Title: Twists and Turns in Modern Planet Formation and Evolution

Speaker: Professor Min-Kai Lin (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA))

Time: 14:00pm, June 4, 2026

Location: 3-402, PMO Xianlin Campus

Abstract: Planets are formed in gaseous protoplanetary disks around young stars. A bottleneck in modern planet formation theory is how planetesimals — the building blocks of planets — are formed from smaller pebbles. The leading mechanism for planetesimal formation is the streaming instability driven by mutual friction between the gas and embedded solids. However, protoplanetary disks are complicated by a plethora of physical effects neglected in the standard picture of the streaming instability. I will present our group’s recent work generalizing models of the streaming instability to incorporate more realistic treatments of gas dynamics, including turbulence, magnetic fields, and disk strutures. I highlight new challenges and potentially new pathways to planetesimal formation. I will also discuss how planet-disk interaction can shape the disk and leave unique features that are only found in fully 3D simulations.