Abstract

The presence of vortices in protoplanetary disk in a matter of debate for many years, and a subject of interest because of the role they can play in the dynamics of these disks. They can participate to the angular momentum transport migrating toward the star and they can play a role in the planetary formation, concentrating the solid particles. Recent observation seems to confirm this hypothesis (Van der Marel 2013), detecting local concentration of solid particles.

The subscritical baroclinic instability is able to form and amplify vortices under some conditions : finite amplitude perturbations due to the non linear trait of this instability, an unstable radial stratification, and a heat transfer.

An opened issue is what can cause strong enough perturbation to trigger the subcritical baroclinic instability. One possibility is the vertical shear instability which occur when the flow is vertically sheared and almost locally isothermal (fast heat transfer).

I will present 2D simulations to answer the question : “Is there a range of parameters for which both instabilities are possible ? ” , and 3D simulations to answer the question : “Can the vertical shear instability in three dimension lead to the formation of vortices ? “