On the Dust Signatures Induced by Eccentric Super-Earths in Protoplanetary Disks

We investigate the impact of a highly eccentric 10 M⊕ (where M⊕ is the Earth mass) planet embedded in a dusty protoplanetary disk on dust dynamics and its observational implications. By carrying out high-resolution 2D gas and dust two-fluid hydrodynamical simulations, we find that the planet's orbit can be circularized at large radii. After the planet's orbit is circularized, partial gap opening and dust ring formation happen close to the planet's circularization radius, which can explain the observed gaps/rings at the outer region of disks. When the disk mass and viscosity become low, we find that an eccentric planet can even open gaps and produce dust rings close to the pericenter and apocenter radii before its circularization. This offers alternative scenarios for explaining the observed dust rings and gaps in protoplanetary disks. A lower disk viscosity is favored to produce brighter rings in observations. An eccentric planet can also potentially slow down the dust radial drift in the outer region of the disk when the disk viscosity is low ( 2 × 10−4) and the circularization is faster than the dust radial drift.