Carsten Dominik (U of Amsterdam) - Dust and PAH coagulation and fragmentation in disks - recent observations and models

Title: Dust and PAH coagulation and fragmentation in disks - recent observations and models

Abstract: I will cover a number of aspects of dust particle growth in planet-forming disks. Starting small, I will discuss how PAH molecules can hide in disks by aggregating into clusters and getting stuck on dust grains, and how a fraction of these PAHs can be recovered by thermal and non-thermal processes, with the balance determining how we can observe PAHs in such disks. I will cover some scattered light observations of disks that tell us about initial dust growth and the amount of small dust left in the outer disk. And I will cover a new appreciation of the bouncing barrier by showing the effects such a barrier will have on the size distribution of dust in disks, feeding into the pebble model. Finally, I will discuss an upcoming ERC project that sets out to reveal the process and efficiency of pebble formation, a key input to all planet formation models.