arXiv subjects

Susanne Pfalzner

Publications and source records attributed to Susanne Pfalzner.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Oumuamuas passing through molecular clouds

The detections of 1I/Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov within just two years demonstrate impressively that interstellar objects (ISOs) must be common in the Milky Way. Once released from their parent system, these ISOs travel for Gyr through interstellar space. While often imagined as empty, interstellar space contains gas and dust most prominent in the form of molecular clouds. Performing numerical simulations, we test how often ISOs cross such molecular clouds. We find that the ISOs pass amazingly often through molecular clouds. In the solar neighbourhood, ISOs typically spend 0.1-0.2% of their journey inside molecular clouds, for relative slow ISOs ($<$ 5 km/s) this can increase to 1-2%, equivalent to 10 - 20 Myr per Gyr. Thus the dynamically youngest ISOs spend the longest time in molecular clouds. In other words, molecular clouds must mainly contain relatively young ISOs ($<$ 1-2 Gyr). Thus the half-life of the seeding process by ISOs is substantially shorter than a stellar lifetime. The actual amount of time spent in MCs decreases with distance to the Galactic Centre. We find that ISOs pass so often through MCs that backtracing their path to find their parent star beyond 250 Myr seems beyond the point. Besides, we give a first estimate of the ISO density depending on the galactic centre distance based on the stellar distribution.

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arXiv2020

Cradle(s) of the Sun

The Sun likely formed as part of a group of stars. A close stellar flyby by one of the solar siblings is probably responsible for the sharp outer edge in the solar system`s mass distribution. The frequency of such close flybys can be used to determine the likely type of birth environment of the solar system. Young stellar groups develop very quickly, expanding significantly within just a few Myr. Here we model this strong dynamical development of young stellar groups and determine the resulting close flyby history. We find that solar system equivalents are predominantly produced in areas with stellar densities in the range 5 $\times$ 10$^4$ pc$^{-3}<$ n$_{local} <$ 2 $\times$ 10$^5$pc$^{-3}$. Remarkably we find that only two very distinct types of stellar groups can be considered as serious contestants as the cradle of the Sun -- high-mass, extended associations ($M_c >$ 20 000 $M_{sun}$) and intermediate-mass mass, compact clusters ($M_c <$ 3000 $M_{sun}$). Current day counterparts would be the association NGC 2244 and the M44 cluster, respectively. In these two types of stellar groups, close flybys take place at a sufficiently high rate, while not being too destructive either. A final decision between these two remaining options will require incorporation of constraints from cosmo-chemical studies.

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arXiv2019

DESTINY: Database for the Effects of STellar encounters on dIsks and plaNetary sYstems

Most stars form as part of a stellar group. These young stars are mostly surrounded by a disk from which potentially a planetary system might form. Both, the disk and later on the planetary system, may be affected by the cluster environment due to close fly-bys. The here presented database can be used to determine the gravitational effect of such fly-bys on non-viscous disks and planetary systems. The database contains data for fly-by scenarios spanning mass ratios between the perturber and host star from 0.3 to 50.0, periastron distances from 30 au to 1000 au, orbital inclination from $0^{\circ}$ to ${180^\circ}$ and angle of periastron of $0^{\circ}$, ${45^\circ}$ and ${90^\circ}$. Thus covering a wide parameter space relevant for fly-bys in stellar clusters. The data can either be downloaded to perform one's own diagnostics like for e.g. determining disk size, disk mass, etc. after specific encounters, obtain parameter dependencies or the different particle properties can be visualized interactively. Currently the database is restricted to fly-bys on parabolic orbits, but it will be extended to hyperbolic orbits in the future. All of the data from this extensive parameter study is now publicly available as DESTINY.

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arXiv2019

Planet formation in clusters

One well-tested method in science is to separate the object of interest from its surroundings and look at it in isolation. The advantage is that unimportant information is removed and the true properties of the object are seen more clearly. However, sometimes the influences of the surroundings actually determine the properties of an object. In this case, not taking the environment into account can lead to incomplete or even false conclusions. In the context of planet formation this question arises to: is it sufficient to study the nascent planetary system in isolation? Stars usually do not form in isolation but as part of a stellar group. The first important question in this field is then: How important is the influence of the surrounding stars on circumstellar discs and forming planetary systems?} We can also pose a second question: Does radiation or gravitational interaction dominate? Here I give my perspective on these two questions.

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arXiv2019

Observations meets theory in clustered star formation

Stars form predominantly in groups which display a broad spectrum of masses, sizes, and other properties. Despite this diversity there exist an underlying structure that can constrain cluster formation theories. We show how combining observations with simulations allows to disclose this underlying structure. One example is the mass-radius relation for young embedded associations which follows $M_c = CR_c^γ$ with $γ$ = 1.7 $\pm$0.2, which is directly related to the mass-radius relation of clumps. Results based on GAIA 2D have demonstrated that young stellar groups (1--5 Myr) expand and that this expansion process is largely over by an age of 10-20 Myr. Such a behaviour is expected within the gas expulsion scenario. However, the effect of gas expulsion depends strongly on a the SFE, the gas expulsion time scale, etc. Here it is demonstrated how existing and upcoming data are able to constrain these parameters and correspondingly the underlying models.

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arXiv2019

A hypothesis for the rapid formation of planets

The discovery of 1I/`Oumuamua confirmed that planetesimals must exist in great numbers in interstellar space. Originally generated during planet formation, they are scattered from their original systems and subsequently drift through interstellar space. As a consequence they should seed molecular clouds with at least hundred-metre-scale objects. We consider how the galactic background density of planetesimals, enriched from successive generations of star and system formation, can be incorporated into forming stellar systems. We find that at minimum of the order of 10$^{7}$ `Oumuamua-sized and larger objects, plausibly including hundred-kilometre-scale objects, should be present in protoplanetary disks. At such initial sizes, the growth process of these seed planetesimals in the initial gas- and dust-rich protoplanetary disks is likely to be substantially accelerated. This could resolve the tension between accretionary timescales and the observed youth of fully-fledged planetary systems. Our results strongly advocate that the population of interstellar planetesimals should be taken into account in future studies of planet formation. As not only the Galaxy's stellar metallicity increased over time but also the density of interstellar objects, we hypothesize that this enriched seeding accelerates and enhances planetary formation after the first couple of generations of planetary systems.

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arXiv2018

Creating retrogradely orbiting planets by prograde stellar fly-bys

Several planets have been found that orbit their host star on retrograde orbits (spin-orbit angle ϕ > 90°). Currently, the largest measured projected angle between the orbital angular momentum axis of a planet and the rotation axis of its host star has been found for HAT-P-14b to be $\approx$ 171°. One possible mechanism for the formation of such misalignments is through long-term interactions between the planet and other planetary or stellar companions. However, with this process, it has been found to be difficult to achieve retrogradely orbiting planets, especially planets that almost exactly counter-orbit their host star (ϕ $\approx$ 180°) such as HAT-P-14b. By contrast, orbital misalignment can be produced efficiently by perturbations of planetary systems that are passed by stars. Here we demonstrate that not only retrograde fly-bys, but surprisingly, even prograde fly-bys can induce retrograde orbits. Our simulations show that depending on the mass ratio of the involved stars, there are significant ranges of planetary pre-encounter parameters for which counter-orbiting planets are the natural consequence. We find that the highest probability to produce counter-orbiting planets ($\approx$ 20%) is achieved with close prograde, coplanar fly-bys of an equal-mass perturber with a pericentre distance of one-third of the initial orbital radius of the planet. For fly-bys where the pericentre distance equals the initial orbital radius of the planet, we still find a probability to produce retrograde planets of $\approx$ 10% for high-mass perturbers on inclined (60° < i < 120°) orbits. As usually more distant fly-bys are more common in star clusters, this means that inclined fly-bys probably lead to more retrograde planets than those with inclinations < 60°. (...)

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arXiv2018

How do disks and planetary systems in high-mass open clusters differ from those around field stars?

Only star clusters that are sufficiently compact and massive survive largely unharmed beyond 10 Myr. However, their compactness means a high stellar density which can lead to strong gravitational interactions between the stars. As young stars are often initially surrounded by protoplanetary disks and later on potentially by planetary systems, the question arises to what degree these strong gravitational interactions influence planet formation and the properties of planetary systems. Here, we perform simulations of the evolution of compact high-mass clusters like Trumpler 14 and Westerlund 2 from the embedded to the gas-free phase and study the influence of stellar interactions. We concentrate on the development of the mean disk size in these environments. Our simulations show that in high-mass open clusters $80-90\%$ of all disks/planetary systems should be smaller than 50 AU just due to the strong stellar interactions in these environments. Already in the initial phases, 3-4 close fly-bys lead to typical disk sizes within the range of 18-27 AU. Afterwards, the disk sizes are altered only to a small extent. Our findings agree with the recent observation that the disk sizes in the once dense environment of the Upper Scorpio OB association, NGC~2362, and h/$χ$Persei are at least three times smaller in size than, for example, in Taurus. We conclude that the observed planetary systems in high-mass open clusters should also be on average smaller than those found around field stars; in particular, planets on wide orbits are expected to be extremely rare in such environments.

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arXiv2018

Outer solar system possibly shaped by a stellar fly-by

The planets of our solar system formed from a gas-dust disk. However, there are some properties of the solar system that are peculiar in this context. First, the cumulative mass of all objects beyond Neptune (TNOs) is only a fraction of what one would expect. Second, unlike the planets themselves, the TNOs do not orbit on coplanar, circular orbits around the Sun, but move mostly on inclined, eccentric orbits and are distributed in a complex way. This implies that some process restructured the outer solar system after its formation. However, some of TNOs, referred to as Sednoids, move outside the zone of influence of the planets. Thus external forces must have played an important part in the restructuring of the outer solar system. The study presented here shows that a close fly-by of a neighbouring star can simultaneously lead to the observed lower mass density outside 30 AU and excite the TNOs onto eccentric, inclined orbits, including the family of Sednoids. In the past it was estimated that such close fly-bys are rare during the relevant development stage. However, our numerical simulations show that such a scenario is much more likely than previously anticipated. A fly-by also naturally explains the puzzling fact that Neptune has a higher mass than Uranus. Our simulations suggest that many additional Sednoids at high inclinations still await discovery, perhaps including bodies like the postulated planet X.

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arXiv2017

Did a stellar fly-by shape the planetary system around Pr 0211 in the cluster M 44?

Out of the $\sim$ 3000 exoplanets detected so far, only fourteen planets are members of open clusters: among them an exoplanet system around Pr 0211 in the cluster M44 which consists of at least two planets with the outer planet moving on a highly eccentric orbit at 5.5 AU. One hypothesis is that a close fly-by of a neighbouring star was responsible for the eccentric orbit. We test this hypothesis. First we determine the type of fly-by that would lead to the observed parameters and then use this result to determine the history of such fly-bys in simulations of the early dynamics in an M44-like environment. We find that although very close fly-bys are required to obtain the observed properties of Pr 0211c, such fly-bys are relatively common due to the high stellar density and longevity of the cluster. Such close fly-bys are most frequent during the first 1-2 Myr after cluster formation, corresponding to a cluster age $\leq$ 3 Myr. During the first 2 to 3 Myr about 6.5% of stars actually experience a fly-by that would lead to such a small system-size as observed for Pr0211 or even smaller. It is unclear whether planets generally form on such short timescales. However, afterwards the close fly-by rate is still 0.2-0.5 Myr$^{-1}$, which means extrapolating this to the age of M44 12%-20% of stars would experience such close fly-bys over this timespan. Our simulations show that the fly-by scenario is a realistic option for the formation of eccentricity orbits of the planets in M44. The occurrence of such events is relatively high leading to the expectation that similar systems are likely common in open clusters in general.

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arXiv2017

From star-disc encounters to numerical solutions for a subset of the restricted three-body problem

Various astrophysical processes are known, where the fly-by of a massive object affects matter initially supported against gravity by rotation. Examples are perturbations of galaxies, protoplanetary discs or planetary systems. We approximate such events as subset of the restricted three-body problem by considering only perturbations of non-interacting low-mass objects initially on circular Keplerian orbits. In this paper we present a new parametrisation of the initial conditions of this problem. Under certain conditions the initial positions of the low-mass objects can be specified largely independent of the initial position of the perturber. Exploiting additionally the known scalings of the problem reduces the parameter space of initial conditions for one specific perturbation to two dimensions. To this two-dimensional initial condition space we have related the final properties of the perturbed trajectories of the low-mass objects from our numerical simulations. That way, maps showing the effect of the perturbation on the low-mass objects have been created, which provide a new view on the perturbation process. Comparing the maps for different mass-ratios reveals that the perturbations by low- and high-mass perturbers are dominated by different physical processes. The equal-mass case is a complicated mixture of the other two cases. Since the final properties of trajectories with similar initial conditions are usually also similar, the results of the limited number of integrated trajectories can be generalised to the full presented parameter space by interpolation. Since our results are also unique within the accuracy strived for, they constitute general numerical solutions for this subset of the restricted three-body problem. As such, they can be used to predict the evolution of real physical problems by simple transformations like scaling and without further simulations. (...)

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arXiv2016

Effects of inclined star-disk encounter on protoplanetary disk size

Most, if not all, young stars are initially surrounded by protoplanetary disks. Owing to the preferential formation of stars in stellar clusters, the protoplanetary disks around these stars may potentially be affected by the cluster environment. Various works have investigated the influence of stellar fly-bys on disks, although many of them consider only the effects due to parabolic, coplanar encounters often for equal-mass stars, which is only a very special case. We perform numerical simulations to study the fate of protoplanetary disks after the impact of parabolic star-disk encounter for the less investigated case of inclined up to coplanar, retrograde encounters, which is a much more common case. Here, we concentrate on the disk size after such encounters because this limits the size of the potentially forming planetary systems. In addition, with the possibilities that ALMA offers, now a direct comparison to observations is possible. Covering a wide range of periastron distances and mass ratios between the mass of the perturber and central star, we find that despite the prograde, coplanar encounters having the strongest effect on the disk size, inclined and even the least destructive retrograde encounters mostly also have a considerable effect, especially for close periastron passages. Interestingly, we find a nearly linear dependence of the disk size on the orbital inclination for the prograde encounters, but not for the retrograde case. We also determine the final orbital parameters of the particles in the disk such as eccentricities, inclinations, and semi-major axes. Using this information the presented study can be used to describe the fate of disks and also that of planetary systems after inclined encounters.

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arXiv2016

Cluster dynamics largely shapes protoplanetary disc sizes

It is still on open question to what degree the cluster environment influences the sizes of protoplanetary discs surrounding young stars. Particularly so for the short-lived clusters typical for the solar neighbourhood in which the stellar density and therefore the influence of the cluster environment changes considerably over the first 10 Myr. In previous studies often the effect of the gas on the cluster dynamics has been neglected, this is remedied here. Using the code NBody6++ we study the stellar dynamics in different developmental phases - embedded, expulsion, expansion - including the gas and quantify the effect of fly-bys on the disc size. We concentrate on massive clusters ($M_{\text{cl}} \geq 10^3 - 6 \cdot 10^4 M_{\text{Sun}}$), which are representative for clusters like the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) or NGC 6611. We find that not only the stellar density but also the duration of the embedded phase matters. The densest clusters react fastest to the gas expulsion and drop quickly in density, here 98% of relevant encounters happen before gas expulsion. By contrast, discs in sparser clusters are initially less affected but as they expand slower 13% of discs are truncated after gas expulsion. For ONC-like clusters we find that usually discs larger than 500 AU are affected by the environment, which corresponds to the observation that 200 AU-sized discs are common. For NGC 6611-like clusters disc sizes are cut-down on average to roughly 100 AU. A testable hypothesis would be that the discs in the centre of NGC 6611 should be on average ~20 AU and therefore considerably smaller than in the ONC.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Strong effect of the cluster environment on the size of protoplanetary discs?

Context. Most stars are born in clusters, thus the protoplanetary discs surrounding the newly formed stars might be influenced by this environment. Isolated star-disc encounters have previously been studied, and it was shown that very close encounters are necessary to completely destroy discs. However, relatively distant encounters are still able to change the disc size considerably. Aims. We quantify the importance of disc-size reduction that is due to stellar encounters in an entire stellar population. Methods. We modelled young, massive clusters of different densities using the code Nbody6 to determine the statistics of stellar encounter parameters. In a second step, we used these parameters to investigate the effect of the environments on the disc size. For this purpose, we performed a numerical experiment with an artificial initial disc size of 105 AU. Results. We quantify to which degree the disc size is more sensitive to the cluster environment than to the disc mass or frequency. We show that in all investigated clusters a large portion of discs is significantly reduced in size. After 5 Myr, the fraction of discs smaller than 1000 AU in ONC-like clusters with an average number density of 60pc$^3$, the fraction of discs smaller than 1000 AU is 65%, while discs smaller than 100 AU make up 15%. These fractions increase to 84% and 39% for discs in denser clusters like IC 348 (500pc$^3$). Even in clusters with a density four times lower than in the ONC (15pc$^3$), about 43% of all discs are reduced to sizes below 1 000 AU and roughly 9% to sizes below 100 AU. Conclusions. For any disc in the ONC that initially was larger than 1 000 AU, the probability to be truncated to smaller disc sizes as a result of stellar encounters is quite high. Thus, among other effects, encounters are important in shaping discs and potentially forming planetary systems in stellar clusters.

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arXiv2015

Which young clusters/associations are we missing today?

Currently clusters/associations of stars are mainly detected as surface density enhancements relative to the background field. While clusters form, their surface density increases. It likely decreases again at the end of the star formation process when the system expands as a consequence of gas expulsion. Therefore the surface density of a single cluster can change considerably in young clusters/associations during the first 20 Myr of their development. We investigate the effect of the gas expulsion on the detectability of clusters/associations typical for the solar neighborhood, where the star formation efficiency is <35%. The main focus will be laid on the dependence on the initial cluster mass. Nbody methods are used to determine the cluster/association dynamics after gas expulsion. We find that, even for low background densities, only clusters/associations with initial central surface densities exceeding a few 5000 M(sun)/pc2 will be detected as clusters at ages ~5 Myr. Even the Orion Nebula cluster, one of the most massive nearby clusters, would only be categorized as a small co-moving group with current methods after 5 Myr of development. This means that cluster expansion leads to a selection effect - at ages of <1-2 Myr the full range of clusters/associations is observed whereas at ages > 4 Myr only the most massive clusters are identified, while systems with initially M_c < 3 000 M(sun) are missing. The temporal development of stellar properties is usually determined by observing clusters of different ages. The potentially strong inhomogeneity of the cluster sample makes this methods highly questionable. However, GAIA could provide the means to rectify this situation as it will be able to detect lower mass clusters.

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arXiv2014

Short dissipation times of proto-planetary discs - an artifact of selection effects?

The frequency of discs around young stars, a key parameter for understanding planet formation, is most readily determined in young stellar clusters where many relatively coeval stars are located in close proximity. Observational studies seem to show that the disc frequency decreases rapidly with cluster age with <10% of cluster stars retaining their discs for longer than 2-6 Myr. Given that at least half of all stars in the field seem to harbor one or more planets, this would imply extremely fast disc dispersal and rapid planet growth. Here we question the validity of this constraint by demonstrating that the short disc dissipation times inferred to date might have been heavily underestimated by selection effects. Critically, for ages >3Myr only stars that originally populated the densest areas of very populous clusters, which are prone to disc erosion, are actually considered. This tiny sample may not be representative of the majority of stars. In fact, the higher disc fractions in co-moving groups indicate that it is likely that over 30% of all field stars retain their discs well beyond 10 Myr, leaving ample time for planet growth. Equally our solar system, with a likely formation time > 10 Myr, need no longer be an exception but in fact typical of planetary systems.

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arXiv2014

Stellar age spreads in clusters as imprints of cluster-parent clump densities

It has recently been suggested that high-density clusters have stellar age distributions narrower than that of the Orion Nebula Cluster, indicating a possible trend of narrower age distributions for denser clusters. We show this effect to likely arise from star formation being faster in gas with a higher density. We model the star formation history of molecular clumps in equilibrium by associating a star formation efficiency (SFE) per free-fall time, \eff, to their volume density profile. Our model predicts a steady decline of the star formation rate (SFR), which we quantify with its half-life time, namely, the time needed for the SFR to drop to half its initial value. Given the uncertainties affecting the SFE per free-fall time, we consider two distinct values: 0.1 and 0.01. For isothermal spheres, \eff=0.1 leads to a half-life time of order the clump free-fall time, \tff. Therefore, the age distributions of stars formed in high-density clumps have smaller full-widths at half-maximum than those of stars formed in low-density clumps. When \eff=0.01, the half-life time is 10 times longer. We explore what happens if the star formation duration is shorter than 10\tff, that is, if the half-life time of the SFR cannot be defined. There, we build on the invariance of the shape of the young cluster mass function to show that an anti-correlation between clump density and star formation duration is expected. Therefore, regardless of whether the star formation duration is longer than the SFR half-life time, denser molecular clumps yield narrower star age distributions in clusters. Published densities and stellar age spreads of young clusters actually suggest that the time-scale for star formation is of order 1-4\tff. We conclude that there is no need to invoke the existence of multiple cluster formation mechanisms to explain the observed range of stellar age spreads in clusters.

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arXiv2014

Revisiting the universality of (multiple) star formation in present-day star formation regions

Populations of multiple stars inside clustered regions are known to change through dynamical interactions. The efficiency of binary disruption is thought to be determined by stellar density. King and collaborators recently investigated the multiplicity properties in young star forming regions and in the Galactic field. They concluded that stellar density-dependent modification of a universal initial binary population (the standard or null hypothesis model) cannot explain the observations. We re-visit their results, analyzing the data within the framework of different model assumptions, namely non-universality without dynamical modification and universality with dynamics. We illustrate that the standard model does account for all known populations if regions were significantly denser in the past. Some of the effects of using present-day cluster properties as proxies for their past values are emphasized and that the degeneracy between age and density of a star forming region can not be omitted when interpreting multiplicity data. A new analysis of the Corona Australis region is performed within the standard model. It is found that this region is likely as unevolved as Taurus and an initial density of $\approx190M_{\odot}\;pc^{-3}$ is required to produce the presently observed binary population, which is close to its present-day density.

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