Formation of the First Planetesimals via the Streaming Instability in Globally Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks?

Abstract

Using self-consistent models of turbulent particle growth in an evolving protoplanetary nebula of solar composition, we find that recently proposed local metallicity and Stokes number criteria necessary for the streaming instability to generate gravitationally bound particle overdensities are generally not approached anywhere in the disk during the first million years, an epoch in which meteoritic and observational evidence strongly suggests that the formation of the first planetesimals and perhaps giant planet core accretion are already occurring.

Keywords

• Protoplanetary disks