CCA Colloquium: Cassandra Hall

CCA Colloquium: Cassandra Hall

Title:  Protoplanetary accretion discs, planet formation, and gravitational instability.

Abstract: Since ALMA began operations in 2015, we have been availed of a plethora of resolved millimeter images of protoplanetary discs. We have realized that substructure in these discs, such as rings, spirals and gaps, are the norm rather than the exception. In this talk, I explain the state of the field and highlight recent developments, particularly the move away from using continuum images to infer the underlying properties of the disc, and instead relying on kinematic detections of substructure. In particular, I will discuss the role that gravitational instability plays in the observation of spiral features.