3rd PFITS+ Meeting on Hydrodynamics of Circumstellar Disks and Planet Formation
2026 June 8–12
The goal of the meeting is to bring together researchers to discuss current and future research on planet formation with a focus on hydrodynamical instabilities and computational astrophysics. Topics to be covered:
- Vertical shear instability
- Convective overstability
- Rossby wave instability
- Streaming instabilities
- Non-ideal MHD instabilities
The workshop is the third in the PFITS+ (Planet Formation in the Southwest Plus) series: the first meeting was held in June, 2022, in Las Cruces, NM; the second in Tucson AZ, in Nov., 2023.
We kindly ask all participants to register by filling out [this form]
Registration is now closed.
The meeting will include invited and contributed talks to be announced here. Due to space constraints, the meeting will be capped at 40 participants. A hybrid Zoom component will be available for remote participants beyond this limit or those who cannot make the trip.
Program
Monday, June 8
| Time | Who / What | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00–09:40 | Registration & Arrival | |
| Morning session 1 | Chair: Thomas Pfeil | |
| 09:40–10:00 | Luca Ricci | TBD |
| 10:00–10:20 | Farzana Meru | Gravitationally unstable disks delay the radial drift of dust |
| 10:20–10:40 | Kaitlin Kratter | Gravitational Instability in weakly self-gravitating disks |
| 10:40–11:20 | Coffee Break | |
| Morning session 2 | Chair: David Rea | |
| 11:20–11:40 | Cassandra Hall | Kinematics of gravitational instability |
| 11:40–12:00 | Hans Baehr | Dust dynamics in gravitational instabilities |
| 12:00–12:20 | Shangjia Zhang | Shadows: A Laboratory to probe disk thermodynamics and hydrodynamics |
| 12:20–14:00 | Lunch | |
| Afternoon session 1 | Chair: Daniel Carrera | |
| 14:00–14:20 | Jeffrey Fung | Radiation Pressure Instability — Clumps and cavities carved by light |
| 14:20–14:40 | Weston Hall | Size distribution of KBOs compared to theory |
| 14:40–15:00 | Rixin Li | Cold Classical Kuiper belt objects as primordial planetesimals |
| 15:00–15:40 | Coffee Break | |
| Afternoon session 2 | Chair: Anna Childs | |
| 15:40–16:00 | Linn Eriksson | Streaming instability and MRI turbulence |
| 16:00–16:20 | Tabassum Tanvir | Planetesimal formation from millimeter grains in pressure bumps |
| 16:20–17:00 | Discussion (K. Kratter & C. Hall) | |
| 19:00- | Social night at Eureka |
Tuesday, June 9
| Time | Who / What | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| Morning session 1 | Chair: Nadine Soliman | |
| 09:00–09:20 | Shiang-Chih Wang | How azimuthal accretion flows affect dust growth via streaming instabilities |
| 09:20–09:40 | Hossam Aly | Dusty warps in the local frame: instability and fast clumping |
| 09:40–10:00 | Mario Flock | The inner dusty rim of the protoplanetary disk |
| 10:00–10:20 | Michael Cecil | Episodic instability of the inner disk rim |
| 10:20–11:00 | Coffee Break | |
| Morning session 2 | Chair: Sergei Dyda | |
| 11:00–11:20 | Chiara Scardoni | From dust filaments to observables: tracing streaming instability |
| 11:20–11:40 | Daniel Godines | On the mass budget problem: Streaming instability and optically thick emission |
| 11:40–12:00 | Takayuki Muto | Disk heating due to planet-induced spiral shocks and implications to a snowline |
| 12:00–12:20 | Lizxandra Flores-Rivera | Vertical mixing and radial transport of pebbles in protoplanetary disks |
| 12:20–14:00 | Lunch | |
| Afternoon session 1 | Chair: Linn Eriksson | |
| 14:00–14:20 | Thomas Pfeil | Can the Vertical Shear Instability survive dust coagulation and settling? |
| 14:20–14:40 | Jip Matthijsse | Dust-driven Vertical Shear Instability |
| 14:40–15:00 | Nadine Soliman | Dust regulates the Vertical Shear Instability |
| 15:00–15:40 | Coffee Break | |
| Afternoon session 2 | Chair: Tom Konijn | |
| 15:40–16:00 | Yuya Fukuhara | Impact of vertical shear instability on dust evolution |
| 16:00–16:20 | Karim Shariff | Pade code and the Vertical Shear Instability |
| 16:20–17:00 | Discussion (A. Youdin & T. Muto) |
Wednesday, June 10
| Time | Who / What | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| Morning session 1 | Chair: Marius Lehmann | |
| 09:00–09:20 | Chen Wang | Baroclinic critical layers and zombie vortices |
| 09:20–09:40 | Min-Kai Lin | Locally global simulations of the Convective Overstability |
| 09:40–10:00 | Heloise Meheut | Keplerian turbulence and planetesimal formation |
| 10:00–10:20 | Fabiola Gerosa | Dust clustering and drifting in turbulence |
| 10:20–11:00 | Coffee Break | |
| Morning session 2 | Chair: Rixin Li | |
| 11:00–11:20 | Orkan Umurhan | Analytics Expressions for streaming instability growth rate |
| 11:20–11:40 | Debanjan Sengupta | Operation of streaming instability in the presence of external turbulence |
| 11:40–12:00 | Jay Lim | Bridging unstratified and stratified simulations of the Streaming Instability |
| 12:00–12:20 | Daniel Carrera | Positive feedback loops as a pathway to planetesimal formation |
| 12:20– | Conference Photo | |
| Free afternoon | ||
| 19:00- | Conference Dinner at Café Baklava |
Thursday, June 11
| Time | Who / What | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| Morning session 1 | Chair: Jay Lim | |
| 09:00–09:20 | Ryosuke Tominaga | Dust growth assisted by Streaming Instability |
| 09:20–09:40 | Elephteria Sarafidou | Disk dynamics under non ideal MHD effects |
| 09:40–10:00 | David Melon-Fuksman | Radiation-hydrodynamic phenomena: self-shadowing and VSI |
| 10:00–10:20 | Peggy Varniere | Rossby Wave Instability at the edge of circumbinary disks |
| 10:20–11:00 | Coffee Break | |
| Morning session 2 | Chair: Stanley Baronett | |
| 11:00–11:20 | Shengtai Li | Dust Coagulation Impact on the Rossby Wave Instability |
| 11:20–11:40 | Andrew Youdin | From Pressure Bumps to Rossby Wave Instability |
| 11:40–12:00 | Aleksandra Kuznetsova | Multi-fluid evolution of infall-induced Rossby Wave Instability |
| 12:00–12:20 | Eonho Chang | Rossby wave instability with a migrating planet |
| 12:20–14:00 | Lunch | |
| Afternoon session 1 | Chair: Hans Baehr | |
| 14:00–14:20 | Alex Ziampras | Outburst, rings, and vortices at the dead zone inner edge |
| 14:20–14:40 | Hui Li | Multi-dimensional modeling of gas-dust dynamics |
| 14:40–15:00 | Marius Lehmann | Impact of Convective Overstability on planet formation and migration |
| 15:00–15:40 | Coffee Break | |
| Afternoon session 2 | Chair: Yuya Fukuhara | |
| 15:40–16:00 | David Rea | Turbulence driven by weak-ionization instabilities |
| 16:00–16:20 | Uma Gorti | TBD |
| 16:20–17:00 | Discussion (C.-C. Yang & H. Li) |
Friday, June 12
| Time | Who / What | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| Morning session 1 | Chair: Alex Ziampras | |
| 09:00–09:20 | Pinghui Huang | Planetesimal Formation under Realistic Gas Dynamics |
| 09:20–09:40 | Nathan Magnan | The reflex instability, or how not to deal with the indirect term |
| 09:40–10:00 | Michael Hammer | Can radial convection happen in protoplanetary discs even with magnetic fields? |
| 10:00–10:20 | Dominik Ostertag | A comparison between particle and fluid approaches for streaming instability in global patch simulations |
| 10:20–11:00 | Coffee Break | |
| Morning session 2 | Chair: Debanjan Sengupta | |
| 11:00–11:20 | Stanley Baronett | A framework to model stellar irradiated disks with frequency-dependent absorption and scattering opacities in Athena++ |
| 11:20–11:40 | Prakruti Sudarshan | Comparing different radiation methods used in astrophysical codes |
| 11:40–12:00 | Sergei Dyda | Resolution Effects and the Streaming Instability |
| 12:00–12:20 | Leonardo Krapp | Not just gas: How solids-driven torques shaped the migration of the Galilean moons |
| 12:20–14:00 | Lunch | |
| Afternoon session 1 | Chair: Aleksandra Kuznetsova | |
| 14:00–14:20 | Anna Childs | Composition Constraints of the TRAPPIST-1 Planets from Pebble Accretion |
| 14:20–14:40 | Susmita Garai | Pebble accretion for Earth’s composition and water delivery |
| 14:40–15:00 | Tom Konijn | A multifluid approach to pebble accretion |
| 15:00–15:40 | Coffee Break | |
| Afternoon session 2 | Chair: Tabassum Tanvir | |
| 15:40–16:00 | Hubert Klahr | TBD |
| 16:00–16:20 | Paul Estrada | TBD |
| 16:20–17:00 | Discussion (J. Simon & O. Umurhan) |
Confirmed Participants
| Name | Affiliation | Attendance |
|---|---|---|
| Hossam Aly | TU Delft | remote |
| Hans Baehr | MPIA | in person |
| Stanley A. Baronett | UVA/UNLV | in person |
| Olivia Brouillette | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Daniel Carrera | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Michael Cecil | MPIA | remote |
| Eonho Chang | University of Arizona | remote |
| Anna Childs | The University of Alabama | in person |
| Jeff Cuzzi | SETI | in person |
| Sergei Dyda | The University of Alabama | in person |
| Linn Eriksson | AMNH | in person |
| Paul Estrada | SETI | in person |
| Mario Flock | MPIA | remote |
| Lizxandra Flores-Rivera | MPIA | remote |
| David Melon Fuksman | MPIA | remote |
| Yuya Fukuhara | ASIAA | in person |
| Jeffrey Fung | Clemson University | remote |
| Susmita Garai | University of New Mexico | in person |
| Fabiola Antonietta Gerosa | University College London | remote |
| Daniel Godines | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Uma Gorti | SETI | in person |
| Cassandra Hall | University of Georgia | in person |
| Weston Hall | Iowa State University | in person |
| Michael Hammer | MPS | remote |
| Loren Held | University of Cambridge | remote |
| Pinghui Huang | Purple Mountain Observatory | remote |
| Leopold Hutnik | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Hubert Klahr | MPIA | in person |
| Tom Konijn | TU Delft | in person |
| Leonardo Krapp | Universidad de Concepción | remote |
| Kaitlin Kratter | University of Arizona | in person |
| Aleksandra Kuznetsova | University of Connecticut | in person |
| Marius Lehmann | Iowa State University | in person |
| Hui Li | Los Alamos National Laboratory | in person |
| Rixin Li | UC Berkeley | in person |
| Shengtai Li | Los Alamos National Laboratory | in person |
| Jay Lim | UNLV/Iowa State University | in person |
| Min-Kai Lin | ASIAA | remote |
| Wladimir Lyra | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Nathan Magnan | Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur | remote |
| Jip Matthijsse | TU Delft | in person |
| Heloise Meheut | CNRS, UniCA | remote |
| Takayuki Muto | Kogakuin University | in person |
| Richard Nelson | Queen Mary University of London | remote |
| Camden Olds | Iowa State University | in person |
| Dominik Ostertag | MPIA | remote |
| Thomas Pfeil | Flatiron Institute | in person |
| David Rea | Iowa State University | in person |
| Luca Ricci | California State University, Northridge | remote |
| Eleftheria Sarafidou | Queen Mary University London | remote |
| Chiara Eleonora Scardoni | University of Milan | remote |
| Debanjan Sengupta | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Eleanor Serviss | New Mexico State University | in person |
| Karim Shariff | NASA Ames | in person |
| Jake Simon | Iowa State University | in person |
| Nadine Soliman | Institute for Advanced Study | in person |
| Prakruti Sudarshan | MPIA | remote |
| Tabassum S Tanvir | Iowa State University | in person |
| Ryosuke Tominaga | Institute of Science Tokyo | remote |
| Orkan Umurhan | SETI | in person |
| Peggy Varniere | APC CNRS Universite Paris Cite France | remote |
| Chen Wang | Beijing Normal University | remote |
| Shiang-Chih Wang | ASIAA | remote |
| Chao-Chin Yang | The University of Alabama | in person |
| Andrew Youdin | University of Arizona | in person |
| Shangjia Zhang | Columbia University | remote |
| Alex Ziampras | LMU Munich | in person |
| Zhaohuan Zhu | UNLV | remote |
Venue
Mountain View is located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, approximately 10 miles north of San Jose and 35 miles south of San Francisco. The closest airport is San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC), about a 15–20 minute drive from the venue. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport (OAK) are additional options, each roughly 45–60 minutes away depending on traffic. While limited regional rail (Caltrain) and light rail services are available, public transportation within Mountain View and between airports and hotels can be sparse and time-consuming. We therefore recommend renting a car or planning to use rideshare services for convenience.
Accomodation
We locked a number of rooms at the Larkspur Landing, in Sunnyvale, two miles from the institute, at a reduced rate. An email will be sent to the participants with the link for the group reservation. Participants need to book themselves, with the group code, through the link provided.
Contact
Please email inquiries to Orkan Umurhan (oumurhan@seti.org) or Wladimir Lyra (wlyra@nmsu.edu).
SOC
| PFITS+ Node Leaders | |
|---|---|
| Name | Institution |
| Wladimir Lyra | New Mexico State University |
| Jake Simon | Iowa State University |
| Orkan Umurhan | NASA Ames Research Center |
| Chao-Chin Yang | The University of Alabama |
| Andrew Youdin | University of Arizona |
LOC
- Orkan Umurhan
- Linda Ray
- Uma Gorti
- Paul Estrada