Simulating planet migration in globally evolving disks

¹ Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France e-mail: crida@obs-azur.fr
² UMR AIM, DSM/DAPNIA/SAp, Orme des Merisiers, CE-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France IA-UNAM, Apartado Postal 70-264, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico

Received: 21 June 2006
Accepted: 29 August 2006

Abstract

Context.Numerical simulations of planet-disk interactions are usually performed with hydro-codes that – because they consider only an annulus of the disk, over a 2D grid – cannot take into account the global evolution of the disk. However, the global evolution governs type II planetary migration, so that the accuracy of the planetary evolution can be questioned.

Aims.To develop an algorithm that models the local planet-disk interactions together with the global viscous evolution of the disk.

Methods.We surround the usual 2D grid with a 1D grid ranging over the real extension of the disk. The 1D and 2D grids are coupled at their common boundaries via ghost rings, paying particular attention to the fluxes at the interface, especially the flux of angular momentum carried by waves. The computation is done in the frame centered on the center of mass to ensure angular momentum conservation.

Results.The global evolution of the disk and the local planet-disk interactions are both well described and the feedback of one on the other can be studied with this algorithm, for a negligible additional computing cost with respect to the usual algorithms.