Streaming Instabilities in Protoplanetary Disks

Interpenetrating streams of solids and gas in a Keplerian disk produce a local, linear instability. The two components mutually interact via aerodynamic drag, which generates radial drift and triggers unstable modes. The secular instability does not require self-gravity, yet it generates growing particle density perturbations that could seed planetesimal formation. Growth rates are slower than dynamical, but faster than radial drift, timescales. Growth rates, like streaming velocities, are maximized for marginal coupling (stopping times comparable dynamical times). Fastest growth occurs when the solid to gas density ratio is order unity and feedback is strongest. Curiously, growth is strongly suppressed when…