Circum-planetary accretion disks

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During the early stages of the planet formation process very young protoplanets are still embedded in the circum-stellar disk from which they formed. Numerical hydrodynamic simulations of disk-planet interaction have shown that the mass accumulated by the protoplanet first circulates around it, and is then accreted via a circum-planetary sub-disk in almost Keplerian rotation.In order to further understand the accretion process onto the protoplanet, high resolution numerical simulations of the circum-planetary accretion disk are essential. We propose to perform for the first time detailed multi-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of these circum-planetary sub-disks to determine their structure and evolution. From the calculations we will gain important information about the growth rate of protoplanetary cores, their angular momentum evolution and, thus, the time scale of planet formation.Circum-planetary disks may reach comparatively high temperatures, but are located within the surrounding cooler circum-stellar disk. From our detailed investigation of the circum-planetary disk parameter space we expect also interesting insight concerning observational properties of planetary systems in their early formation phase.