Dust grain growth and settling in initial gaseous giant protoplanets

Dust grain growth and settling time inside initial gaseous giant protoplanets in the mass range 0.3 to 5 Jovian masses, formed by gravitational instability, have been investigated. We have determined the distribution of thermodynamic and physical variables inside the protoplanets solving the structure equations assuming their gas blobs to be fully convective and with this distribution we have calculated growth and settling time of grains with different initial sizes (10⁻² cm ≤ r₀ ≤ 1 cm). The results of our calculations are found to be in good agreement with those obtained by different approaches.