Sustained Kozai-Lidov Oscillations in Misaligned Circumstellar Gas Disks

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-19-2021

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Volume

907

Issue

1

Abstract

© 2021. The American Astronomical Society. A disk around one component of a binary star system with sufficiently high inclination can undergo Kozai-Lidov (KL) oscillations during which the disk inclination and disk eccentricity are exchanged. Previous studies show that without a source of accretion, KL unstable disks exhibit damped oscillations, due to viscous dissipation, that leave the disk stable near or below the critical inclination for KL oscillations. With three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations we show that a highly misaligned circumbinary disk that flows onto the binary components forms highly inclined circumstellar disks around each component. We show that a continuous infall of highly inclined material allows the KL oscillations to continue. The KL disk oscillations produce shocks and eccentricity growth in the circumstellar disks that affect the conditions for planet formation.

Disciplines

Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

Language

English

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