New Growth Mechanism of Dust Grains in Protoplanetary Disks with Magnetically Driven Disk Winds

Abstract

Abstract We discovered a new growth mode of dust grains to kilometer-size bodies in protoplanetary disks that evolve via viscous accretion and magnetically driven disk winds (MDWs). We solved an approximate coagulation equation of dust grains with time-evolving disks that consist of both gas and solid components using a one-dimensional model. With grain growth, all solid particles initially drift inward toward the central star due to the gas drag force. However, the radial profile of gas pressure, P, is modified by the MDW that disperses the gas in an inside-out manner. Consequently, a local concentration of solid particles is created by the converging radial flux of drifting dust grains at the location with a convex-upward profile of P. When the dimensionless stopping time, St, exceeds unity there, the solid particles spontaneously reach the growth-dominated state because of the positive feedback between the suppressed radial drift and the enhanced accumulation of dust particles that drift from the outer part. Once the solid particles are in the drift-limited state, the above-mentioned condition of St for dust growth is equivalent to Σd/Σg ≳ η, where Σd/Σg is the dust-to-gas surface-density ratio and η is the dimensionless radial pressure-gradient force. As a consequence of the successful growth of dust grains, a ring-like structure containing planetesimal-size bodies is formed at the inner part of the protoplanetary disks. Such a ring-shaped concentration of planetesimals is expected to play a vital role in the subsequent planet formation.