2016/03/12 by Kazuhiro D. Kanagawa, Kazuhiro Kanagawa, Takayuki Muto +5 · 2 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Exoplanet #Mass ratio #Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure #Physics #Planet #Planetary mass #Protoplanetary disk #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pasj/psw037
Accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2016/03/12 · openalex publication_date 2016/04/22 · arxiv updated 2016/05/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract A giant planet creates a gap in a protoplanetary disk, which might explain the observed gaps in protoplanetary disks. The width and depth of the gaps depend on the planet mass and disk properties. We have performed two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations for various planet masses, disk aspect ratios, and viscosities, to obtain an empirical formula for the gap width. The gap width is proportional to the square root of the planet mass, −3/4 the power of the disk aspect ratio and −1/4 the power of the viscosity. This empirical formula enables us to estimate the mass of a planet embedded in the disk from the width of an observed gap. We have applied the empirical formula for the gap width to the disk around HL Tau, assuming that each gap observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations is produced by planets, and discussed the planet masses within the gaps. The estimate of planet masses from the gap widths is less affected by the observational resolution and dust filtration than that by the gap depth.