Nonlinear Evolution of the Unstratified Polydisperse Dust Settling Instability

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Aly, Hossam, Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Aly, Hossam
Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan
author_facet Aly, Hossam
Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan
contents Context. The Dust Settling Instabilty (DSI) is a member of the Resonant Drag Instabilities (RDI) family, and is thus related to the Streaming Instability (SI). Linear calculations found that the unstratified monodisperse DSI has growth rates much higher than the SI even with lower initial dust to gas ratios. However, recent nonlinear investigation found no evidence of strong dust clumping at the saturation level. Aims. To investigate the nonlinear saturation of the mono- and polydisperse DSI. We examine the convergence behaviour wrt. both the numerical resolution and the number of species. By characterising the morphology of the dust evolution triggered by the DSI, we can shed more light on its role in planetesimal formation. Methods. We perform a suite of 2D shearing box hydro simulations with the code Idefix, both in the mono- and polydisperse regimes. We focus on the time evolution of the maximum dust density, noting the time at which the instability is triggered, as well as analyse the morphology of the resultant structure. Results. In our monodisperse simulations, the maximum dust density increases and the instability saturates earlier with higher spatial resolution, with no signs of convergence. The polydisperse simulations do seem to converge with the number of species and produce maximum dust densities that are comparable to, albeit lower than, the monodisperse simulations. Different dust species tend to form adjacent but separate dust filaments, which may have implications on dust growth and further clumping. Conclusions. The monodisperse DSI produces dust structure at densities high enough that likely leads to clumping. The polydisperse DSI produces lower but comparable dust densities. Our idealised treatment suggests that the DSI is important for planetesimal formation, as it suffers less than the SI from including a dust size distribution.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_10719
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nonlinear Evolution of the Unstratified Polydisperse Dust Settling Instability
Aly, Hossam
Paardekooper, Sijme-Jan
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Context. The Dust Settling Instabilty (DSI) is a member of the Resonant Drag Instabilities (RDI) family, and is thus related to the Streaming Instability (SI). Linear calculations found that the unstratified monodisperse DSI has growth rates much higher than the SI even with lower initial dust to gas ratios. However, recent nonlinear investigation found no evidence of strong dust clumping at the saturation level. Aims. To investigate the nonlinear saturation of the mono- and polydisperse DSI. We examine the convergence behaviour wrt. both the numerical resolution and the number of species. By characterising the morphology of the dust evolution triggered by the DSI, we can shed more light on its role in planetesimal formation. Methods. We perform a suite of 2D shearing box hydro simulations with the code Idefix, both in the mono- and polydisperse regimes. We focus on the time evolution of the maximum dust density, noting the time at which the instability is triggered, as well as analyse the morphology of the resultant structure. Results. In our monodisperse simulations, the maximum dust density increases and the instability saturates earlier with higher spatial resolution, with no signs of convergence. The polydisperse simulations do seem to converge with the number of species and produce maximum dust densities that are comparable to, albeit lower than, the monodisperse simulations. Different dust species tend to form adjacent but separate dust filaments, which may have implications on dust growth and further clumping. Conclusions. The monodisperse DSI produces dust structure at densities high enough that likely leads to clumping. The polydisperse DSI produces lower but comparable dust densities. Our idealised treatment suggests that the DSI is important for planetesimal formation, as it suffers less than the SI from including a dust size distribution.
title Nonlinear Evolution of the Unstratified Polydisperse Dust Settling Instability
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10719