The Role of Self-Gravity and Gravitational Instabilities in Protoplanetary Discs
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Dr. Cristiano Longarini
Cambridge University
Protostellar discs are the link between stars and planets: they form with the star, and they are the environments in which planet formation takes place. Thanks to ALMA radio telescope, we are looking into these systems with an incredible level of detail, showing a high degree of complexity in their structure, morphology and kinematics. Many discs exhibit substructures that are consistent with - and often interpreted as - the theoretically expected signature of planet-disc interaction. Under the hypothesis of the planetary interpretation, a robust conclusion is that a substantial part of the planet formation process must overlap with the time when protostellar discs are young, likely to be self-gravitating and, possibly, gravitationally unstable. Hence, a natural question to ask is: what is the role of the disc self-gravity in the context of plant formation?