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Title: Are the rings in protoplanetary disks carved by planets?
Plain: Images of young disks show bright rings and dark gaps. Hidden young planets could carve them, but other processes can make rings too.
Precise: ALMA images show axisymmetric dust rings and gaps at $10\text{-}100\,\mathrm{AU}$ in $\sim 1\,\mathrm{Myr}$ disks. Determine for the population whether gaps are opened by embedded planets of ~ 0.1-1 Jupiter masses or by non-planetary processes (condensation fronts, magnetohydrodynamic zonal flows, secular gravitational instability). The answer is the fraction of gaps with a planetary origin.
Settled by: Direct imaging or gas-kinematic detection of planets inside gaps for a representative disk sample, with upper limits for the rest.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: classification
References: (empty)
Literature status: partially-resolved
Status note: Planets were imaged inside disk gaps in PDS 70 (2018-2019) and WISPIT 2 (WISPIT 2b in 2025, a second planet WISPIT 2c confirmed in 2026); for most ringed disks no planet has been detected.
Posed since: (empty)