Disk evolution and planet formation around intermediate mass stars: The first step towards understanding white dwarf pollution

MARÍA PAULA RONCO

Montevideo

Congreso; XVII LARIM; 2023

Udelar

The study of protoplanetary disk evolution and theories of planet formation has predominantly concentrated on solar (and low) mass stars since they host the majority of the confirmed exoplanets. Nevertheless,the confirmation of numerous planets orbiting stars more massive than the Sun (up to 3Msun) has sparked considerable interest in understanding the mechanisms involved in the formation of exoplanets around such stellar objects. As intermediate mass stars are the progenitors of the currently observed white dwarf population, understanding planet formation around these stars is most likely related to the fact that 30 - 50 per cent of the known white dwarf population show signs of atmospheric pollution by planetary debris. In this talk I will describe our latest results on protoplanetary disk evolution simulations which we developed as a first step towards a better understanding of planet formation around 1-3Msun stars. We investigated how the gas component of protoplanetary disks evolves considering different disk initial conditions such as different viscosities and initial masses of the disk, and by taking into account the effects of stellar evolution which become relevant as the mass of the central star increases. Our findings confirm that in general disks around more massive stars evolve faster than those around low-mass stars, except if low viscosities are considered. Our simulations also reveal four distinct evolutionary pathways for the gas component not reported before, which likely have a substancial impact on the dust evolution and thus onplanet formation. I will also discuss these implications and present preliminar results of planet formation simulations around 1-3Msun stars.