their strength for the duration of the simulation, for over 600 orbital periods. Based on both simulations and a simple vortex model, we find that the local angular momentum transport due to a single vortex may be inward or outward, depending on its orientation. The global angular momentum transport is highly variable in time and is sometimes negative and sometimes positive. This result is for an anelastic-gas model and does not include shocks that could affect angular momentum transport in a compressible-gas disk.