1,720,995 research outputs found
SUBSTRUCTURES IN PROTOPLANETARY DISCS - DUST AND GAS DYNAMICS
Full text linkIn this Thesis I have investigated a problem of great interest in the present star and planet formation research field: the characterization of substructures recently detected in protoplanetary discs. The goal of my work is to understand what physical processes induce the peculiar disc substructures observed to date in protoplanetary discs. In the first part of my work I investigate if the occurrence of local pressure maxima induced by gravitational instabilities can trap dust particles and explore the detectability of these inhomogeneities at near-infrared and (sub-) millimetre wavelengths. The observational predictions of the resulting models show that the resolution capabilities and sensitivity of current telescopes are sufficient to spatially resolve the peculiar spiral structure of gravitationally unstable discs.
In the second part of my work I explore the dynamical clearing mechanism induced by forming protoplanets embedded in discs with the aim, on the one hand, of understanding the physics of dust gap opening and, on the other hand, of reproducing the gap-like structures observed in the disc around HL Tau. I provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the minimum planet mass able to carve a dust gap, as well as an estimate of the location of the outer edge of the dust gap, which can be useful to estimate the mass of the planet from high-resolution (sub-) millimetre observations. I apply my findings to the case of HL Tau, showing that the three gaps detected by ALMA can be described by the presence of sub-Jupiter mass planets.
Finally, in the last part of my work, I investigate if the horseshoes observed at (sub-) millimetre wavelengths in transitional discs can be explained by the dynamics of gas and dust at the edge of the cavity carved by a binary object. I found that the cavities carved by binaries with large mass ratio becomes eccentric, leading to a horseshoe-like feature in the gas density and also in the dust surface density that can be detected with current telescopes.
Although a variety of disc models can potentially reproduce the disc substructures observed to date in protoplanetary discs, the analysis performed in this Thesis shows that my models can accurately reproduce the observational results and can be useful for shedding light on the mechanism responsible for the disc substructures
How to detect the signatures of self-gravitating circumstellar discs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array
Full text linkIn this paper, we present simulated Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of self-gravitating circumstellar discs with different properties in size, mass and inclination, located in four of the most extensively studied and surveyed star-forming regions. Starting from a smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation and representative dust opacities, we have initially constructed maps of the expected emission at sub-mm wavelengths of a large sample of discs with different properties. We have then simulated realistic observations of discs as they may appear with ALMA using the Common Astronomy Software Application ALMA simulator. We find that, with a proper combination of antenna configuration and integration time, the spiral structure characteristic of self-gravitating discs is readily detectable by ALMA over a wide range of wavelengths at distances comparable to TW Hydrae (∼50 pc), Taurus-Auriga and Ophiucus (∼140 pc) star-forming regions. However, for discs located in Orion complex (∼400 pc) only the largest discs in our sample (outer radius of 100 au) show a spatially resolved structure while the smaller ones (outer radius of 25 au) are characterized by a spiral structure that is not conclusively detectable with ALMA
On the origin of horseshoes in transitional discs
Full text linkWe investigate whether the rings, lopsided features and horseshoes observed at millimetre (mm) wavelengths in transitional discs can be explained by the dynamics of gas and dust at the edge of the cavity in circumbinary discs. We use 3D dusty smoothed particle hydrodynamics calculations to show that binaries with mass ratio q greater than or similar to 0.04 drive eccentricity in the central cavity, naturally leading to a crescent-like feature in the gas density, which is accentuated in the mm dust grain population with intensity contrasts in mm continuum emission of 10 or higher. We perform mock observations to demonstrate that these features closely match those observed by the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array, suggesting that the origin of rings, dust horseshoes and other non-axisymmetric structures in transition discs can be explained by the presence of massive companions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dust trapping by spiral arms in gravitationally unstable protostellar discs
Full text linkIn this paper, we discuss the influence of gravitational instabilities in massive protostellar discs on the dynamics of dust grains. Starting from a smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation, we have computed the evolution of the dust in a quasi-static gas density structure typical of self-gravitating disc. For different grain size distributions, we have investigated the capability of spiral arms to trap particles. We have run 3D radiative transfer simulations in order to construct maps of the expected emission at (sub-)millimetre and near-infrared wavelengths. Finally, we have simulated realistic observations of our disc models at (sub-)millimetre and near-infrared wavelengths as they may appear with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) and the High-Contrast Coronographic Imager for Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) in order to investigate whether there are observational signatures of the spiral structure. We find that the pressure inhomogeneities induced by gravitational instabilities produce a non-negligible dynamical effect on centimetre-sized particles leading to significant overdensities in spiral arms. We also find that the spiral structure is readily detectable by ALMA over a wide range of (sub-)millimetre wavelengths and by HiCIAO in near-infrared scattered light for non-face-on discs located in the Ophiuchus star-forming region. In addition, we find clear spatial spectral index variations across the disc, revealing that the dust trapping produces a migration of large grains that can be potentially investigated through multiwavelength observations in the (sub-)millimetric. Therefore, the spiral arms observed to date in protoplanetary disc might be interpreted as density waves induced by the development of gravitational instabilities
On planet formation in HL Tau
Full text linkWe explain the axisymmetric gaps seen in recent long-baseline observations of the HL Tau protoplanetary disc with the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array (ALMA) as being due to the different response of gas and dust to embedded planets in protoplanetary discs. We perform global, three-dimensional dusty smoothed particle hydrodynamics calculations of multiple planets embedded in dust/gas discs which successfully reproduce most of the structures seen in the ALMA image. We find a best match to the observations using three embedded planets with masses of 0.2, 0.27 and 0.55 MJ in the three main gaps observed by ALMA, though there remain uncertainties in the exact planet masses from the disc model
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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