Published on Mon Sep 27 2021
Dust traffic jams in inclined circumbinary protoplanetary discs – I. Morphology and formation theory
Gas and dust in inclined orbits around binaries experience precession induced
by the binary gravitational torque. The difference in precession between gas
and dust alters the radial drift of weakly coupled dust and leads to density
enhancements where the radial drift is minimised. We explore this phenomenon
using 3D hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the prominence of these
`dust traffic jams' and the evolution of the resulting dust sub-structures at
different disc inclinations and binary eccentricities. We then derive evolution
equations for the angular momentum of warped dust discs and implement them in a
1D code and present calculations to further explain these traffic jams. We find
that dust traffic jams in inclined circumbinary discs provide significant dust
density enhancements that are long lived and can have important consequences
for planetesimal formation.