Planet-disk-wind interaction: the magnetized fate of protoplanets
Authors: Gaylor Wafflard-Fernandez, Geoffroy Lesur
Abstract: Models of planet-disk interaction are mainly based on 2D and 3D viscous hydrodynamical simulations. Accretion is classically prescribed by an alpha parameter which characterizes the turbulent radial transport of angular momentum (AM) in the disk. This accretion scenario has been questioned for a few years and an alternative paradigm has been proposed that involves the vertical transport of AM by MHD winds. We revisit planet-disk interaction in such context, with a focus on the planet's ability to open a gap and produce meridional flows. Accretion, magnetic field and wind torque in the gap are also explored, as well as the gravitational torque exerted by the disk onto the planet. We carry out high-resolution 3D global non-ideal MHD simulations of a gaseous disk threaded by a large-scale vertical magnetic field harboring a planet in a fixed circular orbit using the GPU-accelerated code Idefix. We consider various planet masses and disk magnetizations. We find that gap-opening always occurs for sufficiently massive planets, with deeper gaps when the planet mass increases and when the initial magnetization decreases. We propose a gap opening criterion when accretion is dominated by MHD winds. We show that accretion is unsteady and comes from surface layers in the outer disk, bringing material directly towards the planet poles. A planet gap is a privileged region for magnetic field accumulation, leading to nearly sonic accretion stream through the gap. For massive planets, the wind torque induces an asymmetric gap, both in depth and in width, that gradually erodes the outer gap edge, reducing the outer Lindblad torque and potentially reversing the migration direction of Jovian planets in magnetized disks after a few hundreds of orbits. For low-mass planets, we find strongly fluctuating gravitational torques that are mostly positive on average, indicating a stochastic outward migration.
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