Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568

Formation of a star and planets around it through a gravitational

instability in a disk of gas and dust
Evgeny Griv
Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
Received 10 November 2005; accepted 28 March 2006
Available online 30 October 2006
Abstract
The position is adopted that involve a simultaneous formation of a star and planets around it through a gravitational Jeans-type
instability in a protostellar disk of gas and dust. The possibility that the disk is dynamically unstable to axisymmetric (radial) and
nonaxisymmetric (spiral) gravity perturbations (e.g., those produced by a spontaneous disturbance or, in rare cases, a satellite system)
with characteristic scales much larger than the vertical scale height is discussed, using a local WKB approximation. It is shown
analytically that the dynamically cold thin disk is likely subject to both radial and spiral Jeans instabilities of small-amplitude
perturbations and might therefore be clumpy. The mass of a typical clump in actual disks is coincident in order of magnitude with the
masses of giant planets in the solar system. These gravitationally bound clumps may further collapse to become planets. In unstable,
inhomogeneous disks spiral perturbations can effectively transfer angular momentum outward to the outer parts of the system, as mass
ows inward to the growing star through gravitational torques. It is proposed that the spontaneous generation of Jeans-unstable modes
of collective oscillations is the source of self-sustained hydrodynamic turbulence in protostellar disks; in the nonlinear regime,
gravitational instabilities can produce self-gravitating turbulence with outward angular momentum transport. The turbulence is related
to stochastic motions of gas elements, and allows potential energy to be converted into kinetic energy which can then be dissipated.
Equations are derived to describe the turbulent heating of the disk that results from the buildup of Jeans instability. The heating and the
mass redistribution bring the disk toward stabilityunless some cooling mechanism is available, e.g., by radiationagainst all
perturbations, including the most unstable nonaxisymmetric ones. As cooling process always exists in the systems, the Jeans instability
can be considered to be a long-term generating mechanism for fresh, gravitationally unstable density waves, thereby leading to recurrent
short-lived 10
4
yr arc-and-lump or spiral patterns in the protostellar (protoplanetary) disks. N-body experiments that simulate the
nonlinear development of gravitational instabilities are also used to test the validities of the theory.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Planetary systems; Formationplanetary systems; Protoplanetary disks
1. Introduction
Planets form in disks of gas and dust. There is a general
consensus that during the early evolution of these disks
mass must be transported inward while angular momen-
tum must be transferred outward, a situation anticipated
by consideration of the solar system. In this work, the
simultaneous formation of a star and planets around it by
disk instability is suggested (cf. the KantLaplace idea of
Sun and planets forming from a scattering substance in
space). The system formation is thought to start with
inelastically colliding gaseous and dust particles settling to
the central plane of a rotating protostellar cloud to form a
thin and relatively dense disk around the plane. The disk
radiates heat from its surface, and, therefore, it cools down
and becomes thinner and thinner. Subsequently, as a result
of local instability, on attaining a certain critical thickness
(and, correspondingly, very low temperature), small in
comparison with the outer radius of the system R, the disk
disintegrated spontaneously into a number of separate
gravitationally bound clumps.
1
It is well-known that the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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doi:10.1016/j.pss.2006.03.011
E-mail address: griv@bgu.ac.il.
1
Destabilizing self-gravity in much more dangerous in thin disks than
in thick disks. If a rotating gaseous disk has a large vertical thickness
owing to a high internal temperature, then it is stabilized against all
main difculty of any hypothesis of planetary formation
consists in appearance of angular momentum exploring.
Stimulated by numerical experiments and Larsons (1984,
1989) suggestion that spiral waves might drive disk
accretion, it is proposed that growing nonaxisymmetric
density perturbations arising from the instability exert
torques which redistribute the mass and angular momen-
tum. Disk material, losing angular momentum, will fall all
the way to the center and thus will help to create the star.
The present work has precedents in earlier studies of
gravity disturbances in galactic disks and Saturns ring disk
(Lin and Shu, 1966; Lin et al., 1969; Shu, 1970; Lau and
Bertin, 1978; Lin and Lau, 1979; Griv et al., 2000; Griv and
Gedalin, 2003, 2005, 2006).
The advantages of the disk instability model are that (1)
the instability process itself is quite fast, and could form
giant planets in t10
4
yr without any special trigger-process
(Boss, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003), (2) in gravitationally
unstable, spatially inhomogeneous disks nonaxisymmetric
gravity perturbations can simultaneously transfer the
angular momentum outward and mass inward through
gravitational torques, and (3) such a model obviates the
requirements for ordinary molecular viscosity, frequently
appealed to as a physical mechanism for outward transfer
of angular momentum.
2
There are also other nonmagnetic
mechanisms for such an anomalous viscosity, like the
baroclinic instability (Klahr and Bodenheimer, 2003) or the
shear instability (Dubrulle et al., 2005), which are still
subject to some controversy. An alternative mechanism for
outward transfer of angular momentum has been proposed
by Balbus and Hawley (1991, 1998) who suggested the
magnetorotational instability in protoplanetary disks,
which generates and sustains angular momentum transport
in differentially rotating disks. It does so by converting the
free energy source contributed by differential rotation into
turbulent motions (Balbus, 2003), which transport angular
momentum via Maxwell stresses (Salmeron and Wardle,
2005). The mechanism is only effective, however, if the
plasma in the disk is sufciently ionized to be well coupled
to the magnetic eld (Blaes and Balbus, 1994; Desch, 2004).
In portions of disks around young, low-mass stars, in
cataclysmic variable disks in quiescence, and in X-ray
transients in quiescence (Stone et al., 2000), the plasma
may be too neutral for the magnetorotational instability to
operate (Johnson and Gammie, 2006).
A trigger mechanism for the formation of planets has
been suggested, e.g., by Willerding (2002). An alternative
formation mechanism suggests that Jovian planets are
formed through gas accretion onto cores with 10 Earth
masses that are themselves assembled out of planetesimals.
This process is the clue to the popular Safronov (1972)
core-accretion model of the origin of the planetary systems
which has been developed in great detail (Hayashi et al.,
1985; Pollack et al., 1996; Inaba et al., 2003; Alibert et al.,
2005). Recent observations, however, have indicated the
rapid dissipation of primordial gas in less than about
10 Myr, possibly as short as 1 Myr in regions of high-mass
star formation, from many circumstellar disks (Bally et al.,
1998; Greaves, 2005; Silicia-Aguilar et al., 2005). It is
extremely difcult to form a giant planet around stars in
those disks with current core-accretion scenarios in such a
short time (Roberge et al., 2005). Also, the nebular shocks
currently favored as a model to form chondrules and other
annealed silicates in the solar nebula (Wood, 1996; Desch
et al., 2005). This shock-wave hypothesis is now strongly
supported by recent calculations of the evolution of
gravitationally unstable disks (Boss and Durisen, 2005).
Durisen et al. (2005) have proposed a hybrid scenario for
gas giant planet formation.
There have been a number of prior studies in the
literature which have investigated the growth of nonax-
isymmetric instabilities in self-gravitating gaseous disks
into the nonlinear regime. Lau and Bertin (1978), Lin and
Lau (1979), Bertin (1980), Morozov (1985), and Montene-
gro et al. (1999) have established the difference in the
stability boundary between axisymmetric and nonaxisym-
metric disks of spiral galaxies by theoretical arguments.
3
Goldreich and Tremaine (1979, 1980) calculated the linear
response of a differentially rotating two-dimensional gas
disk to a rigidly rotating external potential. It was shown
that the external potential exerts torques on the disk only
at the spatially limited Lindblad and corotation reso-
nances. In gravitationally unstable systems disk motions
caused by self-gravity become perhaps dominant sources of
angular momentum transport (Paczynski, 1978; Lin and
Pringle, 1987, 1990). Goldreich and Tremaine (1978),
Wisdom and Tremaine (1988), and Daisaka et al. (2001)
investigated the viscosity (the angular momentum ux) in
dense, collisional, self-gravitating particle disks such as
Saturns main rings. Larson (1989) has reviewed the
possible mechanisms for the outward transfer of angular
momentum and the associated timescales in protostellar
disks. It was shown that in disks whose mass is not much
smaller than that of the central star, gravitational torques
can be very important. Angular momentum transport
enhanced by the gravitational instability was investigated
in gaseous accretion disks by N-body simulations with self-
gravitating particles (Cassen et al., 1981; Anthony and
Carlberg, 1988; Tomley et al., 1991, 1994) and hydro-
dynamical simulation (Laughlin and Ro zyczka, 1996). It
was found that spiral instabilities grew on a dynamical
ARTICLE IN PRESS
(footnote continued)
gravitational instabilities. Instabilities arise as the thickness of the disk is
reduced (Safronov, 1980; Shu, 1984).
2
One of the most important outstanding problems in astrophysics is
how mass and angular momentum are transported in accretion disks.
Because disks are differentially rotating, one might think that viscous
torquing could transport angular momentum outward and mass inward
onto the central object. However, if the source of viscosity is ordinary
molecular collisions, then the timescale for such viscous transport would
exceed the age of the universe by many orders of magnitude.
3
Common dynamical processes act in the gaseous subsystems of at
galaxies and in protostellar disks.
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 548
timescale within the disk, and were efcient agents for the
transport of angular momentum and mass. Papaloizou and
Savonije (1991) combined linear modal calculations of
modes associated with the vortensity distribution with
nonlinear computer simulations and found redistribution
of disk mass and angular momentum on a dynamical
timescale. Adams and Benz (1992) used smoothed particle
hydrodynamics (SPH) to follow the evolution of the
protostellar disk considered by Adams et al. (1989) into
the nonlinear regime, and found that the growth of the
mode with the azimuthal mode number m = 1 was strong
enough to lead to the tentative fragmentation of the disk.
Laughlin and Bodenheimer (1994) presented three-dimen-
sional SPH simulations of the collapse of a rotating
protostellar cloud. They found that the disk is prone to a
series of m = 1 and 2, or sometimes m = 3 and 4 spiral
modes. The torques induced by these nonaxisymmetric
structures elicit material transport of angular momentum
and mass through the disk, readjusting the surface density
prole toward more stable conguration. Instantaneous
timescales for angular momentum transport by gravita-
tional torques were estimated. Laughlin et al. (1998)
studied numerically the evolution of thin, polytropic, self-
gravitating disks. The simulations were then used to
motivate a linear modal analysis by using numerical
integration methods. Bodenheimer (1995), Yorke and
Bodenheimer (1999), Stone et al. (2000), and Larson
(2002) have reviewed, by numerical simulations, various
physical processes for transfer of angular momentum
during the star formation process, including gravitational
torques in disks. Nelson et al. (2000) presented a series of
two-dimensional (radius and azimuth) SPH simulations
under the assumption that the disk is able to heat or cool
depending only on local conditions within the disk. Their
goal for this work was to understand the dynamical growth
characteristics of instabilities in systems with heating and
cooling incorporated into the models. Gammie (2001) and
Johnson and Gammie (2003) investigated the nonlinear
outcome of gravitational instabilities in cool, razor thin,
and unmagnetized disks using local numerical models.
Pickett et al. (2000) and Durisen et al. (2003) used
numerical hydrodynamics techniques to study the non-
linear behavior of disks around young stars, and found
that gravitational instabilities can be important sources of
mass and angular momentum transport due to the long-
range torques they generate. If strong enough, instabilities
may fragment the disk into protoplanets. Mayer et al.
(2002) have also explored the scenario of planets formation
via gravitational instability using SPH simulations. Lodato
and Rice (2004) have examined numerically the issue of
characterizing the transport associated with instabilities in
relatively cold disks.
Summarizing, gravitational instabilities as a mechanism
for the transfer of angular momentum and mass in gaseous
disks, with the associated feedback due to heating, have
been studied since at least the 1960s (see references in
Gammie, 2001; Durisen et al., 2006). However, the
transport of angular momentum, while fairly well under-
stood within the computer generated disks, remains a
signicant challenge for theoretical models of protostellar
disks.
My signicant contribution is just a hydrodynamic
theory derivation of results obtained before in numerical
experiments discussed above. I take a different approach
from the rest: (1) to carry out a second-order LinShu
asymptotic approximation; thus azimuthal gradients of
perturbed quantities are additionally included, (2) to
consider the local gradients of unperturbed equilibrium
parameters in addition to the differential rotation and the
azimuthal gravitational forces, and (3) to take into account
the complex conjugates of perturbed quantities. Without
all these additional terms, the model fails to describe the
exchange of angular momentum and the mass redistribu-
tion in the wavegas system. I nd instabilities of both
axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric perturbations and a
wide range of implications. In particular, spiral density
waves can be self-excited in the main domain of the disk
between the inner and outer Lindblad resonances via the
classical gravitational Jeans-type instability (gravitational
collapse) in a nonresonant waveuid interaction. The
effect has nothing to do with the so-called secular
instability of a viscous hydrodynamic shear ow (Poi-
seuille-ow), an evolution process that only appears in the
presence of a dissipative force (Willerding, 1992). My chief
aim in this paper is to underscore a fact of vital importance
for application in astrophysics: gravitationally unstable
spiral perturbations can effectively transport the angular
momentum and mass in the inhomogeneous disk. I show
that the self-sustained hydrodynamic turbulence due to
nonresonant gravitational instability effectively transports
angular momentum, giving the disk a source of internal
viscosity: anomalously high turbulent viscosity, greatly
exceeding the molecular (microscopic) kinematic viscosity,
is produced by the disks instability (cf. Kadomtsev, 1965;
Griv, 2006).
4
Note that a turbulent viscosity could be one
agent for angular momentum transport in a differentially
rotating medium has been postulated in the 1940s (e.g.,
Pringle, 1981, p. 181). This idea is inherent in the standard
accretion-disk model of Shakura (1973), Shakura and
Sunyaev (1973), Lynden-Bell and Pringle (1974), and
Paczynski (1978). Another agent is stable self-gravitational
waves (including those generated by resonant interactions),
as considered by Goldreich and Tremaine (1979, 1980).
I also show that gravitational instabilities heat the disk
up on the fast dynamical timescale, bringing it toward
stability. Another important result is that the critical sound
speed for disk stability is approximately equal to two times
the ordinary SafronovToomre (Safronov, 1960; Toomre,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
4
To sustain the turbulence, there has to be some instability of gravity
perturbations. The turbulence that may arise as a result of gravitational
instability is related to stochastic motions of uid elements. By turbulent
heating of a disk, I will understand the transfer of the energy of ordered
rotation into energy of random motion and ultimately into heat, due to the
nonlinear interaction between oscillations.
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 549
1964) value. To emphasize it again, in this paper the new
results appear to be due to the second-order LinShu
asymptotic analysis.
The organization of the paper is as follows. First, the
perturbed equilibrium quantities are given in Section 2.
Section 3 is devoted to a discussion of the expressions for
perturbed motion of a gas element. Using the expressions
derived in Section 3 and an asymptotic surfacedensity
potential relation derived in Section 4, within the local
WKB approach, a generalized LinShu dispersion relation
for both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric perturbations
propagating in the plane of a gaseous disk is found in
Section 5. In Section 6, the turbulent heating of the
medium during the growth of instability is considered. In
Section 7, the transfer of angular momentum and mass by
growing nonaxisymmetric Jeans perturbations in an
inhomogeneous disk is studied. The anomalous turbulent
diffusion of protostellar disks arising by the Jeans
instability is considered in Section 8. By way of illustration
N-body simulations are presented in Section 9. A summary
of the principal conclusions and some astronomical
implications are given in Section 10. Abbreviated results
have been reported (Griv, 2005).
2. Perturbation
The dynamics of the highly attened gaseous disk in the
presence of the collective self-gravitational eld is con-
sidered. A Lagrangian description of the motion of a gas
element under the inuence of a perturbed eld is used,
looking for time-dependent waves which propagate in a
differentially rotating, two-dimensional disk. Such a uid
model can also be used as a zeroth-order approximation of
a disk composed primarily of particles (e.g., stars in
galaxies or particles of Saturns rings): the description of a
particulate system as a continuous uid represents a
convenient rst approximation to systems dynamics, and
its derivation from the kinetic theory is standard (Lau and
Bertin, 1978; Goldreich and Tremaine, 1979, 1982; Lin and
Lau, 1979; Sellwood and Kahn, 1991).
This approximation of an innitesimally thin disk is a
valid approximation if one considers perturbations with a
radial wavelength that is greater than the typical disk
thickness 2h (Safronov, 1980; Shu, 1984). In the analysis
performed below, the thin disk approximation is adopted,
and, therefore, one deals with vertically integrated quan-
tities. Limiting ourselves to the case of innitesimally thin
disk simplies the algebra without introducing any funda-
mental changes in the physical results. Self-gravitating
evolution of a thick disk is generally very similar to that of
a razor-thin disk, because the induced motions are almost
planar. One qualitative difference the disks nite but small
thickness makes is that it tends to be stabilizing by reducing
self-gravity at the midplane (Toomre, 1964; Vandervoort,
1970; Safronov, 1980; Shu, 1984; Osterbart and Willerding,
1995). N-body simulations have conrmed that the
perturbed motion takes place predominantly in the plane
of the disk and the primary effect of performing of
simulation in three dimensions is just a very slight
reduction of the growth rate of gravitational instabilities
(Hohl, 1978). The latter justies the two-dimensional
treatment of the main part of a rotating disk.
A highly attened gaseous disk rotating about the
nebular center will be subject to self-gravity, which will
tend to cause clumping of the matter. This tendency will be
counteracted by centrifugal force due to the rotational
motion of the mass, and pressure due to the thermal
motion of particles (and magnetic elds). If the binding
energy
E = E
gravity
E
rotation
E
thermal
of a clump of matter of radius r
clump
in orbit about the
center at radius r
0
is negative, collapse will occur. If E40,
any perturbation in density will be damped out. Below,
through the studying of dispersion relations, the theory of
small-amplitude gravity oscillations and their stability in a
two-dimensional, rapidly rotating, and weakly inhomoge-
neous gaseous disk is re-examined.
The time-dependent surface density s(r; t) is splitted up
into a basic and a developing (perturbation) part, s =
s
0
(r) s
1
(r; t) and [s
1
=s
0
[51, where (r; j; z) are the
cylindrical coordinates and the axis of the disk rotation is
taken oriented along the z-axis. The total gravitational
potential of the disk (including the central star, if it exists at
all) F(r; t) and the gaseous pressure P(r; t) are also of this
form. These quantities s, F, P are then substituted into the
equations of motion of a gas element, the continuity
equation, the Poisson equation, and the second-order terms
of the order of s
2
1
, F
2
1
, P
2
1
may be neglected with respect to
the rst-order terms. The resultant equations of motion are
cyclic in the variables t and j, and hence by applying the
standard WKB method in the radial direction one may
seek solutions in the form of normal modes by expanding
s
1
(r; t) =

k
~ s
k
(r) exp i
_
r
k
r
(r
/
) dr
/
imj io
k
t
_ _
c:c:;
(1)
where ~ s
k
(r) is the real amplitude, which is the slowly
varying in space, k
r
(r) is the real radial wavenumber, m is
the nonnegative azimuthal mode number, o
k
= Ro
k

iIo
k
is the complex frequency of excited waves, sufxes k
denote the kth Fourier component, and c:c: means the
complex conjugate. The rapidly varying part of s
1
is
absorbed in its phase. The radial wavenumber is presumed
to be of the form
k
r
(r) = AC(r),
where Ais a large parameter and C(r) is a smooth, slowly
and monotonically varying function of r, i.e.,
dlnk
r
=dlnr = O(1), and [
_
k
r
dr[b1. The WKB method
is a powerful approach that can be used in a large class of
wave problems (Mikhailovskii, 1974; Alexandrov et al.,
1984; Krall and Trivelpiece, 1986; Swanson, 1989). The
WKB treatment leads to a relatively simple phase-integral
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 550
type relation as a dispersion relation from which in many
cases stability boundaries can be obtained analytically.
Generally, the WKB approach allows the determination of
the necessary and sufcient condition for instability.
Evidently, in Eq. (1) s
1
is a periodic function of j, and
hence m must be an integer. The criteria for stability differ
for each m, and must be determined by a detailed analysis.
The assumption that ~ s
k
has a weak spatial dependence
corresponds to the quasi-classical approximation in quan-
tum mechanics and to the approximation of geometrical
optics in the propagation of light in an inhomogeneous
medium (Alexandrov et al., 1984, p. 245). In the linear
theory, one can select one of the Fourier harmonics:
s
1
= ~ s(r) exp i
_
r
k
r
(r
/
) dr
/
imj iot
_ _
c:c:: (2)
A disk is considered to be a superposition of different
oscillation modes. A disturbance in the disk will grow until
it is limited by some nonlinear effect. It is remarkable that
the results of WKB theory are in good agreement with the
computer simulations (Mayer et al., 2002).
The analysis is restricted to a treatment of perturbations
which are symmetric with respect to the z = 0 equatorial
plane of the disk (which do not cause it to bend) (Fig. 1b).
This type of vertical motions does not deform the
horizontal disk plane z = 0, because the vertical velocity
v
z
in a density wave is odd in z: v
z
(z) = v
z
, so that in the
plane z = 0 it is equal to zero. The perturbed pressure,
density, gravitational potential, and horizontal velocity
components are even functions of z, while the perpendi-
cular velocity is odd in z. Such even sausage-like
perturbations can release gravitational energy and are
subject to ordinary Jeans instability. These perturbations
are associated with such phenomena as, for example, the
appearance of the spiral structure of galaxies and the ne-
scale of the order of 100 m or even less irregular wave
structure of Saturns rings (Griv et al., 1999, 2002; Griv
and Gedalin, 2003, 2005, 2006). See Kulsrud et al. (1971)
and Bertin and Casertano (1982) for a discussion of the
problem.
The second type of the vertical motions makes the disk
bend in the same way as the plane of an oscillating
membrane does. The vertical velocity of such motions is an
even function of z: v
z
(z) = v
z
, and in the plane z = 0 it is
not equal to zero (Fig. 1c). Contrary to the case of sausage-
like even perturbations, the perturbed pressure, density,
gravitational potential, and horizontal velocity compo-
nents are odd functions of z. These perturbations of the
bending type do not release gravitational energy and,
consequently, they are expected to be Jeans-stable (Bertin
and Casertano, 1982). The bending type of motions can be
either caused by tidal inuence of a satellite, or excited by
the so-called rehose instability. Apparently, the rehose-
type bending instability of a sufciently thin stellar disk has
been predicted by Toomre (1966) by using the simplied
theory based on moment equations. Toomre considered
the collisionless analog of the KelvinHelmholtz instability
in an innite, two-dimensional, nonrotating sheet of
stars. (See also Kulsrud et al., 1971; Toomre, 1983 for a
discussion.) Note that this is the usual way to discuss
the conditions of the rehose instability in plasma physics
(e.g., Krall and Trivelpiece, 1986). It has been demon-
strated by Toomre that the bending instability is driven by
the stellar pressure anisotropy: the source of free energy
in the instability is the intrinsic anisotropy of a velocity
dispersion (temperature). Raha et al. (1991) and Griv
and Chiueh (1998) have used particle simulations to study
the rehose-type bending instabilities in galaxies.
In weakly inhomogeneous medium in which [k
r
L[b1,
where [L[ is the scale of inhomogeneity, in Eq. (2) the
amplitude and the radial wavenumber may be expanded in
a Taylor series around the point r
~ s(r
/
) = ~ s(r) (r
/
r) d~ s=dr , (3)
k
r
(r
/
) = k
r
(r) (r
/
r) dk
r
=dr , (4)
where [(r
/
r)=r[51 and r is the direction of the disk
inhomogeneity. After integration
_
k
r
(r
/
) dr
/
, Eq. (4) leads
to
(r
/
r)k
r
(
1
2
)(r
/
r)
2
dk
r
=dr . (5)
For the long-wavelength perturbations with [(r
/
r)
dln~ s=dr[51 and [(r
/
r)
2
dk
r
=dr[51, in the sums (3) and
(5) only the rst terms may be retained. This is the lowest,
or the so-called local approximation of the WKB method.
Thus, in the lowest WKB approximation in the radial
direction, the expression for the perturbation of the surface
density takes the simple form
s
1
(r; j; t) = ~ s exp(ik
r
r imj io
+
t) c:c:; (6)
where we now call ~ s a constant amplitude, k
r
a constant
radial wavenumber in a weakly inhomogeneous disk, and
l
r
= 2p=k
r
is a constant radial wavelength. The perturbed
ARTICLE IN PRESS
z
(a)
(b)
(c)
+h
Fig. 1. Sketch of perturbations of a three-dimensional protostellar disk. In
(a) a section of the disk is shown edge-on. In (b) an even sausage-like
(Jeans-type) perturbation is shown (the dashed line). In (c) an odd
(bending rehose-type; Kulsrud et al., 1971; Bertin and Casertano, 1982;
Raha et al., 1991; Griv and Chiueh, 1998) perturbation is illustrated (the
dashed line).
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 551
potential of the disk F
1
(r; t) and the perturbed pressure
P
1
(r; t) are also of this form. The meaning of localized
solution has been discussed in plasma physics (Mikhai-
lovskii, 1974; Alexandrov et al., 1984; Krall and Trivel-
piece, 1986; Swanson, 1989). In the local approximation
the wave is considered to be plane, i.e., by investigating the
particular case of a medium which is only weakly
inhomogeneous on the scale of the oscillation wavelength,
all derivatives of ~ s(r) and k
r
(r) or all terms of the order
1=k
r
L and of higher orders are neglected. When calculating
the terms of higher ordero qk
r
=qr, q~ s=qr, etc.one can
simultaneously solve the eld equations with any desired
degree of accuracy. It has been demonstrated that localized
solutions seem to describe the physical situation in a
natural way and give results consistent with the more exact
results of the global modes theory (Alexandrov et al.,
1984). Solution (6) represents a spiral wave with m arms or
a ring (m = 0). The imaginary part of o corresponds to a
growth (Io40) or decay (Ioo0) of the components in
time, s
1
o exp(Iot), and the real part to a rotation with
constant angular velocity O
p
= Ro=m. When Io40, the
medium transfers its energy to the growing wave and
oscillation buildup occurs.
In the lowest WKB approximation it is assumed that the
wave vector and the wavefrequency vary continuously. By
utilizing the more accurate nonlocal WKB approximation,
it may be shown that in fact the characteristic oscillation
frequencies of an inhomogeneous disk must be quantized,
i.e., must pass through a discrete series of values
(Alexandrov et al., 1984, p. 249). Ru diger and Kitchatinov
(2000) have studied the stability of a self-gravitating
innitesimally thin gaseous disk rotating around a central
mass by using a nonlocal formulation. Both axisymmetric
and low-m nonaxisymmetric excitation has been analyzed.
In galaxies, discrete spiral modes have already found in
stellar population by Rix and Zaritsky (1995), Rudnick
and Rix (1998), and Block and Puerari (1999). In the near-
infrared, the morphology of older star-dominated disk
indicates a simple classication scheme: the dominant
Fourier m-mode. A ubiquity of low-m modes has been
conrmed.
3. Perturbed motion
The disk is subject to the equations of motion along the
radial and azimuthal directions and to the continuity
equation. The equations of two-dimensional motion of the
gas element in the frame of reference rotating with angular
velocity O at the reference position r
0
can be written in
Hills approximation as (Spitzer and Schwarzschild, 1953;
Julian and Toomre, 1966):
dv
r
dt
2Ov
j
2r
0
r
1
O
dO
dr
=
qF
1
qr

c
2
s
s
0
qs
1
qr
, (7)
dv
j
dt
2Ov
r
=
1
r
0
qF
1
qj

c
2
s
r
0
s
0
qs
1
qj
. (8)
Motions in the z direction do not affect motions in the
(r; j)-plane, in the rst approximation, and are ignored
(Spitzer and Schwarzschild, 1953). In Eqs. (7) and (8), v
r
and v
j
are the radial and azimuthal velocities, respectively,
r
0
is the radius of the chosen circular orbit in the (r; j)-
plane, O = O(r
0
), c
s
= (qP=qs)
1=2
0
is the local sound speed
(in the numerical experiments using the particle code, c
s
is
represented by the root-mean-square random velocity
dispersion), r
1
and j
1
are small perturbations of the
coordinates, r = r
0
r
1
, and [r
1
=r
0
[51. The inuence of
central star enters through O(r). In Eqs. (7) and (8), the
following expansion is used:
P = P
0
s
1
qP
qs
_ _
0
and
s
1
P
0
qP
qs

51.
Eqs. (7) and (8) must be solved simultaneously with the
linearized continuity equation, which gives the (Eulerian)
density perturbation s
1
(Lin and Lau, 1979, p. 159)
5
:
s
1
s
0
=
qr
1
qr
0
imj
1
r
1
d
dr
0
ln(r
0
s
0
), (9)
where v
r
= dr
1
=dt and v
j
= r
0
dj
1
=dt are now the
perturbed (forced) velocities, and relatively small term
s
0
v
r
=r
0
is omitted, i.e., the curvature effect is neglected.
This is a valid approximation if [k
r
[r is large (Lau and
Bertin, 1978; Lin and Lau, 1979; Sellwood and Kahn,
1991).
For such a form of F
1
(Eq. (6)) the particular solution of
the system of Eqs. (7)(8) is (Lin and Lau, 1979; Griv et al.,
1999)
v
r
=

o
2
+
k
2
o
+
k
r
i2O
m
r
_ _
, (10)
v
j
=

o
2
+
k
2
4O
2
k
2
o
2
+
o
+
m
r
i2Ok
r
_ _
, (11)
where the subscript on r
0
is dropped as we are considering
linearized quantities, o
+
= o mO is the Doppler-shifted
(in a circular rotating frame) wavefrequency, k
j
m=r is
the azimuthal wavenumber, O(r) is the angular velocity of
differential rotation at the distance r from the center,
k = 2O 1
r
2O
dO
dr
_ _
1=2
\O
is the epicyclic frequency, o
+
a0, o
2
+
k
2
a0, and
= F
1
c
2
s
s
1
=s
0
. Solutions (10) and (11) describe the
forced velocities of the gas element in the radial and
azimuthal directions under the action of the small gravity
perturbation, [v
r
[ and [v
j
[5rO. If both the expressions are
inserted into Eq. (9), a relation between the uctuations in
density and potential is obtained. A second relation of this
kind is supplied by the Poisson equation.
Thus, the present theory suggests some systematic radial
and azimuthal motions of the gas element distributed in the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
5
Lin and Lau (1979) as well as Lau and Bertin (1978) represented a
perturbation in a slightly different form o exp(io
+
t ik
r
r imj).
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 552
form of a spiral-like ow eld which is a small correction to
the basic circular, equilibrium motion (cf. Yuan, 1969;
Rohlfs, 1977). Equilibrium is described by the following
equation:
rO
2
=
qF
0
qr

c
2
s
s
0
qs
0
qr
,
where the term o c
2
s
is a small correction. Equilibrium is
established in a simple manner in such a disk, i.e., it is
governed mainly by the balance between the centrifugal
and gravitational forces. It is this equilibrium model of a
disk that is to be examined for stability in the present
investigation.
4. Asymptotic surfacedensitypotential relation
For such a form of perturbation (Eq. (6)), the Poisson
equation
q
2
F
qr
2

1
r
qF
qr

1
r
2
q
2
F
qj
2

q
2
F
qz
2
= 4pGsd(z), (12)
where d(z) is the Dirac delta-function with respect to the
spatial coordinate z, becomes
d
2
dz
2
k
2
_ _
F
1
= 4pGs
1
d(z), (13)
k =

k
2
r
k
2
j
_
, k
j
= m=r is the total wavenumber and
k
2
r
bk
2
j
. In the vacuum (z40 and zo0), Eq. (12) is reduced
to the Laplace equation
DF
2
= 0,
and, therefore, in these regions the solutions are
F

F
1;z40
= C
1
e
[k[z
; F

F
1;zo0
= C
2
e
[k[z
, (14)
where C
1
and C
2
are constants. By integrating Eq. (13)
over z, the boundary conditions relating F
1
to F
2
on the
surface of the diskvacuum partition (z = 0) are found:
F

= F

[
z=0
;
qF

qz

qF

qz
_ _
z=0
= 4pGs
1
. (15)
(The potential F must be a continuous function for all z
and, in particular, when z = 0, as otherwise the z-
component of the force would be innite.) On substituting
the solutions (14) into the boundary conditions (15), one
obtains the required connection between the perturbed
potential F
1
(r; t) and the perturbed surface density s
1
(r; t)
of the innitesimally thin disk
F
1
=
2pGs
1
[k[
e
[k[[z[
c:c:; (16)
which reduces to F
1
= 2pGs
1
=[k[ c:c: on z = 0 where
the disk lies (see also Lau and Bertin, 1978; Lin and Lau,
1979), showing that density maxima correspond to
potential minima. We have just obtained that Eq. (12),
an integral relation for arbitrary values of [k
r
[r, becomes a
local relation (16) in the short-wave, or WKB limit
[k
r
[rb1.
5. Dispersion relation
Upon substituting Eqs. (10)(11) into Eq. (9) and
paralleling the analysis leading to Eq. (D12) in Lin and
Lau (1979), it is straightforward to show that
s
1
s
0
-

o
2
+
k
2
k
2
r

4O
2
k
2
m
2
r
2

2O
o
+
m
rL
_ _
c:c:; (17)
where s
1
(t o) = 0, so by considering only growing
perturbations we neglected the effects of the initial
conditions, and
[L[ =
d
dr
ln(s
0
Ok
2
)

1
(18)
is the radial scale of spatial inhomogeneity. In Eq. (17), the
expansion 2O=k - 1 (r=4O)(dO=dr) is used and only the
most important low-frequency nonresonant ([o
2
+
[tk
2
and o
+
a0, respectively) perturbations developing between
the inner and outer Lindblad resonances are considered
(Griv et al., 1999, 2002; Griv and Gedalin, 2003, 2006).
Generally, in Eq. (17) the term o L
1
is a small
correction. As is known, this term corresponds to a
waveuid resonance o
+
0, and sufciently far from
the resonance this term may be omitted (Lau and Bertin,
1978; Lin and Lau, 1979, p. 159). However, as I will show
in Section 7 below the existence of spatial inhomogeneity is
critically important for the exchange of angular momen-
tum in the wavegas system, and, therefore, the term o L
1
must be retained in Eq. (17). Notice that the waveuid
resonance has been studied by Lovelace and Hohlfeld
(1978) and Morozov (1980).
The time behavior of the quantity s
0
Ok
2
in self-
gravitating disks has been considered by Berman and
Mark (1977). They have proved that in the axisymmetric
case
d
dt
s
0
O
k
2
_ _
= 0, (19)
that is, vorticity is carried along with the uid. Eq. (19) is a
consequence of the detailed conservation of mass and
angular momentum (in the axisymmetric case). Lovelace
and Hohlfeld (1978) have pointed out that in Eq. (18)
f (r) = s
0
Ok
2
has the role of the distribution function for
angular momentum. In self-gravitating disks in equili-
brium, f (r) is a decreasing function over a range of r; thus,
in main parts of protostellar disks Lo0. Values of O(r),
k(r), and s
0
(r) derived from the oftenly used equilibrium
models of disks, namely Hunters (1965) n = 1 model,
exponential disk model (Binney and Tremaine, 1987,
p. 78), and Hunters n o model are used to calculate
f (r) for the three cases. The f (r) curves are shown in Fig. 2.
As is seen, in all cases f (r) is a decreasing function of r in
the main parts of the systems.
Equating the density s
1
(Eq. (17)) to the perturbed
density s
1
= [k[F
1
=2pG c:c: given by the asymptotic
(k
2
r
bm
2
=r
2
) solution of the Poisson equation (Eq. (16)),
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 553
one obtains the generalized LinShu dispersion relation
o
3
+
o
+
o
2
J
4pOGs
0
(m=r[k[L) = 0, (20)
where [o
+
[k, [kL[b1, k
2
c
2
s
52pGs
0
[k[,
o
2
J
= k
2
2pGs
0
(k
2
+
=[k[) k
2
+
c
2
s
(21)
is the squared Jeans frequency,
k
2
+
= k
2
{1 [(2O=k)
2
1] sin
2
c]
is the squared effective wavenumber, and c =
arctan(m=rk
r
) is the perturbation pitch angle. Eq. (20)
differs from the standard LinShu dispersion relation
o
2
+
= k
2
2pGs
0
[k
r
[ k
2
r
c
2
s
(22)
(Lin et al., 1969; Binney and Tremaine, 1987, p. 359) by the
appearance of the total k and effective k
+
wavenumbers,
which originate from the consideration of the nonaxisym-
metrical modes o c, and by the factor o L
1
, which
originate from the consideration of the effects of inhomo-
geneity (see Morozov, 1980, 1985; Griv et al., 1999, 2002
for a discussion).
From Eq. (20) in the most important frequency range
[o
+
[
3
[o
J
[
3
b4pOGs
0
(m=r[k[L), (23)
we determine the dispersion law for the Jeans branch of
oscillations:
o
+1;2
- p[o
J
[ 2pGs
0
O
o
2
J
m
r[k[L
, (24)
where p = 1 for gravity-stable perturbations with
o
2
+
- o
2
J
40, p = i for gravity-unstable perturbations with
o
2
+
- o
2
J
o0, and the term involving L
1
is the small
correction. Eq. (24) determines the spectrum of oscilla-
tions. Accordingly, an inhomogeneity will not inuence the
stability condition of Jeans modes of oscillations.
From Eq. (24), in the gravity-unstable case (o
2
+
-
o
2
J
o0), the local equilibrium parameters of the disk
s
0
(r
0
), O(r
0
), c
s
(r
0
), and L(r
0
) determine the pattern speed
of unstable nonaxisymmetric (ma0) perturbations (in a
local rotating reference frame):
O
p

Ro
+
m
- 2pGs
0
O
[o
2
J
[
1
r[k[L
, (25)
where 2pGs
0
[k[O
2
, [o
J
[
2
O
2
, rk
2
[L[b1, and, therefore,
O
p
O=rk
2
L5O. As is seen, the typical pattern speeds of
spiral structures in unstable disks are only a small fraction
of some average angular velocity O
av
. Because O
p
does not
depend on m, each Fourier component of a perturbation in
an inhomogeneous system will rotate with the same
constant angular velocity. The theory states that in
homogeneous ([L[ o) disks O
p
= 0.
At the limit of gravitational stability, the two conditions
qo
2
J
=qk = 0 and o
2
J
X0 are fullled. The rst condition
determines the most unstable wavelength (the modied
JeansToomre wavelength)
l
crit
-
2c
2
s
Gs
0
, (26)
corresponding to the minimum on the dispersion curve
(21). Use of the second condition determines the critical
sound speed for the stability of arbitrary but not only
axisymmetric perturbations (Lau and Bertin, 1978; Lin and
Lau, 1979; Morozov, 1985; Griv et al., 1999, 2002).
From Eq. (21), the disk is Jeans-unstable to both
axisymmetric (radial) and nonaxisymmetric (spiral) pertur-
bations if c
s
oc
T
, where
c
T
=
pGs
0
k
(27)
is the ordinary SafronovToomre (Safronov, 1960, 1980;
Toomre, 1964, 1977) critical sound speed to suppress the
instability of axisymmetric m = 0 perturbations only. On
the other hand, writing the sound speed as c
s
=

RT
_
, the
SafronovToomre instability condition reads
ToT
crit

p
2
G
2
s
2
0
Rk
2
, (28)
where T is the local gas temperature. Both radial and spiral
instabilities can occur in any region of a disk that becomes
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0 0.5 1
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
r/R
f

(
r
)
,

0
,

V
r
o
t


(
a
r
b
i
t
r
a
r
y

u
n
i
t
s
)

f

(
r
)
,

0
,

V
r
o
t


(
a
r
b
i
t
r
a
r
y

u
n
i
t
s
)

f

(
r
)
,

0
,

V
r
o
t


(
a
r
b
i
t
r
a
r
y

u
n
i
t
s
)

f (r)
V
rot

0
(a)
0 2 4 6
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
r

0
V
rot
f (r)
(b)
0 0.5 1
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
r/R
f (r)
V
rot

0
(c)
Fig. 2. The distribution function for angular momentum f (r) = s
0
Ok
2
(Lovelace and Hohlfeld, 1978, p. 55) vs. a normalized radius r=R (or ar) for the
equilibrium disk models calculated from the surface density s
0
(r), the angular rotation velocity O(r) = V
rot
=r, and the epicyclic frequency k(r): (a) Hunters
n = 1 model; (b) the exponential disk model; and (c) Hunters n o model.
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 554
sufciently cool, ToT
crit
. Thus, disks with Toomres Q
c
s
=c
T
parameter o1 (or ToT
crit
, respectively) break up
into fragments of preferred mass
M
frag
pl
2
crit
s
0
= 4pc
4
s
=G
2
s
0
. (29)
Similar results hold for a self-gravitating Safronov
Toomre unstable disk of nite but small thickness in
hydrostatic equilibrium with the critical wavenumber
k
crit
= 2p=l
crit
reduced by a factor of 2 (Morozov, 1981).
The m40, i.e., nonaxisymmetric instabilities in a
differentially rotating (dO=dra0, that is, 2O=k41) disk
is more difcult to stabilize; stability is achieved only for
sufciently large sound speed (although still of the order
of c
T
)
c
s
\
2O
k
c
T
- 2c
T
, (30)
or for sufciently large temperature T\(2O=k)
T
crit
- 2T
crit
, respectively (Lin and Lau, 1979; Morozov,
1980, 1985; Griv et al., 1999, 2002; Griv and Gedalin,
2003). Thus, nonaxisymmetric disturbances in a nonuni-
formly rotating system are more difcult to suppress
than the axisymmetric ones, in general agreement with
the work by Goldreich and Lynden-Bell (1965) and
Julian and Toomre (1966). The free kinetic energy
associated with the differential rotation of the system
under study is one possible source for the growth of the
energy of these spiral Jeans-type perturbations, and
appears to be released when angular momentum is
transferred outward. See Lau and Bertin (1978), Lin and
Lau (1979), Morozov (1985), and Montenegro et al. (1999)
for a discussion of the problem.
Thus, if the disk is thin, c
s
5rO, and dynamically cold,
c
s
oc
T
(Toomres stability parameter Qo1 or ToT
crit
),
then such a model will be gravitationally unstable, and it
should almost instantaneously (see below for a time
estimate) take the form of a cartwheel, that is, a structure
of spirals and rings (Fig. 3a). (One understands, however,
that in a nonlinear state of instability there will be some
exchange of energy and angular momentum between the
radial and spiral modes which will give rise to a pattern
more complex than the cartwheel shown in Fig. 3a.)
Clearly, in the case of both axisymmetric and nonaxisym-
metric excitation, the distribution of the surface density
along the spiral arms is not uniform, but describes a
sequence of maxima that might be identied with forming
planets (Fig. 4). The number of maxima (hot spots)
N
spots
seen in Fig. 4 is roughly
N
spots
=
R
l
crit
, (31)
where l
crit
is given by Eq. (26), ToT
crit
, and T
crit
is the
averaged critical SafronovToomre temperature (Eq. (39)).
This dynamical instability is driven by a strong nonreso-
nant interaction of the gravity uctuations (e.g., those
produced by a spontaneous disturbance or, in rare cases, a
satellite system) with the bulk of the particle population,
and the dynamics of Jeans perturbations can be character-
ized as a nonresonant interaction, that is, in Eq. (17),
o
+
lka0. Toomres Q-parameter that is o1 suggests
that the disk is likely subject to both radial and spiral
instabilities and might, therefore, be clumpy: if the local
SafronovToomre instability criterion Qo1 is satised, the
disk should break up into discrete blobs of matter
distributed in spirals around the spin axis (Fig. 4).
Interestingly, Greaves (2005) and Greaves et al. (2005)
have detected arc-and-lump debris disks orbiting nearby
solar-type stars. Both optical and near-infrared observa-
tions of pre-main-sequence stars of intermediate mass have
also revealed the structure of spirals and rings, and thus
presumably the Jeans instability of ring and spiral
perturbations, in the circumstellar disk with structure more
than 100 AU from the parent star (Grady et al., 2001;
Clampin et al., 2003; Fukagawa et al., 2004, 2006).
Observations at submillimeter wavelengths have been
conrmed that the dust around Vega is distributed in a
clumpy ring (Koerner et al., 2001). Both the James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope and Keck images of the dust have
revealed the inner rings with azimuthal nonaxisymmetric of
Eridani, Fomalhaut, and b Pictoris (Greaves et al., 1998;
Holland et al., 2003; Macintosh et al., 2003; Wahhaj et al.,
2003). One can suggests that all these disks are the Jeans-
unstable to both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric
perturbations. Observations may provide an indication
on whether the Q-value for those disks is indeed compar-
able to or less than unity.
6
Note that the present model is
based on the self-excited (i.e., intrinsic), nonresonant,
almost aperiodic gravitational instability in the circum-
stellar disks. To explain warps, radial and spiral structures,
and other azimuthal and radial asymmetries of the resolved
disks around main-sequence stars, alternative models have
been also suggested by Takeuchi and Artymowicz (2001),
Augereau and Papaloizou (2004), Kenyon and Bromley
(2004), Ardila et al. (2005), and Quillen et al. (2005) by
exploring the roles of radiation, gas drag forces from the
gas disk, and tidal forces from nearby stars, brown dwarfs,
or planets in creating and maintaining the spiral structures
in resolved disks. The observed properties of circumstellar
disks around young stars have been summarized by Dutrey
et al. (2004).
Contrary, if the disk is thin and warm, QX1 but
Qt2O=k - 2 (or T
crit
pTt2T
crit
), then such an uncooled
model will be unstable only with respect to spiral
perturbations (Fig. 3b) and cannot be therefore fragment.
An uncooled hot model with Q\2O=k - 2 (or T42T
crit
) is
Jeans-stable. In the latter cases the formation of planets
can only be imagined via gradual accumulation of solid
ARTICLE IN PRESS
6
The direct estimation of Q value, which in turn the measurements of
surface density, is still very difcult, partly because we cannot well resolve
the disk around pre-main-sequence stars in millimeter wavelengths. Also,
the dust opacity can be a source of large uncertainty, as particles grow.
Anyway, the future interferometers will greatly improve the situation with
much higher resolution (Fukagawa, 2005).
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 555
material (Pollack et al., 1996; Inaba et al., 2003; Alibert
et al., 2005).
Adams et al. (1989) have already pointed out, by
numerical integrations, that spiral density waves can be
excited on a reasonable timescale even if Toomres Q
parameter is greater than 1. Numerical simulations have
shown that nonaxisymmetric disturbances, which grow
as multi-armed spirals, become unstable for Qt1:5
(cf. Eq. (30)) (Papaloizou and Savonije, 1991; Tomley
et al., 1991, 1994). It has already been found in simulations
that the stability number Q of Toomre in relaxed
equilibrium disks does not fall below a critical value,
which lies about Q
crit
= 222:5 (e.g., Tomley et al., 1991,
1994). However, no adequate explanation of the latter has
been presented.
The fact that self-gravitating, differentially rotating
(dO=dra0 or 2O=k41, respectively) stellar disks can
exhibit strong nonaxisymmetric responses even when the
axisymmetric stability criterion Q = 1 is fullled, was most
convincingly demonstrated already by Julian and Toomre
(1966), concerning the gravitational effect of any single
orbiting mass concentration (such as gas lumps in
galaxies). These forced spiral waves are not to be confused,
of course, with Lin and Shus fully self-consistent density
wave proposal explored in the present theory. Similar
result for self-gravitating, differentially rotating gas disk
was obtained by Goldreich and Lynden-Bell (1965). In
Toomre (1981) this amplication was discussed in terms of
swing-mechanism, very reminiscent of the way I reach
the nonaxisymmetric stability criterion (30). Lau and
Bertin (1978, p. 509) have claried the problem by
considering the motion of a uid element: the density
response that is in phase with the potential minimum is
found to exceed, by an amount proportional to both dO=dr
and m, the corresponding response due to an axisymmetric
eld of equal strength. The modied SafronovToomre
stability criterion given by Eq. (30) is obviously only an
approximation, as it assumes spiral arm pitch angles c that
are relatively small, [ tan c[t1, and neglects (among other
things) the thickness of the disk. Nevertheless, numerical
experiments suggest that the formulation is approximately
correct (Morozov, 1981; Khoperskov et al., 2003; Liverts
et al., 2003; Griv and Gedalin, 2005).
A slightly improved SafronovToomre criterion was
obtained by Morozov by including a weak destabilizing
effect resulting from spatial inhomogeneity of the disk
(Morozov, 1980) and a weak stabilizing effect resulting
from the small but nite thickness of the disk (Morozov,
1981). Morozov (1981) has also shown that the effects of a
nite thickness and spatial inhomogeneity practically
cancel each other, at least for the parameters of the stellar
disk of our own Galaxy in the solar neighborhood.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. A schematic model of a Jeans-unstable disk: (a) the SafronovToomre unstable disk (Qo1) and (b) the SafronovToomre stable disk (Qo1 but
Qt2O=k, and in highly attened protostellar disks 2O=k - 2). In a differentially rotating disk (2O=k41), nonaxisymmetric, that is, spiral modes of
collective oscillations are more unstable than axisymmetric (radial) ones.
(a)
(b) (c)
Fig. 4. (a) Gravitationally unstable density waves with m = 1 arm in the (r; j)-plane, (b) density waves with m = 2 arms, and (c) density waves with m = 3
arms. The lled circles represent the maxima of the perturbed density of Jeans waves, which are unstable to both radial and spiral perturbations. The
distribution of the surface density along the spiral arms is not uniform, but describes a sequence of maxima (protoplanets).
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 556
The growth rate of the instability is relatively high:
Io
+
-

2pGs
0
(k
2
+
=[k[)
_
and in general Io
+
O, that is, the
instability develops rapidly on a dynamical timescale (on a
time of 23 disk rotations, or t10
4
yr in the protostellar
disk). An important feature of the instability under
consideration is the fact that it is almost aperiodic
([Ro
+
=Io
+
[51) in a rotating frame. From Eq. (21), the
growth rate of the instability has a maximum at the
wavelength l
crit
- 2c
2
s
=Gs
0
. At the boundary of instability,
that is, Q - 1, l
crit
- 2p
2
Gs
0
=k
2
(324)ph. It means that
of all harmonics of initial gravity perturbation, one
perturbation with l
crit
- 10h, the associated number of
spiral arms m
crit
, and the pitch angle c
crit
will be formed
asymptotically in time of a single rotation. Because l
crit
bh,
the approximation of an innitesimally thin disk used
throughout the theory does not fail.
In the another, opposite to (23) frequency range,
[o
+
[
3
4pGs
0
O(m=r[kL[)5[o
J
[
3
, (32)
that is, [o
+
[5O, Eq. (20) has another root equal to
o
+3
- 4pGs
0
O
o
2
J
m
r[k[L
. (33)
The root (33) describes the gradient (L
1
a0) branch of
oscillations. As is seen, the gradient perturbations are stable
and are independent of the stability of Jeans modes. These
low-frequency ([o
+3
[5O), stable (Io
+3
= 0) oscillations are
obviously not important in dynamics of protostellar disks.
According to Morozov (1985), analogous oscillation
branches, with frequencies proportional to the gradients of
the undisturbed equilibrium quantities, occur in the
terrestrial atmosphere (internal gravity waves), in inhomo-
geneous plasmas (drift waves), in the terrestrial oceans
(Rossby waves), and in other inhomogeneous systems.
6. Turbulent heating
The Jeans instability of a disk will in fact be suppressed
because of the efcient turbulent heating of the medium
during the growth of that same instability: in the course of
developing the instability, the speed of sound (temperature)
grows, and the disk approaches the boundary of the
instability. Gravitational instabilities convert potential
energy into kinetic energy of random motions. Indeed, by
taking into account that terms o exp(ik
r
r imj io
+
t) do
not contribute (since they cancel out if they are averaged),
from Eqs. (9) and (16) one obtains that the perturbed
potential energy U is a negative quantity:
U =
s
1
F
+
1
2
_ _
=
[k[[
~
F[
2
2pG
e
2Io
+
t
, (34)
where ) denotes the time average over the fast
oscillations,
s
0
= s) =
1
T
_
T
0
sdt; s
1
) = F
1
) = 0,
and Tb2p=o is the characteristic time of the quasi-linear
relaxation, i.e., the time during which the oscillations
inuence the equilibrium disk state, and F
+
1
is the complex
conjugate potential. Clearly as gravitational instability
develops the amplitudes [U[ of the unstable Fourier-
harmonics of the perturbation will grow, setting energy
free to heat the medium. This effect will in turn diminish
the growth rate of the instability (see Eq. (21) above) and
ultimately cause it to become saturated. Fresh waves must
be continually created to maintain the density wave
pattern.
Following Morozov (1978), let us obtain mathematical
expressions describing the heating process. For simplicity,
the gas is supposed to obey a polytropic law
P = P
0
(s=s
0
)
g
, (35)
where the two-dimensional adiabatic index g can be
mapped to a three-dimensional adiabatic index in the
low-frequency (static) limit; in protostellar disks
g = 1:522. Eq. (35) can be expanded as far as terms
quadratic in the amplitude of the perturbed density
P = P
0
g
P
0
s
0
ds
g(g 1)
2
P
0
s
2
0
ds
2
, (36)
where ds = s
1

2
s
2
and 51. Next, the result can be
averaged in the sense indicated above:
P P
0
) = dP(t) =
g(g 1)P
0
s
2
0
[ ~ s[
2
e
2Io
+
t
, (37)
where the growth rate Io
+
(t) is determined from Eq. (21)
by the relation
Io
+
= [k
2
2pGs
0
(k
2
+
=[k[) g(P
0
dP(t))k
2
+
=s
0
]
1=2
.
(38)
Eqs. (37) and (38) completely describes the heating process.
Of course, the system of Eqs. (37)(38) is correct only in the
linear approximation used throughout the theory,
[s
1
=s
0
[51, [P
1
=P
0
[51, and [F
1
=F
0
[51. The linear wave
considered in the present study is growing on the timescale
of about one cycle rotation period (O
1
) and in one cycle
rotation period it will reach nonlinear amplitudes. Strictly
speaking, this theory of weak turbulence describes only the
tendency of the disk to be heated by Jeans-unstable density
waves and shows the direction of the disks evolution. One
understands that we still have to develop the theory of
strong turbulence.
Taking into account the fact that c
2
s
o P P
0
), from
Eq. (37) one obtains that during the linear (quasi-linear)
stage of the instability the effective temperature c
2
s
grows
with time according to the law
c
2
s
o t. (39)
Of course, this is not really temperature, it is ordered
motion, i.e., coherent mechanical oscillations of the gas
element in response to the uctuating elds.
It is obvious that the uncooled disk manages to keep its
local stability parameter close to the critical value, Q - 2
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 557
(Griv et al., 1999, 2002; Griv and Gedalin, 2003). In this
case, once the differentially rotating disk has been heated
to values Q - 2 (or c
s
- 2c
T
, respectively) by gravitation-
ally unstable density waves, no further unstable waves can
be sustained by virtue of the Jeans instabilityunless some
cooling mechanism is available leading to Toomres Q-
value under approximately 2 or to the value of c
s
smaller
than approximately 2c
T
, respectively. To repeat myself, it
has been found in simulations that the stability number Q
of Toomre in relaxed equilibrium disks does not fall below
a critical value, which lies about Q
crit
= 222:5 (Tomley
et al., 1991, 1994). However, no adequate explanation of
the latter has been presented.
The development of gravitational instabilities would lead
to a self-regulation process. Namely, if the differentially
rotating disk is initially cold (QoQ
crit
), then gravitational
instabilities would repeatedly heat it according to the law
(39) on the dynamical timescale, bringing it toward
stability. On the other hand, if the disk is initially hot
enough (QXQ
crit
), then radiative cooling is going to bring
the value of Toomres stability parameter Q down toward
an unstable conguration. A similar approach has been
suggested in computer simulations (Lodato and Rice, 2004,
p. 630).
Because the typical relaxation time, that is, the time
required to stabilize the initially unstable disk tO
1
, the
disk fragments when t)Ot1, where t) is an effective
cooling time dened as the average internal energy of the
model divided by average cooling rate (see, e.g., Gammie,
2001). Thus, I believe to have obtained a theoretical
interpretation of Johnson and Gammies (2003)
experimental result: pure gaseous disks with t)Ot1
fragment rapidly on the dynamical timescale and thus do
not exist.
A cooled disk could generate transient Jeans-unstable
density waves even without an external trigger. Here I refer
to papers by Miller et al. (1970), Quirk (1972), Sellwood
and Carlberg (1984), Carlberg (1987), Griv and Chiueh
(1998), Gammie (2001), and Johnson and Gammie (2003)
as evidence for how this could come about. Note especially
the work by Quirk (1972), who shown that the azimuthal
gravitational forces produced by the spiral arms are
necessary to maintain the long-term recurrent wave
structure of the galaxy in the gas clouds component,
which was dissipative through inelastic cloudcloud colli-
sions. As cooling process always exists in the protostellar
disks, the Jeans instability can be considered to be a long-
term generating mechanism for unstable density waves,
thereby leading to recurrent short-lived O
1
10
4
yr spiral
or spiral-ring patterns in the observed protostellar and
circumstellar disks.
7. Angular momentum transfer
Let us now turn to the question of how to account for
the concentration of angular momentum in the planets and
of mass in the star. The collective torque per unit area
exerted by the gravity perturbations on the disk is
(1=r)(dG=dr) =
_
dj(r =F
1
)s
1
) or
1
r
dG
dr
=
_
2p
0
s
1
(r; j
/
)
qF
1
(r; j
/
)
qj
/
dj
/
_ _
. (40)
Using Eq. (17), in terms of the Fourier components
dened in Eq. (1), G =

o
m=1
G
m
, from Eq. (40) one nds
1
r
dG
m
dr
- 8p
m
2
rL
s
0
O
k
2
Io
+
F
1
F
+
1
if Io
+
40, (41)
or (1=r)(dG
m
=dr) = 0 if Io
+
p0, and F
1
F
+
1
= [
~
F[
2
exp
(2Io
+
t). Eq. (41) is correct only in the main domain of
the system under study between the inner and outer
Lindblad resonances. A special analysis of the solution
near corotation (o
+
= 0) and Lindblad (o
+
k = 0)
resonances is required. Thus, the points r
ILR
and r
OLR
in
which o
+
k = 0 are called the points of inner and outer
Lindblad resonances. They play an important role in the
theory: the solution of spiral type given by Eq. (2) rapidly
oscillating in the radial direction ([k
r
[rb1) lies between r
ILR
and r
OLR
. Outside the resonances, ror
ILR
and r4r
OLR
, the
solution decreases exponentially (Lin and Lau, 1979).
A special analysis of the solution near spatially limited
corotation and Lindblad resonances is required. Reso-
nances of a higher order, o
+
lk = 0 and l = 2; 3; . . . ; are
dynamically of less importance (Lin and Shu, 1966; Lin
et al., 1969; Shu, 1970). To emphasize it again, the present
analysis is restricted to consideration of the main part of a
disk between the Lindblad resonances. The spatially
limited waveparticle resonances have been investigated
by Lynden-Bell and Kalnajs (1972), Goldreich and
Tremaine (1979, 1980), Meyer-Vernet and Sicardy (1987),
and Griv et al. (2000).
Four physical conclusions can be deduced from Eq. (41).
(a) The distribution of the angular momentum of a disk
will be changed under the action of only the nonaxisym-
metric forces o m. The latter is obvious: axially symmetric
motions of a system produce no gravitational couplings
between the inner parts and the outer parts. (b) The
distribution of the angular momentum will be changed
with time only under the action of growing, that is,
gravitationally (Jeans-) unstable perturbations (Io
+
40).
(c) Growing spiral perturbations can transfer angular
momentum only in spatially inhomogeneous disks
((d=dr)(s
0
Ok
2
)a0). This result is also anticipated, be-
cause in homogeneous disks the angular velocity of spiral
perturbations O
p
= 0 (see Eq. (25) above), and, therefore,
there is no exchange of angular momentum in the wavegas
system. And nally (d) because in self-gravitating disks in
equilibrium Lo0, (1=r)(dG
m
=dr)40: an applied gravita-
tional torque increases the angular momentum of the given
gas element and thus leads to motion of the gas element at
a larger radius and thus tends to decrease O. (As is known,
O(r) in a self-gravitating disk is a decreasing function of r,
whereas the angular momentum of a unit mass, Or
2
, is an
increasing function of r.) This takes place in the main
domain of the disk between the Lindblad resonances where
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 558
spiral density waves are self-excited via a nonresonant
waveuid interaction. This in turn cannot be done for all
masses because the total orbital momentum must remain
constant. As a result, a group of inner particles with radii
ror
ILR
moves inward and a group of particles with radii
r
ILR
oror
OLR
moves outward. The secular evolution of
protostellar disks, therefore, proceeds in the direction of
increasing central mass concentration in the baryonic
material and of extending of outer portions (see Fig. 5).
As a result, the bulk of angular momentum is transferred
radially outward, whereas an inner gaseous medium moves
inward, losing a large part of the angular momentum.
7
Lynden-Bell and Kalnajs (1972, p. 6) proved that the
gravitational torques can only communicate angular
momentum outward if the spirals trail. Lynden-Bell and
Kalnajs as well as Goldreich and Tremaine (1979, 1980)
and Meyer-Vernet and Sicardy (1987) considered, however,
only resonant waveparticle interactions at spatially
limited resonances (in Eq. (17), o
+
k = 0) in gravitation-
ally stable disksatellite systems (Io
+
= 0). The outward
transfer of orbital momentum allows the central parts of
disks to contract and, thus, allows the star to contract
without breaking up, and the remnant disk of gas is the
reservoir for forming planets.
Eq. (41) derived in this paper to describe the wavegas
exchange of angular momentum for unstable protostellar
disks is a new result, and one has to realize that this is the
focus of the paper. At the qualitative level, the inuence of
viscosity on a rotating mass of gas was well understood by
1920s (Lynden-Bell and Pringle, 1974; Pringle, 1981).
(Following Pringle, 1981, by viscosity I mean the mechan-
ism, whatever it is, which enables angular momentum to be
transferred and energy to be dissipated.) In general, the
dissipative processes act to spread the disk out, allowing
the inner parts to move in and necessitating, through
conservation of angular momentum, the outer parts to
move out (Pringle, 1981, p. 140). Lynden-Bell and Kalnajs
(1972), by considering the evolution of at galaxies, also
suggested that self-gravitating disks want to transfer their
angular momentum outwards. Numerical experiments
have been demonstrated that gravitational instabilities
produce growing nonaxisymmetric density waves and
associated gravitational torques, which are potent agents
of angular momentum transport (Anthony and Carlberg,
1988; Tomley et al., 1991; Laughlin and Ro zyczka, 1996;
Yorke and Bodenheimer, 1999; Gammie, 2001; Pickett
et al., 2003). Eq. (41) shows that although the angular
momentum exchange between gas and the growing wave
is of second order in the perturbation potential F
1
,
it is obtained by taking inner products of rst-order
solutions. Thus, going to nonlinear (quasi-linear) approx-
imation of the theory is unnecessary to derive the
nonresonant waveuid angular momentum exchange
(cf. Lynden-Bell and Kalnajs, 1972, p. 10).
According to Eq. (41), the angular momentum transfer
efciency of nonaxisymmetric Jeans-unstable density waves
depends on their spatial and temporal form. Let us next
evaluate the collective torque for a realistic model of the
disk. In accordance with the theory, the fastest growing
mode with m\1, k
+
= k
crit
, and Io
+
O is considered.
Taking into account that 8pm
2
F
1
F
+
1
F
2
0
(an astrophysicist
might well consider a perturbation with F
1
=F
0
of
1
10
to be
quite small) and F
0
r
2
O
2
=2, where F
0
is the basic
potential, from Eq. (41) one obtains [(1=r)(dG
m
=
dr)[s
0
r
3
O
2
=4[L[. The angular momentum of the given
gaseous element P = s
0
r
2
O. Then the characteristic time of
the angular momentum redistribution is tP=[(1=r)
(dG
m
=dr)[(4[L[=r)O
1
O
1
. Thus, already in the rst
disk revolution, in, say, about 10
4
yr, the unstable
protostellar gas disk sees a large portion of its angular
momentum transferred outward, and mass transferred
both inward and outward (Fig. 5). I suggest that the
gravitational instability studied here can give rise to
torques that can help to clear disks around stars on
timescales of 10
5
210
6
yr, in accord with astronomical
requirements (Taylor, 1992, Section 2.9.2; Bally et al.,
1998; Silicia-Aguilar et al., 2005; Greaves, 2005; Roberge
et al., 2005).
I must emphasize, however, that here the stability of an
unbounded, isolated, two-dimensional system is treated, by
applying the local WKB approximation. Thus the numer-
ical results given above should be regarded merely as
approximate estimates, in order of magnitude.
Closing, Paczynski (1978) considered a model of a thin
disk which rotates around a central compact object that is
marginally stable to self-gravity. His model followed the
standard accretion-disk theory by Shakura (1973), Shakura
and Sunyaev (1973), and Lynden-Bell and Pringle (1974).
These standard models have understood angular
momentum transport in that they assumed that it is due
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0 0.5 1 1.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
r, radius

0
,

s
u
r
f
a
c
e

d
e
n
s
i
t
y
t =0
t =
Fig. 5. Surface mass density of a disk before (t = 0) and after (t = o)
initially Jeans-unstable gravity disturbances have increased.
7
Additional emission of angular momentum occurs at the inner
Lindblad resonance and absorption of angular momentum occurs at the
outer Lindblad resonance and at corotation (Lynden-Bell and Kalnajs,
1972).
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 559
to turbulent stresses. Accordingly, turbulent viscosity
driven by local disk instabilities was assumed to transfer
angular momentum outwards and makes the accretion of
matter onto the central object possible. There is one
important difference between the model presented here and
the models by Paczynski (1978), Shakura (1973), Shakura
and Sunyaev (1973), and Lynden-Bell and Pringle (1974),
namely in the present model the physical cause for the
turbulence is included self-consistently by considering a
self-consistent system of the gasdynamic and Poisson
equations. Paczynski (1978) also considered the vertical
structure, which is a less simplied approach than
assuming an innitesimally thin disk, but this is not
required for an understanding of angular momentum
transport.
8. Turbulent diffusion
Since one of the reasons for the Jeans instability is the
inhomogeneity of the disk, oscillations developing in
consequence of the instability cannot die away until the
inhomogeneity is completely destroyed. In other words,
such an instability must lead to turbulent diffusion: during
the evolution of unstable disks mass must be transported
radially both inward and outward while angular momen-
tum must be transferred outward.
It is quite generally accepted that the accretion of
material onto rotating astrophysical disks is inefcient if
the viscosity in the disk is determined by the classical
transport coefcients. The presence of developed turbu-
lence is usually postulated to explain the observed features
of disks rotating about galactic centers, black holes,
neutron stars, protostars, and Saturns rings. Shakura
(1973) and Shakura and Sunyaev (1973) proposed that
turbulence might enhance the transport, and so introduced
a turbulent or eddy viscosity:
n
eddy
aHc
s
, (42)
where a is dimensionless number (less than unity because
turbulent eddies would most likely be subsonic and no
larger than the scale height H = 2h of the disk), and the
sound speed c
s
evaluated at the disk midplane where most
of the mass is concentrated. The source of this anomalous
turbulence has been highly controversial, and the para-
meter a summarizes the uncertainties related to the sources
of anomalous viscosity. See Balbus and Hawley (1998) and
Stone et al. (2000) for thorough reviews.
In the spirit of Morozov and Khoperskov (1990), let us
showin a speculative mannerthat in gravitating sys-
tems the anomalous turbulent diffusion arising by the
Jeans instability may exceed the ordinary microscopic
(molecular) diffusion substantially. Unlike Morozov and
Khoperskov (1990), who considered the gradient convec-
tive-type instability (similar to the internal gravitational
waves in the atmosphere of the Earth, the Rossby waves in
the terrestrial oceans, or drift waves in plasmas) in the
nonself-gravitating limit, the gravitational instability is
studied.
The gravitational instability is most likely to be the
mechanism which does produce the effective disk diffusion.
The self-sustained turbulence with outward angular mo-
mentum transport that may arise as a result of instability is
related to stochastic motions of uid elements. By
considering a plasma, Kadomtsev (1965) has estimated
the diffusion coefcient D
tur
from the exponential damping
factor determining its instability:
D
tur

Io
+
k
2
min
, (43)
where k
min
represents the minimum value of the wave-
number (the maximum value of the wavelength, or the
principal scale) for which one still has an instability, and
[Io
+
=Ro
+
[b1. Morozov and Khoperskov (1990) have
emphasized that Eq. (43) is valid if Io
+
b[Ro
+
[ (otherwise,
the nature of the estimate changes). Expression (43) given
in Kadomtsevs review for the turbulent viscosity
resulting from the development of drift or dissipative
instabilities is quite universal (Horton, 1984). Indeed, from
dimensional considerations, turbulent diffusivity is of the
form
D
tur
t
1
l
2
pl
,
where t is the time of the correlations disappearance that is
reasonable to choose I
1
o
+
, and l
pl
is the characteristic
scale of turbulent uctuations in the direction normal to k
(Branover et al., 1999). The turbulence scale in the disk
plane l
pl
can be evaluated as follows (to order of
magnitude): l
pl
k
1
pl
, where the dimension of uctuations
k
1
pl
is obtained from the condition of maximum growth
rate. Then we will have a good estimate (43).
According to the results of the stability analysis
described above, in an unstable disk Io
+
O, k
min

1
2
h
pGs
0
=c
2
s
, and c
s
pGs
0
=k. Substituting these quantities
into Eq. (43), one obtains
D
tur
4Oh
2

p
2
G
2
s
2
0
O
3
. (44)
In Eq. (44), the requirement of the hydrostatic equilibrium
in the z direction for a self-gravitating slab model was
adopted, which gives
h
c
s

4pGr
0
_
c
2
s
2pGs
0
and r
0
s
0
=2h is the volume mass density in the midplane.
A similar result, D
tur
G
2
s
2
0
=O
3
, was already discussed by
Lin and Pringle (1987) and Takeda and Ida (2001) by using
a simple dimensional analysis. Daisaka et al. (2001) have
found numerically that in planetary rings in the presence of
the growing spiral wakes, the effective viscosity n
eff
is given
as n
eff
= CG
2
s
2
0
=O
3
, where the nondimensional correction
factor C = 6220 (cf. Eq. (44)). As was pointed out to the
author by the rst referee of the paper, the main result,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 560
Eq. (44)the derivation of the expression for the effective
turbulent viscositycan be obtained by dimensional
analysis without the formalism elaborated in the text.
Clearly, the turbulent viscosity is, in order of magnitude,
simply the square of the JeansToomre length scale
l
crit
= 2c
2
s
=GS
0
, where c
s
pGS
0
=k, for self-gravitating
disks times the angular velocity O of local disk rotation.
In the fully nonlinear regime, the justication provided by
the quasi-linear analysis cannot be considered much better
than the dimensional analysis just stated above.
So, n
tur
4Oh
2
. Because c
s
Oh, this is of the same form
as the standard Shakura (1973) and Shakura and Sunyaev
(1973) a prescription of accretion disks (42), and it suggests
that a should be of order unity in a system (see also
Papaloizou and Lin, 1995; Lin and Papaloizou, 1996).
Let us now estimate the order of magnitude of D
tur
in the
protostellar gaseous (the atomic hydrogen) disk. Since the
velocity dispersion c
s
of particles of protostellar disks
cannot be determined observationally, we shall regard the
disk as marginally stable in the disk plane, that is,
c
s
pGs
0
=k10
3
cms
1
(we take the mass of the disk
M
d
- M

, the radius R - 1000 AU, and the epicyclic

frequency k - O - 2 10
10
s
1
; then the mean surface
density s
0
- 1 g cm
2
). In view of the equilibrium condi-
tion along the z-axis the disk will has a thickness
2h - 10
13
cm, and the particle number density n - 5
10
11
cm
3
. As a result, the kinematic coefcient of ordinary
molecular viscosity n
kin
c
s
=S5 10
7
cm
2
s
1
while the
estimate (44) for D
tur
gives D
tur
4kh
2
5 10
15
cm
2
s
1
,
and
D
tur
n
kin
10
8
. (45)
Thus, the turbulent diffusivity D
tur
exceeds the molecular
viscosity n
kin
substantially.
Correspondingly, the timescale of turbulent diffusion
t
tur
R
2
=D
tur
(or the characteristic cleaning time) is about
10
8
yr. This estimate does not contradict to the solid
observational result: beyond the 10 Myr period, the
protoplanetary disk mass drops abruptly by a large factor
(e.g., Greaves, 2005). The mass inow rate is M
d
=t
tur
=
10
8
210
9
M

yr
1
.
9. Numerical experiments
9.1. The model
In this section, numerical experiments that simulate the
nonlinear development of gravitational instabilities are
used to test the validities of the theory. Self-gravitating
collisionless disks, represented by a distribution of Nb1
point masses in their own gravity eld, were set up
according to initial conditions. The evolution of the disks
were calculated for several rotation periods, until the disks
approached a statistical quasi-steady state, in the sense that
certain azimuthally averaged quantities tended toward
constancy. To repeat myself, Anthony and Carlberg (1988),
Papaloizou and Savonije (1991), Tomley et al. (1991),
Adams and Benz (1992), Laughlin and Bodenheimer
(1994), Laughlin and Ro zyczka (1996), Yorke and
Bodenheimer (1999), Pickett et al. (2000), Gammie
(2001), Durisen et al. (2003), and other have used
numerical simulations to study the nonlinear behavior of
disks around young stars. Important results have been
obtained regarding the enhanced transport of angular
momentum and mass by gravitational instabilities. Cassen
et al. (1981), Pickett et al. (2003), Lodato and Rice (2004),
Mayer et al. (2002), and other have examined numerically
the fragmentation of the protostellar disk into protopla-
nets. It has been stated that stable gas disks favor
formation of planetesimals by the accumulation of solid
material; unstable disks allow the possibility of direct
condensation of gaseous protoplanets. The aim of the
simulations presented here is just to illustrate the analytical
results obtained in Sections 5 and 7 above.
Tomley et al. (1991) have pointed out that the use of a
collisionless particle code to study a hydrodynamic system
requires justication. The gravitationally (Jeans-) unstable
disks are characterized by collective interactions that act
over distances greater than the disk scale height, and it is
the description of such interactions for which the particle
code is well suited. Although the code cannot be used to
study acoustic phenomena, it is dissipationless. This is an
advantage over hydrodynamical codes, in which numeri-
cally induced viscosity can affect the propagation of excited
spiral modes, and, therefore, the strength and distribution
of calculated torques. On the other hand, Griv et al. (2000)
have already demonstrated that there exist no dominant
instabilities in the collisionless Jeans-unstable system that
have no counterparts for a gaseous system (see Tomley
et al., 1991, p. 531 for a discussion).
The traditional point of view is that, unlike in gaseous
systems, shock waves in almost collisionless particulate
systems are impossible. In fact, it has already been
proved that in particulate rotating systems the existence
of the so-called collisionless shock waves, with character-
istic dimensions much smaller than the particle mean free
path, is possible (e.g., Friedman et al., 1981). This
possibility can serve as an effective mechanism of energy
transfer in gravitating collisionless systems. The physical
situation is very close to the condition in a collisionless
plasma described by Sagdeev (1966) where, in the presence
of the magnetic eld (cf. the regular rotation of gravitating
systems), a shock wave can be formed with the thickness of
the front much smaller than the mean free path of plasma
particles. Generally, similarities between self-gravitating
systems and ordinary plasmas arise from the common
long-range o 1=r
2
nature of the basic forces, whereas
differences arise from the opposite signs of these forces
(Lin and Bertin, 1984).
Thus, one concludes that the collisionless particle code
can be used to simulate Jeans-unstable gas disks. Appar-
ently, Cassen et al. (1981) and Anthony and Carlberg
(1988) were the rst to simulate the planet formation
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 561
in gravitationally unstable gaseous disks by N-body
experiments.
A disk of identical particles is investigated by direct
integration of Newtons equations of motion. The numer-
ical procedure is rst to seek stationary solutions of the
Boltzmann kinetic equation in the self-consistent eld
approximation for the equilibrium parameters of the
system, and then to determine the stability of those
solutions to spontaneous gravity perturbations. The
rapidly rotating model disk is considered. As a solution
of a time-independent collisionless Boltzmann equation, at
the start of the N-body integration, our simulation
initializes the particles on a set of concentric rings with a
circular velocity V
rot
of disk rotation in the equatorial
plane; the system is isolated. Then the position of each
particle is slightly perturbed by applying a random number
generator. The Maxwellian-distributed random velocities v
are added to the initial circular velocities V
rot
, and
[v[5[V
rot
[; the number of particles N = 120; 000. In the
numerical experiments using the particle code, the initial
temperature of the disk (the initial sound speed c
s
) is
represented by an imposed root-mean-square random
velocity dispersion (Lin and Lau, 1979, p. 112; Binney
and Tremaine, 1987, p. 363; Tomley et al., 1991, p. 532).
The acceleration of the ith particle is
a
i
=

N
jai
(r
j
r
i
)
(r
2
ij
r
2
cut
)
3=2
. (46)
In Eq. (46), r
cut
is the so-called cutoff radius. This
softening of the gravitational potential is a device used
in N-body simulations to avoid numerical difculties at
very close but rare encounters. As is known, the gravita-
tional softening which is introduced in the model can be
interpreted physically: each of our particles has a nite
extentthey are in fact Plummer spheres with a scale size
of r
cut
(Athanassoula and Sellwood, 1986).
The initial surface density of the disk
s = s(0)(1 r
2
=R
2
)
3=2
,
the initial squared angular velocity
O
2
(r) = (3p
2
=4R)Gs(0)[1 (
3
4
)(r
2
=R
2
)],
the initial thickness h = 0:02R, the initial radial dispersion
of random velocities c
r
= 0:7c
T
(or Toomres stability
parameter Q = 0:7, respectively), the initial azimuthal
dispersion c
j
= (k=2O)c
r
, and the initial vertical dispersion
c
z
= 0:2c
r
, where s(0) is the surface density at r = 0.
Finally, the angular velocity O was replaced by (Hohl,
1972)
O = O
2

1
rs(r)
q
qr
[s(r)c
2
r
(r)]
_ _
1=2
.
Slight corrections have been applied to the resultant
velocities and coordinates of the model particles so as to
ensure the equilibrium between the centrifugal and
gravitational forces, to preserve the position of the disk
center of gravity at the origin, and to include the weak
effect of the nite thickness of the disk to the gravitational
potential. Thus, the initial model is very near the dynamical
equilibrium for all radii (see Griv and Chiueh, 1998 for a
discussion). A time t = 1 was taken to correspond to a
single revolution of the initial disk. In the experiment the
simulation was performed up to a time t = 10. It should be
noted here that after about three rotations the picture is
practically stabilized and no signicant changes in gross
properties of the model over this time are observed. Any
difference between the results of simulations with and
without applying the so-called quiet starts procedure (Griv
and Chiueh, 1998) to select the very regular initial
coordinates of particles was not found. A few runs for
larger systems containing N = 150; 000 model particles and
for smaller systems containing N = 10; 000 ones were also
performed. It was found that the results obtained for those
systems are qualitatively indistinguishable: I did not detect
in the experiments any dependence of the type
ds o N
1=2
,
where ds is the amplitude of the density variations. The last
is clearly inconsistent with Toomres (1990) and Toomre
and Kalnajs (1991) hypothesis that the spirals observed in
simulations can be explained by the swing-amplied
particle noise (kaleidoscope of chaotic arm features
which are responses to the random density irregularities
orbiting within the particulate disk). I advocate a way to
describe the rapidly evolving planar structures, such as
those reported in the simulations, in terms of true
instabilities of collective Jeans-type oscillations.
As is seen from Eq. (41), the angular momentum transfer
rate depends on equilibrium surface density s
0
(r), but not
on the particle size or number, so that the timescale of
evolution of a particulate disk is independent of the
number of particles N that is used to represent the disk, if N
is large enough to represent the spatial density wave
structure. Moreover, tests indicated that the results were
insensitive to changes in other parameters: the cutoff
parameter in the range r
cut
= (0:00120:01)R, the initial
velocity dispersion in the range c
r
= (0:220:8)c
T
, the
initial vertical velocity dispersion c
z
= (020:3)c
r
, and
the initial disk thickness in the range h = (020:075)R.
9.2. Results
Fig. 6 displays a series of snapshots from a simulation
run. As calculations show, during the rst rotation,
spontaneous unstable gravity perturbations break the
SafronovToomre unstable system (Qo1) into several
fragments. In agreement with the theoretical prediction (see
Section 5 above), in the linear regime at a time t - 0:5 the
disk takes the form of a cartwheel (cf. Fig. 3a). The
simulations show that at times t = 0:220:7, the model
resembles the cartwheel pattern most. In agreement with
the theory, the ring can be considered as the crest of a high
amplitude m = 0 Jeans-unstable density wave, while the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 562
spokes are probably nothing but density maxima of spiral
(ma0) density waves. A straightforward estimate shows
that a number of hot spots seen in Fig. 6 at times t =
0:320:5 is in fair agreement with a theoretical expectation
based on Eq. (31). Interestingly, the Gemini North 8-meter
telescope near-infrared image of the disk around the binary
star pair GG Tauri AB has revealed a somewhat similar
cartwheel-like structure (http:www.gemini.edu/gallery,
Astronomical Images). See also Roddier et al. (1996,
Plate 23). At the end of the third rotation, a quasi-
stationary system of a massive star and a pair of minor
hot Jupiter is seen. The many-body calculations pre-
sented here have nothing to do whatsoever with Wetherills
(1980) and Wetherill and Cox (1984, 1985) ones who
considered planets grow by the gradual addition of matter,
following two-body collisions and coherence (the classic
core-accretion model).
From the edge-on view pictured in Fig. 7, one can see
that a fully three-dimensional disk develops immediately at
t - 1:0. A straightforward estimate shows that a mean
height h of the disk above the plane corresponds to the
force balance between the gravitational attraction in the
plane and the pressure due to the velocity dispersion c
z
(i.e., temperature) in the z-direction:
h -
c
z

4pGr
0
_ -
c
2
s
2pGs
0
,
where r
0
- s
0
=2h is the volume mass density in the
midplane (Binney and Tremaine, 1987). Clearly, this
pressure-supported (in the z-direction) three-dimensional
structure seen to form very rapidly on the timescale of a
single vertical oscillation, O
1
, with rather sharp edges.
After a time t - 1, practically there is no change in the
edge-on structure of the system under study; it is still a
disk.
Fig. 6 gives a feeling for the evolutionary process, but in
order to trace and quantify the growth of instabilities in the
disk, it is necessary to compute Fourier decompositions of
the surface density distribution for various mode numbers.
In Fig. 8a the time evolution of the Fourier spectrum of the
spiral pattern shown in Fig. 6 is plotted. The complex
Fourier coefcients are determined from the summation
A(p; m) =
1
N

N
j=1
exp{i[mj
j
p ln(r
j
)]],
where (j
j
; r
j
) are the polar coordinates of the jth particle,
the pitch angle of an m-armed logarithmic spiral c is given
by c = arctan(p=m), positive p corresponds to trailing
spirals and negative p to leading. Thus, the power spectrum
is constructed by employing a technique where one regards
the particle, labeled by j, as a discrete d-function to
calculate the density Fourier component. In addition, the
azimuthal mode number m assumes discrete values
compatible with the azimuthal symmetry, whereas the
radial wavenumber p=r
0
assumes continuous values be-
cause of the background ow shear (Athanassoula
and Sellwood, 1986; Sellwood and Athanassoula, 1986;
Laughlin and Ro zyczka, 1996; Chiueh and Tseng, 2000;
Griv and Gedalin, 2005).
This logarithmic spiral Fourier analysis shows that the
peak of the signal of the dominant Fourier mode moves
from negative p at times tt0:3 to positive p with increasing
time, reaches a maximum at t = 0:520:7, and eventually
decays as the pitch angle continues to increase. It is natural
to attribute the observed instability to the dynamical Jeans
instability so far discussed in the paper.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0
1
2
t = 0.5
0
1
2
t = 1.0
0
1
2
t = 1.5
0
1
2
3
t = 2.0
0
1
2
3
t = 2.5
0
1.5
2.5
3.5
t = 3.0
Fig. 6. The time evolution (face-on view) of a SafronovToomre unstable disk (c
r
oc
T
, or Qo1, respectively). The time is normalized so that the time
t = 1 corresponds to a single revolution of the initial disk, and the rotation is taken to be counterclockwise. The model is violently unstable against
spontaneous, both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric gravity perturbations.
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 563
As is seen in Fig. 8b, the mass density of the disk is
effectively redistributed by the unstable waves on the
dynamical timescale. In agreement with the theory, the
surface density becomes more peaked as the wave energy
increases (cf. Fig. 5). Growing density waves (trailing spiral
arms) transfer the angular momentum outwards (Fig. 8c).
Summarizing, spiral density perturbations arising from
gravitational instabilities grow and exert torques which
redistribute both mass and angular momentum. In agree-
ment with the theory, in the quasi-steady state disk (after a
time tO
1
) a major fraction of the mass (eventually
residing in the star) retains only a minor fraction of the
angular momentum, most of the latter deposited in outer
portions of the system under study.
As is seen in Fig. 6, in the nonlinear state of instability
once a signicant fraction of the particles has been caught
up in clumps, the furious production of new gravitationally
bound objects is ceased, and the system evolves as a set of
point masses. After a long time t\3 the system reaches
dynamical stability, with only a handful of objects
remaining (cf. Mayer et al., 2002). The study of the
nonlinear state is beyond the scope of the present paper.
10. Summary
The dynamically cold (Qo1, or Top
2
G
2
s
2
0
=Rk
2
,
respectively) thin (c
s
5rO) protostellar disk is likely subject
to radial and azimuthal gravitational Jeans-type instabil-
ities and might therefore be clumpy. The instability is
driven by a strong nonresonant interaction of the gravity
uctuations with the bulk of the particle population; and
the dynamics of Jeans perturbations can be characterized
as a nonresonant waveparticle interaction. The growth
rate of the instability has a maximum at the wavelength
l
crit
-
2c
2
s
Gs
0
and the mass of a protoplanet
M
prot
pl
2
crit
s
0
.
At the boundary of instability (Q - 1), l
crit
- 2p
2
Gs
0
=
k
2
10h. Protostellar disks are likely to be unstable to the
gravitational instability on scales 10h, and locally stable
to the gravitational instability on scales much less than 10h
and much greater than 10h.
For the parameters of a marginally stable protostellar
disk (R1000 AU, k = 2p=T
orb
10
10
s
1
, the total mass
of M
disk
M

, and c
s
c
T
), one obtains the following
surface density s
0
1 g cm
2
, sound speed c
s
5
10
3
cms
1
, disk temperature T10

K, typical wavelength
l
crit
10 AU, and typical mass of a protoplanet
M
prot
10
3
M

300M

. The latter is coincident in order

of magnitude with the masses of giant planets in the solar
system. (The detection of a number of extrasolar planets
with minimum masses ranging from 0.05 to 0:5M
J
, where
M
J
= 318M

= the mass of Jupiter, has removed much of

the concern that giant planets might be rare in our Galaxy;
e.g., Udry and Mayor (2002), Greaves (2005). The mass
reservoir of dense gas present within 100 AU in disks
around T Tauri stars is sufcient to form such planets
(Greaves, 2004). We conclude that these disks are likely to
be unstable to the gravitational Jeans-type instability on
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0 1
0
1
t = 0.5
0 1
0
1
t = 1.0
0 1
0
1
t = 1.5
0 1
0
1
t = 2.5
Fig. 7. The time evolution (edge-on view) for the simulation run shown in Fig. 6.
0 10
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
p
|
A

(
p
,
4
)

|
t = 0.5
t = 0.3
(a)
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
radius
s
u
r
f
a
c
e

d
e
n
s
i
t
y
t = 0.5
t = 0
(b)
0.5 1 1.5 2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
radius
a
n
g
u
l
a
r

m
o
m
e
n
t
u
m
t = 0
t = 0.75
(c)
Fig. 8. (a) Density spectrum [A(p; 4)[ of the particle distribution shown in Fig. 6 for the dominant Fourier m = 4 mode of maximum instability, (b)
variation of the surface density for a disk at the initial stages of the evolution (cf. Fig. 5), and (c) variation of the angular momentum.
E. Griv / Planetary and Space Science 55 (2007) 547568 564
scales 10 AU. A fully developed planet (hot Jupiter)
formed in this way would resemble Jupiter or Saturn, not
Earth or Venus.
The formation of stars and planetary systems from
rotating disks of gas and dust generally requires that the
angular momentum of the disk be redistributed in such a
way that a major fraction of the mass retains only a minor
fraction of the angular momentum, most of the latter being
deposited in the outer parts of the disk. Many different
processes have been suggested as potential candidates for
angular momentum transport, and a detailed review of the
history and current state of the angular momentum
problem has recently been made by Larson (2002) and
Pfalzner (2004). The present work demonstrates that the
gravitational instability may play an important part in this
transport as well as in the turbulent heating. Gravitational
torques are efcient at transporting mass and angular
momentum; they certainly play a major role in the
evolution of the systems under study. Two-dimensional,
gravitationally (Jeans-) unstable, rotation-dominated disks
spread in radius by angular momentum transport. This
process leads to the core-dominated exponential-like mass
density prole in protostellar disks, together with the
buildup of an extended outer envelope.
Hydrodynamic turbulence develops as a result of the
instability. This self-sustained turbulence may be the
predominant mechanism of mass and angular momentum
transfer in protostellar disks. The turbulent heating process
and the angular momentum (mass) redistribution serve to
suppress the instability on the fast dynamical timescale
O
1
. The heating and the mass redistribution bring the
uncooled disk toward stabilityunless some cooling
mechanism is available, e.g., by radiation, leading to
Toomres Q-value under approximately 2against all
small-amplitude gravity perturbations, including the most
unstable nonaxisymmetric ones.
To end this paper, let us mark the following. The above
linear localized treatment may serve only as a very
approximate idea for a future theory, which must be
essentially both nonlinear (Griv et al., 2002; Griv and
Gedalin, 2004) and global. One has to investigate the
effects of nonlocality in the next step (Alexandrov et al.,
1984, p. 249). Further, the nonlocal theory provides a
formal basis for the main idea that formed the basis
for the local description, i.e., the short-wavelength
approximation, (k
r
R)
2
b(k
r
L)
2
b1 (Eq. (6)). The problem
of global stability of protostellar disks deserves a separate
study.
Acknowledgments
The author has beneted from stimulating conver-
sations with David Eichler, Michael Gedalin, Yury
Lyubarsky, Frank Shu, Raphael Steinitz, Chi Yuan, and
Irena Zlatopolsky. The comments of both referees,
Drs. Alan Boss and Eugen Willerding, helped to improve
the paper. This work was supported in part by the
Israel Science Foundation, the Israeli Ministry of Immi-
grant Absorption in the framework of the program
KAMEA, and the Binational U.S.Israel Science
Foundation.
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