Revisiting gravitational instability in protostellar discs with improved radiative cooling models

Abstract Young discs are expected to be significantly more massive than those observed at >1 Myr and it is at this earliest stage that planet formation likely begins. Such massive discs may be susceptible to the gravitational instability (GI), therefore we need to determine the disc and stellar properties for which the GI is active to understand its role in early disc evolution and planet formation. Prior work has been limited by model assumptions and inaccuracies due to the complex nature of the thermodynamics of protostellar discs so we now revisit this question using an improved method to approximate radiative cooling within hydrodynamics simulations. We have explored a wide parameter space, representative of young protostellar discs of 0.1 to 1 M⊙ and include irradiation from the host star. The parameters for which discs form spirals and fragment were found to differ to those obtained from earlier simulations. The outer regions of discs with radii of 50 au may be susceptible to fragmentation, meaning that GI-driven planet formation is not restricted to only the most extended discs. The additional thermal support due to stellar irradiation increases the disc mass that remains stable against GI: discs may reach up to ≳ 0.4 M* without fragmenting, providing a considerable quantity of material for building planets. Large scale spiral arms only developed for M* ≲0.3 M⊙, except in the most compact discs. Furthermore, the long-lived spiral structures that form tend to be flocculent and compact, indicating that large-scale spiral arms should not be considered a typical outcome of GI.