Planet Formation in Transition Discs

High-resolution imaging of protoplanetary discs has revealed their wealth of substructure. Perhaps the most striking observation has been the presence of large-scale crescent-shaped features, which have been interpreted as large quantities of dust trapped in anticyclonic vortices. Such regions of high dust-to-gas ratios are expected to promote planet formation processes, so understanding their formation and evolution is of primary interest.
Gas-only hydrodynamics simulations have demonstrated that the thermal feedback from a planetary embryo undergoing rapid formation by pebble accretion can trigger the generation a large-scale vortex. However, the ability for such a vortex to trap dust and the impact this has on the forming planet are yet to be investigated. I will present results from hydrodynamics simulations of a disc containing both gas and dust, showing the efficiency with which dust grains accumulate in a vortex, and discuss the consequences this has for the growth of the planetary embryo.