Vortices and spirals at gap edges in 3D self-gravitating disk-planet simulations

Numerical simulations of global 3D self-gravitating protoplanetary disks with a gap opened by an embedded planet are presented. The simulations are customised to examine planetary gap stability. Previous results, obtained by Lin & Papaloizou from 2D disk models, are reproduced in 3D. These include (i) the development of vortices associated with local potential vorticity minima at gap edges and their merging on dynamical timescales in weakly self-gravitating disks, (ii) the increased number of vortices as the strength of self-gravity is increased and their resisted merging, and (iii) suppression of the vortex instability and development of global spiral arms associated with local potential vorticity maxima in massive disks. The vertical structure of these disturbances are examined. In terms of the relative density perturbation, the vortex disturbance has weak vertical dependence when self-gravity is neglected. Vortices become more stratified with increasing self-gravity. This effect is seen even when the unperturbed region around the planet's orbital radius has a Toomre stability parameter ~ 10. The spiral modes display significant vertical structure at the gap edge, with the midplane density enhancement being several times larger than that near the upper disk boundary. However, for both instabilities the vertical Mach number is small, and on average vertical motions near the gap edge do not dominate over horizontal motions.