Astro Seminar
Planetary populations as a reflection of planet formation processes
Speaker: Ralph Pudritz (McMaster)
Date: Wednesday 23 March 2022
Time: 14:00
Venue: Zoom
Connecting the observed properties of exoplanet populations such as the composition of their atmospheres with how planets form is one of the great questions in the theory of planet formation. As an example, the observed elemental C/O ratio of a planet's atmosphere has been suggested as a means of determining where in the disk a planet may have acquired most of its material. These issues are complicated by the fact that planets migrate as they accrete. Observations of disks have recently shown that turbulence within them can be surprisingly low while evidence increases for the action of disk winds that transport away disk angular momentum. These processes can have a profound effect on how and even in which direction planets migrate and what they accrete. In this talk I will provide an overview of how recent advances in disk physics and observed ring/gap structure may give new insights on these topics. I will then summarize several of our own recent contributions on how turbulence and disk winds affect the structure of planetary populations.