Inviscid and viscous flow past embedded planets: implications for planet formation

We have investigated the flow pattern that arises past (proto)planets embedded in the nebula disk during its formation. We consider the regime where the planet mass is large enough to gravitationally perturb the gas (>~0.01 Earth masses), but not too large to open a gap or accrete unlimited amounts of gas from the disk. We consider both inviscid and viscid flows and aim to understand the flow pattern on the scales of the Bondi radius. Having described the flow pattern of the gas, we integrate trajectories of small, solid particles. In agreement with previous findings, we show that the ensuing accretion rates can be high-although, due to radial drift motions, pebble accretion is not necessarily an efficient mechanism.