Streaming instability in protoplanetary disks
In a laminar disk, dust pebbles settle to the disk midplane until the local dust density becomes similar to the gas density. At this stage the streaming instability sets in and produces turbulent motions (Flock et al. 2021).
Vertical shear instability
The line integral convolution of the gas velocity shows the characteristic motions triggered by the vertical shear instability (Flores-Rivera et al. 2020).
Radiation hydrostatic equilibrium including irradiation and silicate sublimation
Model of the silicate sublimation region in protoplanetary disk. An equilibrium is reached after 20 iterations (Flock et al. 2016).
Radiation non-ideal MHD simulations of protoplanetary disks
The movie shows density fluctuations of radiation non-ideal MHD simulations including dust sublimation (Flock et al. 2017).
Dust pebbles in protoplanetary disks
The movie shows the particle dynamics in the outer regions of magnetized protoplanetary disks. 3 selected particle sizes are shown. The large particles quickly radially drift while concentrating at the dead-zone outer edge. The smaller particles are mixed vertically in the turbulent regions outside 40 AU.
For more information please refer to Flock et al. 2015 and Ruge et al. 2016
Gas dynamics in magnetized disks
The movie shows the turbulent evolution of a protoplanetary disk.
25 frames per second cover a simulation time of 1 year (1 inner orbit). Turbulent velocities are presented in units of the local Mach number. In the low-density upper layers of the disc, the turbulent flows are transonic with even supersonic peaks. In the bulk of the disk at the midplane, the turbulent velocities reach 10 % of the local Mach number. This set of simulations is calculated in the perfect coupling regime between gas and magnetic fields. They are scale-free! Turbulent magnetic fields are presented in the plasma beta evolution. For more information please refer to Flock et al. 2011.
Radiation MHD simulations
The movie shows the turbulent and thermal evolution of a protoplanetary disk using radiation MHD simulations including irradiation by the star. This simulations use real physical units. Turbulent velocities are presented in units of m/s.
It ranges from several thousand meters per second in the upper layers of the disk down to 10-100 meters per second in the midplane region. For more information please refer to Flock et al. 2013.
Magnetic energy
The movies show the evolution of the magnetic energy in magnetized protoplanetary disks. Rendering was done using raytracing techniques with a scaling of the opacity proportional to the magnetic energy.
