Self-gravitating discs with radiative transfer: their role in giant planet formation

Abstract

We present preliminary results on the ability of self-gravitating discs to cool in response to their internal heating. These discs are modelled using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with radiative transfer (Whitehouse, Bate & Monaghan 2005) and we investigate the ability of these discs to maintain a state of thermal equilibrium with their boundaries as an indication of their likelihood to fragment.