Observations have shown indirect evidence of a population of massive planets embedded in protoplanetary disks, whose interactions with the disk would substantially impact its structure.

In Barraza-Alfaro et al. 2024, we studied how a fairly massive forming planet would affect the 3D gas velocity structure of a VSI-turbulent planet-forming disk,  focused on the observability of kinematical signatures.

We found that massive planets can damp the kinematic signatures of active VSI.

The vertical shear instability (VSI) is an hydrodynamical instability, candidate to generate turbulence in protoplanetary disks.

In Barraza-Alfaro et al. 2021, we studied the feasibility of observing large-scale motions produced by the VSI in deep high-resolution ALMA CO kinematic observations. 

We found that ALMA has the capability to detect the corrugated velocity structure generated by VSI, potentially revealing it as a source of turbulence in disks outer regions. 

Large-scale spiral arms structures have been observed in multi-wavelength protoplanetary disks, yet their nature is still a puzzle. In Brown-Sevilla et al. 2021, I contributed with 2D hydrodynamical simulations exploring the scenario in which the spirals observed in WaOph 6 are triggered by a massive planet. 

In order to create the observed spiral structure, a putative 10 Jupiter-mass planet located on the outskirts of the disk is needed. However, this scenario is in tension with current companion mass upper limits and mm-dust trapping theories.