Speaker: Mario Flock (MPI)
Title: The role of gas and dust dynamics in the evolution of proto-planetary disks
Abstract:
The research of how planets form is one of the key branches in astrophysics. Planet formation takes place in the so called proto-planetary disk, an accretion disk which establishes after the collapse of a molecular cloud.  99 per cent of the disk mass consists out of hydrogen and helium gas while only one percent is stored in granular matter in form of dust grains.
Gas turbulence controls the accretion and evolution of the proto-planetary disk. At the same time, the turbulence determines how fast the dust grains collide and where they can grow to pebbles and planetesimals, the first building blocks of planets. 

In my talk I will present state-of-the-art 3D radiative non-ideal magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, which include both gas and solids, performed with advanced finite volume methods. The simulation results reveal the detailed structure and the dynamics of the gas and dust material in proto-planetary disks. I will shed light on the kinematics and turbulence levels, which we obtained by high-resolution simulations of the magneto-rotational instability. I will also demonstrate the important role of the ionization transition zones as formation sides of planets in the disk. Those new models show the detailed motion of the granular matter and the locations where dust grains get concentrated in magnetized proto-planetary disks. Finally I summarize how we can further benefit from our models as we compare them to recent disk observations and outline the next big steps, needed to advance in our understanding how and where planets form.