Vortices in Rotating and Gravitating Gas Disk and in a Protoplanetary Disk

Abstract

Nonlinear equations describing dynamics of 2D vortices are very important in the physics of the ocean and the atmosphere and in plasma physics and Astrophysics. Here linear and nonlinear 2D vortex perturbations of gravitating and light gaseous disks are examined in the geostrophic and post-geostrophic approximations. In the frame of geostrophic approximation, it is shown that the vortex with positive velocity circulation is characterized by low pressure with negative excess mass density of substance. Vortex with negative circulation has higher pressure and is a relatively tight formation with the positive excess mass density. In the post-geostrophic approximation, structures of the isolated monopole and dipole vortex (modons) solutions of these equations are studied. Two types of mass distributions in dipole vortices are found. The first type of modon is characterized by an asymmetrically positioned single circular densification and one rarefaction. The second type is characterized by two asymmetrically positioned densifications and two rarefactions, where the second densification-rarefaction pair is crescent shaped. The constant density contours of a dipole vortex in a light gas disk coincide with the streamlines of the vortex; in a self-gravitating disk, the constant density contours in the vortex do not coincide with streamlines. Possible manifestations of monopole and dipole vortices in astrophysical objects are discussed. Vortices play decisive role in the process of planet formation. Gas in a protoplanetary disk practically moves on sub-Keplerian speeds. Rigid particles, under the action of a head wind drags, lose the angular momentum and energy. As a result, the ~10 cm to meter-sized particles drift to the central star for hundreds of years. Long-lived vortical structures in gas disk are a possible way to concentrate the ~10 cm to meter sized particles and to grow up them in planetesimal. Here the effect of anticyclonic Burgers vortex on formation of planetesimals in a protoplanetary dusty disc in local approach is also considered. It is shown that the Burgers vortex with homogeneously rotating kernel and a converging radial stream of substance can effectively accumulate in its nuclear area the meter-sized rigid particles of total mass ∼1028 g for characteristic time ∼106 year.