ITC Colloquium - Martin Pessah (NBI)

"Migration of Low-mass Planets in Dusty Protoplanetary Disks"

Fast inward migration of planetary cores embedded in gaseous
disks is a common problem in the current planet formation paradigm. Even
though dust is ubiquitous in protoplanetary disks, its dynamical role in
the migration history of planetary embryos has not been considered until
recently. In this talk, I will show that the scattered pebble-flow
induced by a low-mass planetary embryo leads to an asymmetric
dust-density distribution that is able to exert a net torque. Building
on the results or a large suite of numerical simulations for measuring
this dust torque under a wide range of conditions, I will present the
first study showing that dust torques can have a significant impact on
the migration and formation history of planetary embryos