Dust dynamics in planet-forming discs in binary systems

In multiple stellar systems, interactions among the companion stars and their discs affect planet formation. In the circumstellar case, tidal truncation makes protoplanetary discs smaller, fainter and less long-lived than those evolving in isolation, thereby reducing the amount of material (gas and dust) available to assemble planetary embryos. On the contrary, in the circumbinary case the reduced accretion can increase the disc lifetime, with beneficial effects on planet formation. In this chapter we review the main observational results on discs in multiple stellar systems and discuss their possible explanations, focusing on recent numerical simulations, mainly dealing with dust dynamics and disc evolution. Finally, some open issues and future research directions are examined

The chemistry of protoplanetary fragments formed via gravitational instabilities

In this paper, we model the chemical evolution of a 0.25 M⊙ protoplanetary disc surrounding a 1 M⊙ star that undergoes fragmentation due to self-gravity. We use smoothed particle hydrodynamics including a radiative transfer scheme, along with a time-dependent chemical evolution code to follow the composition of the disc and resulting fragments over approximately 4000 yr. Initially, four quasi-stable fragments are formed, of which two are eventually disrupted by tidal torques in the disc. From the results of our chemical modelling, we identify species that are abundant in the fragments (e.g. H2O, H2S, HNO, N2, NH3, OCS, SO), species that are abundant in the spiral shocks within the disc (e.g. CO, CH4, CN, CS, H2CO) and species that are abundant in the circumfragmentary material (e.g. HCO+). Our models suggest that in some fragments it is plausible for grains to sediment to the core before releasing their volatiles into the planetary envelope, leading to changes in, e.g., the C/O ratio of the gas and ice components. We would therefore predict that the atmospheric composition of planets generated by gravitational instability should not necessarily follow the bulk chemical composition of the local disc material