Four Problems in Star and Planet Formation
Eugene Chiang
U. C. Berkeley
February 5, 2007, 4PM, Space Sciences 308
We pose and offer solutions to several problems related to the
formation and evolution of stars and their attendant protoplanetary
disks. (1) How do T Tauri disks lose angular momentum to accrete onto
their host stars? We answer this question for transitional disks, like
those of TW Hyd and GM Aur, which are swept clean of dust (but not
gas) inside radii of 1-25 AU. (2) What explains the wildly
time-variable light curve of the T Tauri system KH 15D? (3) What
governs the shapes of surface brightness profiles of debris disks,
like that surrounding the M dwarf AU Mic? (4) In theories of resonance
capture by bodies migrating within planetesimal disks, do stochastic
torques interfere with capture? We answer this question for Neptune
and Resonant Kuiper belt objects.
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