High-resolution simulations and visualization of protoplanetary disks

The problem of mass flow in the immediate vicinity of a planet embedded in a protoplanetary disk is studied numerically in two dimensions. The large differences in the temporal and spatial scales involved suggest that a specialized discretization method for the solution of hydrodynamical equations may offer great savings in computational resources and could make extensive parameter studies feasible. Preliminary results obtained with the help the of adaptive mesh refinement technique and a high-order explicit Eulerian solver are presented. This combination of numerical techniques appears to be an excellent tool which allows for direct simulations of mass flow in vicinity of the accretor at moderate computational cost. In particular, it is possible to resolve the surface of the planet and to model the process of planet growth with a minimal set of assumptions. Some issues related to visualization of the results and future prospects are briefly discussed.