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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Just a Phase? Weakening Vertical Shear Instability Explains Class II Disk Morphologies: Simulations with Dust Coagulation, Sedimentation, Thermal Relaxation, and Backreaction

  • Thomas Pfeil1
  • Alexandros Ziampras2,3
  • Shangjia 尚嘉 Zhang 张4
  • Philip J. Armitage1,5
  • Yan-Fei 燕飞 Jiang 姜1
5 affiliations
  1. 1Flatiron Institute
  2. 2University Observatory
  3. 3Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
  4. 4Columbia University
  5. 5Stony Brook University
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Abstract

The vertical shear instability (VSI) is known to create turbulence and strong vertical mixing in protoplanetary disks if thermal relaxation is sufficiently fast. In simulations where this condition is met, VSI can loft dust particles to large altitudes, creating a vertically extended appearance in mock millimeter-wavelength observations, which is inconsistent with the morphology of the majority of observed Class II disks. We present simulations of protoplanetary disks with VSI that are consistent with the observed thin-disk geometries, while maintaining the commonly observed bowl-shaped morphology in scattered light images at micrometer wavelengths. We show that this outcome arises naturally when the effects of dust coagulation, sedimentation, and dust–gas thermal accommodation are taken into account. Sedimentation-driven coagulation removes large amounts of dust from the disk atmosphere, in the process slowing down the dust-driven cooling of the gas. At the same time, a dense midplane layer of millimeter-sized grains forms, which exerts aerodynamic drag on the gas. This results in the termination of the VSI’s corrugation mode. Only weak VSI activity remains in the upper and lower hemispheres. These processes occur on the typical dust growth timescale and suppress strong VSI-induced turbulence within a few hundred thousand years. VSI could thus generally be restricted to the Class I evolutionary stages of protoplanetary disks.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{pfeil2026just,
  title = {{Just a Phase? Weakening Vertical Shear Instability Explains Class II Disk Morphologies: Simulations with Dust Coagulation, Sedimentation, Thermal Relaxation, and Backreaction}},
  author = {Thomas Pfeil and Alexandros Ziampras and Shangjia 尚嘉 Zhang 张 and Philip J. Armitage and Yan-Fei 燕飞 Jiang 姜},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/aeab96},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aeab96},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Just a Phase? Weakening Vertical Shear Instability Explains Class II Disk Morphologies: Simulations with Dust Coagulation, Sedimentation, Thermal Relaxation, and Backreaction
AU  - Thomas Pfeil
AU  - Alexandros Ziampras
AU  - Shangjia 尚嘉 Zhang 张
AU  - Philip J. Armitage
AU  - Yan-Fei 燕飞 Jiang 姜
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DO  - 10.3847/2041-8213/aeab96
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aeab96
AB  - The vertical shear instability (VSI) is known to create turbulence and strong vertical mixing in protoplanetary disks if thermal relaxation is sufficiently fast. In simulations where this condition is met, VSI can loft dust particles to large altitudes, creating a vertically extended appearance in mock millimeter-wavelength observations, which is inconsistent with the morphology of the majority of observed Class II disks. We present simulations of protoplanetary disks with VSI that are consistent with the observed thin-disk geometries, while maintaining the commonly observed bowl-shaped morphology in scattered light images at micrometer wavelengths. We show that this outcome arises naturally when the effects of dust coagulation, sedimentation, and dust–gas thermal accommodation are taken into account. Sedimentation-driven coagulation removes large amounts of dust from the disk atmosphere, in the process slowing down the dust-driven cooling of the gas. At the same time, a dense midplane layer of millimeter-sized grains forms, which exerts aerodynamic drag on the gas. This results in the termination of the VSI’s corrugation mode. Only weak VSI activity remains in the upper and lower hemispheres. These processes occur on the typical dust growth timescale and suppress strong VSI-induced turbulence within a few hundred thousand years. VSI could thus generally be restricted to the Class I evolutionary stages of protoplanetary disks.
SN  - 2041-8205
SN  - 2041-8213
ER  -