Large-Scale Vortices in Protoplanetary Disks: On the Observability of Possible Early Stages of Planet Formation

We investigate the possibility of mapping large-scale anti-cyclonic vortices,resulting from a global baroclinic instability, as pre-cursors of planetformation in proto-planetary disks with the planned Atacama Large MillimeterArray (ALMA). On the basis of three-dimensional radiative transfer simulations,images of a hydrodynamically calculated disk are derived which provide thebasis for the simulation of ALMA. We find that ALMA will be able to trace thetheoretically predicted large-scale anti-cyclonic vortex and will thereforeallow testing of existing models of this very early stage of planet formationin circumstellar disks.