Planet Formation in the Inner Regions of Protoplanetary Discs

Super-Earth sized planets, orbiting very close to their parent stars, appear to be a dominant outcome of the planet formation process. However, no concrete theory for their formation exists. To quantitatively understand how these planets emerge from the disc gas and dust, we have developed (with our last PhD student, Imperial President's PhD Scholar Marija Jankovic) one of the most sophisticated numerical models to date of the gas structure in the inner disc. Building upon this, we propose to construct the first end-to-end model of planet formation in the inner disc. We shall proceed in two steps: (1) Incorporate dust dynamics and its feedback on the gas into our numerical model, to elucidate where and how, in the inner disc, dust grains amalgamate into planetesimals - the building blocks of planets. (2) Carry out N-body simulations of the dynamical evolution of the planetesimals we form, including mutual collisions, pebble accretion and gas interactions, to study how the planetesimals grow into planets, and thus determine the architecture (planetary masses and orbital parameters) of the resulting planetary systems. Our work will yield fundamental insights into the physics governing the full formation history of close-in super-Earths, all the way from dust grains to mature planets.