The coexistence of the streaming instability and the vertical shear instability in protoplanetary disks

Scale dependence of dust diffusion

¹ Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, ∅ster Voldgade 5–7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
² Lund Observatory, Department of Physics, Lund University, Box 43, 22100 Lund, Sweden
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königsstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

^★ Corresponding author; urs.schafer@sund.ku.dk

Received: 13 December 2024
Accepted: 10 January 2025

Abstract

The vertical shear instability and the streaming instability are two robust sources of turbulence in protoplanetary disks. The former has been found to induce anisotropic turbulence that is stronger in the vertical than in the radial dimension and to be overall stronger compared to the largely isotropic turbulence caused by the streaming instability. In this study, we shed light on the dust diffusion by the vertical shear instability and the streaming instability separately and together, and in particular on the direction- and scale-dependence of the diffusion. To this end, we employ two-dimensional global models of the two instabilities either in isolation or in combination. The vertical shear instability in isolation diffuses dust more strongly in the vertical direction than the streaming instability in isolation, resulting in a wave-shaped dust layer in our two-dimensional simulations. Compared with this large-scale diffusion, though, our study highlights that the vertical shear instability causes substantially weaker or even negligible small-scale diffusion. We validate this result using previously published three-dimensional simulations. In particular when simulating centimetre-sized dust, the undulating dust layer becomes internally razor-thin. In contrast, the diffusion owing to the streaming instability exhibits only a marginal scaledependence, with the dust layer possessing a Gaussian shape. In models including both instabilities, the undulating mid-plane layer is broadened to a width set by the intrinsic diffusion level caused by the streaming instability.