Inviscid protostellar disc ring formation and high density ring edges due to the ejection and subsequent infall of material onto a protostellar disc

Abstract

Abstract Discs of gas and dust are ubiquitous around protostars. Hypothetical viscous interactions within the disc are thought to cause the gas and dust to accrete onto the star. Turbulence within the disc is theorised to be the source of this disc viscosity. However, observed protostellar disc turbulence often appears to be small and not always conducive to disc accretion. In addition, theories for disc and planet evolution have difficulty in explaining the observed disc rings/gaps which form much earlier than expected. Protostellar accretion discs are observed to contain significant quantities of dust and pebbles. Observations also show that some of this material is ejected from near the protostar, where it travels to the outer regions of the disc. Such solid infalling material has a relatively small amount of angular momentum compared to the material in the disc. This infalling material lowers the angular momentum of the disc and should drive a radial flow towards the protostar. We show that the local radial accretion speed of the disc is proportional to the mass rate of infalling material onto the disc. Higher rates of infall onto the disc implies higher radial accretion disc speeds. As such, regions with high rates of infall of gas, dust, and pebbles onto the disc will produce gaps on relatively short timescales in the disc, while regions associated with relative low rates of infalling material will produce disc rings. As such, the inner edge of a disc gap will tend to have a higher surface density, which may enhance the probability of planet formation. In addition, the outer edge of a disc gap will act as a dust trap and may also become a site for planet formation. For the early Solar System, such a process may have collected O16-poor forsterite dust from the inner regions of the protosolar disc and O16-rich CAIs and AOAs from the inner edge regions of the protosolar disc, thereby constructing a region favourable to the formation of prechondritic planetesimals.