Diffusivity of Ga and Al adatoms on GaAs(001)

The diffusivity of Ga and Al adatoms on the (2x4) reconstructed GaAs(001) surface are evaluated using detailed ab initio total energy calculations of the potential energy surface together with transition state theory. A strong diffusion anisotropy is found, with the direction of fastest diffusion being parallel to the surface As-dimer orientation. In contrast to previous calculations we identify a short--bridge position between the two As atoms of a surface dimer as the adsorption site for Al and Ga adatoms.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figures, to appear in "The Physics of Semiconductors

Modelling Accretion in Transitional Disks

Transitional disks are protoplanetary disk around young stars that display inner holes in the dust distribution within a few AU, which is accompanied nevertheless by some gas accretion onto the central star. These cavities could possibly be created by the presence of one or more massive planets. If the gap is created by planets and gas is still present in it, then there should be a flow of gas past the planet into the inner region. It is our goal to study the mass accretion rate into the gap and in particular the dependency on the planet's mass and the thermodynamic properties of the disk. We performed 2D hydro simulations for disks with embedded planets. We added radiative cooling from the disk surfaces, radiative diffusion in the disk midplane, and stellar irradiation to the energy equation to have more realistic models. The mass flow rate into the gap region depends, for given disk thermodynamics, non-monotonically on the mass of the planet. Generally, more massive planets open wider and deeper gaps which would tend to reduce the mass accretion into the inner cavity. However, for larger mass planets the outer disk becomes eccentric and the mass flow rate is enhanced over the low mass cases. As a result, for the isothermal disks the mass flow is always comparable to the expected mass flow of unperturbed disks M_d, while for more realistic radiative disks the mass flow is very small for low mass planets (<= 4 M_jup) and about 50% for larger planet masses. For the radiative disks that critical planet mass for the disk to become eccentric is much larger that in the isothermal case. Massive embedded planets can reduce the mass flow across the gap considerably, to values of about an order of magnitude smaller than the standard disk accretion rate, and can be responsible for opening large cavities. The remaining mass flow into the central cavity is in good agreement with the observations.Comment: 10 pages, 29 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Influence of viscosity and the adiabatic index on planetary migration

The strength and direction of migration of low mass embedded planets depends on the disk's thermodynamic state, where the internal dissipation is balanced by radiative transport, and the migration can be directed outwards, a process which extends the lifetime of growing embryos. Very important parameters determining the structure of disks, and hence the direction of migration, are the viscosity and the adiabatic index. In this paper we investigate the influence of different viscosity prescriptions (alpha-type and constant) and adiabatic indices on disk structures and how this affects the migration rate of planets embedded in such disks. We perform 3D numerical simulations of accretion disks with embedded planets. We use the explicit/implicit hydrodynamical code NIRVANA that includes full tensor viscosity and radiation transport in the flux-limited diffusion approximation, as well as a proper equation of state for molecular hydrogen. The migration of embedded 20Earthmass planets is studied. Low-viscosity disks have cooler temperatures and the migration rates of embedded planets tend toward the isothermal limit. In these disks, planets migrate inwards even in the fully radiative case. The effect of outward migration can only be sustained if the viscosity in the disk is large. Overall, the differences between the treatments for the equation of state seem to play a more important role in disks with higher viscosity. A change in the adiabatic index and in the viscosity changes the zero-torque radius that separates inward from outward migration. For larger viscosities, temperatures in the disk become higher and the zero-torque radius moves to larger radii, allowing outward migration of a 20 Earth-mass planet to persist over an extended radial range. In combination with large disk masses, this may allow for an extended period of the outward migration of growing protoplanetary cores

Circumstellar disks in binary star systems

In this paper we study the evolution of viscous and radiative circumstellar disks under the influence of a companion star. We focus on the eccentric {\gamma} Cephei and {\alpha} Centauri system as examples and compare the disk quantities such as disk eccentricity and precession rate to previous isothermal simulations. We perform two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of the binary star systems under the assumption of coplanarity of the disk, host star and binary companion. We use the grid-based, staggered mesh code FARGO with an additional energy equation to which we added radiative cooling based on opacity tables. The eccentric binary companion perturbs the disk around the primary star periodically. Upon passing periastron spirals arms are induced that wind from the outer disk towards the star. In isothermal simulations this results in disk eccentricities up to {\epsilon}_disk ~ 0.2, but in more realistic radiative models we obtain much smaller eccentricities of about {\epsilon}_disk ~ 0.04 - 0.06 with no real precession. Models with varying viscosity and disk mass indicate show that disks with less mass have lower temperatures and higher disk eccentricity. The rather large high disk eccentricities, as indicated in previous isothermal disk simulations, implied a more difficult planet formation in the {\gamma} Cephei system due to the enhanced collision velocities of planetesimals. We have shown that under more realistic conditions with radiative cooling the disk become less eccentric and thus planet formation may be made easier. However, we estimate that the viscosity in the disk has to very small, with {\alpha} \lesssim 0.001, because otherwise the disk's lifetime will be too short to allow planet formation to occur along the core instability scenario. We estimate that the periodic heating of the disk in eccentric binaries will be observable in the mid-IR regime.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Demonstration of 3-port grating phase relations

We experimentally demonstrate the phase relations of 3-port gratings by investigating 3-port coupled Fabry-Perot cavities. Two different gratings which have the same 1st order diffraction efficiency but differ substantially in their 2nd order diffraction efficiency have been designed and manufactured. Using the gratings as couplers to Fabry-Perot cavities we could validate the results of an earlier theoretical description of the phases at a three port grating

High dispersive and monolithic 100% efficiency grisms

We present a type of grism, a series combination of transmission grating and prism, in which we reduce the number of diffraction orders and achieve a configuration with very high angular dispersion. The grism can be fabricated from a single dielectric material and requires no metallic or dielectric film layers for high transmission diffraction efficiency. One can reach 100% in the -1st transmission diffraction order and the equal damage threshold as the dielectric bulk material. We realized such an element in fused silica with an efficiency of more then 99%. The bevel backside reflection is reduced by a statistical antireflective structure, so we measured an efficiency of the entire grism of 95% at a single wavelength

Low-mass planets in nearly inviscid disks: Numerical treatment

Embedded planets disturb the density structure of the ambient disk and gravitational back-reaction will induce possibly a change in the planet's orbital elements. The accurate determination of the forces acting on the planet requires careful numerical analysis. Recently, the validity of the often used fast orbital advection algorithm (FARGO) has been put into question, and special numerical resolution and stability requirements have been suggested. In this paper we study the process of planet-disk interaction for small mass planets of a few Earth masses, and reanalyze the numerical requirements to obtain converged and stable results. One focus lies on the applicability of the FARGO-algorithm. Additionally, we study the difference of two and three-dimensional simulations, compare global with local setups, as well as isothermal and adiabatic conditions. We study the influence of the planet on the disk through two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. To strengthen our conclusions we perform a detailed numerical comparison where several upwind and Riemann-solver based codes are used with and without the FARGO-algorithm. With respect to the wake structure and the torque density acting on the planet we demonstrate that the FARGO-algorithm yields correct results, and that at a fraction of the regular cpu-time. We find that the resolution requirements for achieving convergent results in unshocked regions are rather modest and depend on the pressure scale height of the disk. By comparing the torque densities of 2D and 3D simulations we show that a suitable vertical averaging procedure for the force gives an excellent agreement between the two. We show that isothermal and adiabatic runs can differ considerably, even for adiabatic indices very close to unity.Comment: accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

A minimal no-radiation approximation to Einstein's field equations

An approximation to Einstein's field equations in Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) canonical formalism is presented which corresponds to the magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) approximation in electrodynamics. It results in coupled elliptic equations which represent the maximum of elliptic-type structure of Einstein's theory and naturally generalizes previous conformal-flat truncations of the theory. The Hamiltonian, in this approximation, is identical with the non-dissipative part of the Einsteinian one through the third post-Newtonian order. The proposed scheme, where stationary spacetimes are exactly reproduced, should be useful to construct {\em realistic} initial data for general relativistic simulations as well as to model astrophysical scenarios, where gravitational radiation reaction can be neglected.Comment: 9 page