Title: RUI & Collaborative Research: Planet Embryos in Vortex Wombs: Simulations of Gas, Dust and Magnetic Fields in Protoplanetary Disks and the Formation of Planets

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This award will support a theoretical investigation of an early phase in the formation of planets, namely how millimeter-sized grains grow into objects that are about 1 kilometer in diameter. There are three main goals to this effort: (1) calculating the effects of instabilities on dust layers in protoplanetary disks; (2) exploring the formation and evolution of three-dimensional vortices in stratified protoplanetary disks; and (3) modeling the trapping of dust grains in three-dimensional vortices and the formation of planetesimals. These studies will be done using numerical codes developed by this team.This group will establish a joint research team at both institutions that will involve people at all stages from undergraduate studies through senior researchers. The researchers will also engage in curriculum development in partnership with the San Francisco Teachers Institute and with the Yale National Initiative.