Growth barriers, including the bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift problems, are still a big issue in planetesimal and thus planet formation theory. We present a new mechanism for very rapid planetesimal formation by sweep-up growth. Planetesimal formation is extremely fast in the inner protoplanetary disk where the growth rate exceeds the radial drift rate, leading to local planetesimal formation and pile-up inside of 1 AU. This scenario is very appealing particularly in the context of explaining the low mass of Mars, as well as the formation of recently discovered multi-transiting systems with tightly-packed inner planets.

Simple toy models are often not sufficient to cover the complexity of the dust coagulation process, and a number of numerical approaches are therefore used, among which integration of the Smoluchowski equation and various versions of Monte Carlo algorithm are the most popular. In this paper, we directly compare the Smoluchowski and Monte Carlo approaches and we find a general agreement for most of the coagulation problems. However, for the sweep-up growth driven by the "lucky" breakthrough mechanism, the methods exhibit very different resolution dependencies. With too few mass bins, the Smoluchowski algorithm tends to overestimate the growth rate and the probability of breakthrough. The Monte Carlo method is less resolution dependent in the growth timescale aspect but it tends to underestimate the breakthrough chance due to its limited dynamic mass range. We discuss the features and drawbacks of both the approaches, which may limit their astrophysical applications.

The early stages of planet formation are still not well understood. Coagulation models have revealed numerous obstacles to the dust growth, such as the bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift barriers. We study the interplay between dust coagulation and drift in order to determine the conditions in protoplanetary disk that support the formation of planetesimals. We focus on planetesimal formation via sweep-up and investigate whether it can take place in a realistic protoplanetary disk. We have developed a new numerical model that resolves spatial distribution of dust in the radial and vertical dimension. The model uses representative particles approach to follow the dust evolution in protoplanetary disk. The coagulation and fragmentation of solids is taken into account using Monte Carlo method. A collision model adopting the mass transfer effect, that can occur for different-sized dust aggregate collisions, is implemented. We focus on a protoplanetary disk including a pressure bump caused by a steep decline of turbulent viscosity around the snow line. Our results show that sufficient resolution of the vertical disk structure in dust coagulation codes is necessary to obtain adequately short growth timescales, especially in the case of a low turbulence region. We find that a sharp radial variation of the turbulence strength at the inner edge of dead zone promotes planetesimal formation in several ways. It provides a pressure bump that efficiently prevents the dust from drifting inwards. It also causes a radial variation in the size of aggregates at which growth barriers occur, favoring the growth of large aggregates via sweeping up of small particles. In our model, by employing an ad hoc alpha viscosity change near the snow line, it is possible to grow planetesimals by incremental growth on timescales of approximately 10^5 years.

Context. The growth process of dust particles in protoplanetary disks can be modeled via numerical dust coagulation codes. In this approach, physical effects that dominate the dust growth process often must be implemented in a parameterized form. Due to a lack of these parameterizations, existing studies of dust coagulation have ignored the effects a hydrodynamical gas flow can have on grain growth, even though it is often argued that the flow could significantly contribute either positively or negatively to the growth process. Aims. We intend to provide a quantification of hydrodynamical effects on the growth of dust particles, such that these effects can be parameterized and implemented in a dust coagulation code. Methods. We numerically integrate the trajectories of small dust particles in the flow of disk gas around a proto-planetesimal, sampling a large parameter space in proto-planetesimal radii, headwind velocities, and dust stopping times. Results. The gas flow deflects most particles away from the proto-planetesimal, such that its effective collisional cross section, and therefore the mass accretion rate, is reduced. The gas flow however also reduces the impact velocity of small dust particles onto a proto-planetesimal. This can be beneficial for its growth, since large impact velocities are known to lead to erosion. We also demonstrate why such a gas flow does not return collisional debris to the surface of a proto-planetesimal. Conclusions. We predict that a laminar hydrodynamical flow around a proto-planetesimal will have a significant effect on its growth. However, we cannot easily predict which result, the reduction of the impact velocity or the sweep-up cross section, will be more important. Therefore, we provide parameterizations ready for implementation into a dust coagulation code.

Context. The formation of planetesimals is often accredited to the collisional sticking of dust grains. The exact process is unknown, as collisions between larger aggregates tend to lead to fragmentation or bouncing rather than sticking. Recent laboratory experiments have however made great progress in the understanding and mapping of the complex physics involved in dust collisions. Aims. We study the possibility of planetesimal formation using the results of the latest laboratory experiments, particularly by including the fragmentation with mass transfer effect, which might lead to growth even at high impact velocities. Methods. We present a new experimentally and physically motivated dust collision model capable of predicting the outcome of a collision between two particles of arbitrary mass and velocity. The new model includes a natural description of cratering and mass transfer, and provides a smooth transition from equal- to different-sized collisions. It is used together with a continuum dust-size evolution code, which is both fast in terms of execution time and able to resolve the dust at all sizes, allowing for all types of interactions to be studied without biases. Results. For the general dust population, we find that bouncing collisions prevent any growth above millimeter-sizes. However, if a small number of cm-sized particles are introduced, for example by either vertical mixing or radial drift, they can act as a catalyst and start to sweep up the smaller particles. At a distance of 3 AU, 100-m-sized bodies are formed on a timescale of 1 Myr. Conclusions. Direct growth of planetesimals might be a possibility thanks to a combination of the bouncing barrier and the fragmentation with mass transfer effect. The bouncing barrier is here even beneficial, as it prevents the growth of too many large particles that would otherwise only fragment among each other, and creates a reservoir of small particles that can be swept up by larger bodies. However, for this process to work, a few seeds of cm-size or larger have to be introduced.

In our original paper (Windmark et al. 2012), the simulation of the dust evolution for collision model SBF+MT, plotted in the lower panel of the original Fig. 2, mistakenly used a lower mass resolution than the rest of the simulations. Instead of a resolution of 17 mass bins per decade, only 7 bins per decade were used. Accurately resolving the coagulation in the large particle tail is crucial in this study, because numerical diffusion otherwise significantly changes the slope when a velocity distribution is included. Our error led to an artificially high mass ratio between the largest particles and those in the peak, causing an artificial breakthrough of the collisional growth barriers. A corrected version of Fig. 2 is included in this corrigendum, showing the dust size distribution for different collision models in local simulations at 1 AU, at a time when the population of small particles has reached a quasi-steady state. With the original set of collision model parameters that were used in the Letter, breakthrough no longer occurs. However, a parameter study shows that for other realistic parameters, the barriers can still be overcome. In the bottom panel, we have included one such example (with vbounce = 5c m s −1 , vfrag = 60 cm s −1 ,a nd mcrit = 30), where growth proceeds as described in the Letter. The conclusions that were drawn are therefore still correct, but it is clear that breakthrough is not a general outcome. In an upcoming paper, we will present the results of our parameter study in more detail.

The structure of the protoplanetary disk, the dust growth mechanisms and the effects of dust transport in the gaseous disk are intimately coupled. The interplay of these effects leads to what is conventionally called the meter-size barrier: gas drag effects and high collision velocities prevent the collisional growth of dust particles from proceeding beyond the size of at most a meter, if not less. Observations of protoplanetary disks show two important facts: firstly these disks are rich in small dust during their whole lifetime. Secondly grains of millimeter or centimeter sizes are present in the outer parts of the disk even though theory expects grains of these sizes to disappear quickly due to inward drift.

Context. The Gaia satellite will measure highly accurate absolute parallaxes of hundreds of millions of stars by comparing the parallactic displacements in the two fields of view of the optical instrument. The requirements on the stability of the 'basic angle' between the two fields are correspondingly strict, and possible variations (on the microarcsec level) are therefore monitored by an on-board metrology system. Nevertheless, since even very small periodic variations of the basic angle might cause a global offset of the measured parallaxes, it is important to find independent verification methods. Aims. We investigate the potential use of Galactic Cepheids as standard candles for verifying the Gaia parallax zero point. Methods. We simulate the complete population of Galactic Cepheids and their observations by Gaia. Using the simulated data, simultaneous fits are made of the parameters of the period-luminosity relation and a global parallax zero point. Results. The total number of Galactic Cepheids is estimated at about 20 000, of which nearly half could be observed by Gaia. In the most favourable circumstances, including negligible intrinsic scatter and extinction errors, the determined parallax zero point has an uncertainty of 0.2 microarcsec. With more realistic assumptions the uncertainty is several times larger, and the result is very sensitive to errors in the applied extinction corrections. Conclusions. The use of Galactic Cepheids alone will not be sufficient to determine a possible parallax zero-point error to the full potential systematic accuracy of Gaia. The global verification of Gaia parallaxes will most likely depend on a combination of many different methods, including this one.