This is a theoretical project to develop simulations of protoplanetary disks that model the development and saturation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and the response of small solid particles to that turbulence. They will focus on planetesimals 1-100 km in size, and more accurately model Ohmic diffusion and ambipolar diffusion in disks. One of the goals is to determine whether planet formation can occur equally through a disk, or whether there are locations or disk properties (such as metallicity) that strongly favor or inhibit planetesimal formation. Planetesimals are the first bodies in primordial circumstellar disks that are large enough that their dynamics is dominated by gravity at the very early stages of planet formation, and they eventually lead to the formation of planets.
Broader impacts include training a postdoctoral researcher, incorporating this work into class lecture notes which are shared with the astronomy community, and providing planetarium programs to the public. This work has implications for models of how planets formed in our solar system, and for extrasolar planetary systems.