title: Formation of giant planets by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks.
abstract: The evolution of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks has been studied with the use of three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with unprecedented resolution. We have considered disks with initial masses and temperature profiles consistent with those inferred for the protosolar nebula and for other protoplanetary disks. We show that long-lasting, self-gravitating protoplanets arise after a few disk orbital periods if cooling is efficient enough to maintain the temperature close to 50 K. The resulting bodies have masses and orbital eccentricities similar to those of detected extrasolar planets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. lucio@physik.unizh.ch
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wadsley
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stadel
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D019419:Evolution, Planetary; D005740:Gases; D006112:Gravitation; D006859:Hydrogen; D018538:Jupiter; D016083:Planets
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D006859:Hydrogen