This thesis focuses on the evolution of zonal flows in self-gravitating accretion discs and their resulting effect on disc stability; it also studies the process of disc gravito-turbulence, with particular emphasis given to the way the turbulent state is able to extract energy from the background flow and sustain itself by means of a feedback. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an overview of systems involving accretion discs and a theoretical introduction to the theory of accretion discs, along with potential methods of angular momentum transport to explain the observed accretion rates. To address the issue of the gravito-turbulence self-sustenance, a compressible non-linear spectral code (dubbed CASPER) was developed from scratch in C; its equations and specifications are laid out in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4 an ideal (no viscosities or cooling) linear stability analysis to non-axisymmetric perturbations is carried out when a zonal flow is present in the flow. This yields two instabilities: a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (active only if the zonal flow wavelength is sufficiently small) and one driven by self-gravity. A stability analysis of the zonal flow itself is carried out in Chapter 5 by means of an axisymmetric linear analysis, using non-ideal conditions. This considers instability due to both density wave modes (which give rise to overstability) and slow modes (which result in thermal or viscous instability) and, thanks a different perturbation wavelength regime, represents an extension to the classical theory of thermal and viscous instabilities. The slow mode instability is found to be aided by high Prandtl numbers and adiabatic index γ values, while quenched by fast cooling. The overstability is likewise stabilised by fast cooling, and occurs in a non-self-gravitational regime only if γ ≲ 1.305. Lastly, Chapter 6 illustrates the results of the non-linear simulations carried out using the CASPER code. Here the system settles into a state of gravito-turbulence, which appears to be linked to a spontaneously-developing zonal flow. Results show that this zonal flow is driven by the slow mode instability discussed in Chapter 5, and that the presence of zonal flows triggers a non-axisymmetric instability, as seen in Chapter 4. The role of the latter is to constrain the zonal flow amplitude, with the resulting zonal flow disruption providing a generation of shearing waves which permits the self-sustenance of the turbulent state.

Stars form from the collapse of molecular clouds and evolve in an environment rich in gas and dust before becoming Main Sequence stars. During this phase, characterised by the presence of a protoplanetary disc, stars manifest changes in the structure and luminosity. This thesis performs a multi-wavelength analysis, from optical to mm range, on a sample of young stars (YSOs), mainly Classical T Tauri (CTTS). The purpose is to study optical and infrared variability and its relation with the protoplanetary disc. Longer wavelength, in the mm range, are used instead to investigate the evolution of the disc, in terms of dust growth. In optical, an F-test on a sample of 39 CTTS reveals that 67\% of the stars are variable. The variability, quantified through pooled sigma, is visible both in magnitude amplitudes and changes over time. Time series analysis applied on the more variable stars finds the presence of quasi periodicity, with periods longer than two weeks, interpreted either as eclipsing material in the disc happening on a non-regular basis, or as a consequence of star-disc interaction via magnetic field lines. The variability of YSOs is confirmed also in infrared, even if with lower amplitude. No strong correlations are found between optical and infrared variability, which implies a different cause or a time shift in the two events. By using a toy model to explore their origin, I find that infrared variations are likely to stem from emissions in the inner disc. The evolution of discs in terms of dust growth is confirmed in most discs by the analysis of the slope of the spectral energy distribution (SED), after correcting for wind emission and optical depth effects. However, the comparison with a radiative transfer model highlights that a number of disc parameters, in particular disc masses and temperature, dust size distribution and composition, can also affect the slope of the SED.

We present a new analysis of multi-epoch, H-band, scattered light images of the AB Aur system. We use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to simultaneously model the system's spectral energy distribution (SED) and H-band polarized intensity (PI) imagery. We find that a disk-dominated model, as opposed to one that is envelope-dominated, can plausibly reproduce AB Aur's SED and near-IR imagery. This is consistent with previous modeling attempts presented in the literature and supports the idea that at least a subset of AB Aur's spirals originate within the disk. In light of this, we also analyzed the movement of spiral structures in multi-epoch H-band total light and PI imagery of the disk. We detect no significant rotation or change in spatial location of the spiral structures in these data, which span a 5.8-year baseline. If such structures are caused by disk-planet interactions, the lack of observed rotation constrains the location of the orbit of planetary perturbers to be >47 au.

LkCa 15 hosts a pre-transitional disk as well as at least one accreting protoplanet orbiting in its gap. Previous disk observations have focused mainly on the outer disk, which is cleared inward of similar to 50 au. The planet candidates, on the other hand, reside at orbital radii around 15 au, where disk observations have been unreliable until recently. Here, we present new J-band imaging polarimetry of LkCa 15 with SPHERE IRDIS, yielding the most accurate and detailed scattered-light images of the disk to date down to the planet-hosting inner regions. We find what appear to be persistent asymmetric structures in the scattering material at the location of the planet candidates, which could be responsible at least for parts of the signals measured with sparse-aperture masking. These images further allow us to trace the gap edge in scattered light at all position angles and search the inner and outer disks for morphological substructure. The outer disk appears smooth with slight azimuthal variations in polarized surface brightness, which may be due to shadowing from the inner disk or a two-peaked polarized phase function. We find that the near-side gap edge revealed by polarimetry matches the sharp crescent seen in previous ADI imaging very well. Finally, the ratio of polarized disk to stellar flux is more than six times larger in the J-band than in the RI bands.

We study orbital evolution of multiple Earth-mass protoplanets in their natal protoplanetary disk. Our aim is to explore the interplay between migration of protoplanets driven by the disk gravity, their growth by pebble accretion, and accretion heating which affects gas in their neighbourhood. Radiation hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations in 2D and 3D are used to model the problem. We find that the heating torque, i.e. the torque exerted by asymmetric hot underdense gas near accreting protoplanets, significantly changes the migration. Specifically, it excites orbital eccentricities of migrating protoplanets, thus preventing their capture in chains of mean-motion resonances. The protoplanets then undergo numerous close encounters and form giant planet cores by mutual collisions. Additionally, if inclinations also become excited, we describe a new mechanism that can form binary planets by means of consecutive two-body and three-body encounters, with the assistance of the disk gravity. Finally, our 3D RHD simulations reveal a complex distortion of the gas flow near an accreting protoplanet, driven by baroclinic perturbations and convection. For specific temperature-dependent opacities of the disk, an instability is triggered which redistributes gas around the protoplanet and leads to an oscillatory migration,...

Pour cette thèse, nous avons été intéressé par les effets de la cavité magnétique et les effets de marées stellaires sur nos modèles de populations de synthèses planétaires. La cavité magnétique a été proposé comme un mécanisme important de la formation planétaire, en cela qu'elle peut stopper la migration radiale de la planète vers l'étoile (Lin et al. 1995). Dans ce travail on a modifié l'équation de diffusion pour l'évolution radiale de la densité de surface du disque de gas (1D), afin de tenir compte de l'effet du couple magnétique sur le disque (Armitage et al. 1999). D'autre part les effets de marées ont été inclus par un modèle analytique (Benitez-Llambay et al. 2011). Pour ce travail, on a utilisé le modèle de formation planétaire de Bern (Mordasini et al 2009a), auquel nous avons inclus ces deux effets. Enfin, nous avons comparé la distribution orbitale synthétique à la distribution orbitale observée par Kepler (Howard et al. 2012).Finalement, un dernier chapitre traite un sujet différent du reste de la thèse. Nous avons testé l'accrétion de pebbles (ou "pebble mechanism") dans le modèle de formation de Bern. Ce chapitre, est en fait un premier pas vers un modèle plus complet. Cependant, nous avons montré que l'implémentation numérique fonctionne bien. / In this thesis, we have been interested on the effects of the magnetic cavity and the stellar tides in synthetic planet population. The magnetic cavity is thought be important at the formation phase since it can truncates the gaseous disk and potentially stops the inward migration of planets (Lin et al. 1995). In this work we modified the standard radial viscous equation in order to take into account the effect of the magnetic torque on the gaseous disk (Armitage et al. 1999). Moreover, the stellar tides have been included in an analytical way as in (Bénitez-Llambay et al. 2011). For this work, we used the planetary model of Bern (Mordasini et al. 2012) at which we included both effects. The end of the thesis compare the synthetic orbital distribution with the orbital distribution observed by Kepler (Howard et al. 2012).Finally, a last chapter treats a topic different than the rest of the thesis. We tested the so called pebble mechanism (Ormel&Klahr2010) in the planetary formation model of Bern. So far, this chapter is a first step to a more complete model. However, we show that the numerical implementation is working well.

Les disques de gaz et de poussières entourant les étoiles jeunes sont d'une importance capitale pour notre compréhension de la formation planétaire. Les observations de ces disques permettent d'avoir un niveau de détails sans précédent sur ces derniers et apportent des contraintes toujours plus fortes sur leur structure et sur les modèles de formation planétaire. Les parties de ces disques les plus proches de l'étoile sont néanmois encore assez mal connues; en effet, pour pouvoir résoudre ces parties internes pour les étoiles jeunes les plus proches de la Terre, un télescope de 100 mètres de diamètre serait nécessaire, ce qui est technologiquement et financièrement impossible actuellement. L'interférométrie permet de contourner ce problème en combinant la lumière de paires de télescopes, permettant ainsi un plus grand pouvoir de résolution. Ma thèse à portée sur l'observation et l'étude des parties internes des disques circumstellaire d'étoiles de type T Tauri. Une étude statistique sur l'environnement de ces étoiles y est présentée, ainsi que leur modélisation par un modèle prenant en compte les mécanisme d'émission et de diffusion de la lumiere par la poussière. La modélisation de disque circumstellaires par un code de transfert radiatif et en combinant des données interférométriques, photométriques et spectroscopiques est aussi abordée. / Observing gas and dusty disks around young stars are of utmost importance for our knowledge about planetary formation. Observations of these disks bring unprecedented details about their structure and composition, and provide stronger and stronger constrains on planetary formation models. However, the inner parts of these disk are still barely known. indeed, a 100 m diameter telescope would be required in order to resolve these inner region, for the closest young stars; nowaday, the construction of such telescope is impossible technologically and financially. By combining the light of pairs of telescopes, the interferometry technique is able to reach the sufficient resolving power, and permits us to observe the inner parts of circumstellar disks. My thesis has been focused on the observation and study of the inner part of TTauri's circumstellar disks. I present in this manuscript a statistical study on the environment around these stars, along with its modeling by taking into account thermal emission and light scattering of the disk. Finally, I present a more complete modelling for some of these stars, done by constraining spectroscopic, interferometric and photometric datasets with a radiative transfer code.

No description available.

We investigate the observational signatures of super-Earths (i.e., planets with. Earth-to-Neptune. mass), which are the most common type of exoplanet discovered to date, in their natal disks of gas and dust. Combining two-fluid global hydrodynamics simulations with a radiative transfer code, we calculate the distributions of gas and of submillimeter-sized dust in a disk perturbed by a super-Earth, synthesizing images in near-infrared scattered light and the millimeter-wave thermal continuum for direct comparison with observations. In low-viscosity gas (alpha (sic) 10(-4)), a super-Earth opens two annular gaps to either side of its orbit by the action of Lindblad torques. This double gap and its associated gas pressure gradients cause dust particles to be dragged by gas into three rings: one ring sandwiched between the two gaps, and two rings located at the gap edges farthest from the planet. Depending on the. system parameters, additional rings may manifest for a single planet. A double gap located at tens of au. from a host star in Taurus can be detected in the dust continuum by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) at an angular resolution of similar to 0".03 after two hours of integration. Ring and gap features persist in a variety of background disk profiles, last for thousands of orbits, and change their relative positions and dimensions depending on the speed and direction of planet migration. Candidate double gaps have been observed by ALMA in systems such as. HL Tau (D5 and D6) and TW Hya (at 37 and 43 au); we submit that each double gap is carved by one super-Earth in nearly inviscid gas.

Le rôle des tourbillons anticycloniques dans l'évolution des disques protoplanétaires et, en particulier, dans les mécanismes de formation des planétésimaux, est au coeur des défis actuels de l'astrophysique moderne. C'est pourquoi une étude approfondie de leur structure et de leur dynamique est primordiale.Grâce à un outil numérique spécifiquement développé pour l'étude des disques, nous avons revisité l'Instabilité en Ondes de Rossby dans le régime non linéaire, et découvert l'existence d'une cascade des modes de perturbation qui permet de mieux comprendre la formation des tourbillons par cette instabilité.Leur structure à été décrite par un modèle gaussien innovant, remarquablement en accord avec les résultats numériques. Grâce à un échantillon de près de 300 tourbillons, nous avons borné le domaine des dimensions radiales, azimutales et de la vorticité. Deux familles de tourbillons possibles ont été distinguées : (i) les tourbillons incompressibles, stables et quasi-stationnaires; (ii) les tourbillons compressibles, très mobiles et associés à l'émission d'ondes de densité. Leur persistance sur plus de 1000 rotations confirme l'observabilité de tous ces tourbillons. Enfin, nous avons caractérisé leur migration vers l'étoile en fonction de leur géométrie, du gradient de pression et de l'échelle de hauteur du disque. Pour la première fois, une expression analytique permet d'estimer le taux de migration en fonction de ces paramètres; l'échelle de temps pour tomber sur étoile peut aller de 10^6 à 100 rotations. Suivant un modèle de viscosité alpha, la perte de moment cinétique pourrait être suffisante pour maintenir un taux d'accrétion significatif dans la zone morte. / The role of anticyclonic vortices in the protoplanetary disk evolution and in how do planetesimals form are among the most important chalenges of the modern astrophysics. That is why an exhaustive study of the structure and the evolution of these vortices is necessary.Thanks to a numerical code specificly designed for the study of these disks, we have revisited the Rossby Wave Instability in the nonlinear regime, and have discovered that a cascade of the perturbation modes can explain the formation of the vortices created by this instability.We have described the structure of these Rossby vortices with a new gaussian vortex model, which accurately fits the numerical results. A sample of 300 different vortices led us to define the bondaries of the radial and azimuthal extent as well as the vorticity of the vortices. We have distinguished two main families : (i) the incompressible family, which is stable and quasi stationnary ; (ii) the compressible family, moving and exciting density waves. We found them surviving more than 1000 orbits, a clear confirmation of their observability.Finaly, we have caracterized the inward migration of the vortices as a fonction of their shape, their vorticity, but also of the pressure gradient and the scale height of the disk. For the first time, we exhibit a equation relating the migration rate to these parameters. The time scale of the migration ranges from 10^6 to just 100 rotations of the disk. Extremely steep pressure gradients are needed to reverse the migration to an outward regime. Following the alpha viscosity approch, the loss of kinetic momentum due to this migration would be sufficient to sustain the accretion in the dead zone.