Dust in protoplanetary disks: A clue as to the critical mass of planetary cores

Dust in protoplanetary disks is widely recognized as the building blocks of planets that are eventually formed in the disks. In the core accretion scenario, one of the standard theories of gas giant formation, the abundance of dust in disks (or metallicity, [Fe/H]) plays a crucial role in regulating the formation of cores of gas giants that proceeds via collisions of dust and planetesimals in disks. We present our recent progress on the …