We investigate the impact of a highly eccentric 10 M _ { \oplus } ( where M _ { \oplus } is the Earth mass ) planet embedded in a dusty protoplanetary disk on the dust dynamics and its observational implications .
By carrying out high-resolution 2D gas and dust two-fluid hydrodynamical simulations , we find that the planet ’ s orbit can be circularized at large radii .
After the planet ’ s orbit is circularized , partial gap opening and dust ring formation happen close to the planet ’ s circularization radius , which can explain the observed gaps/rings at the outer region of disks .
When the disk mass and viscosity become low , we find that an eccentric planet can even open gaps and produce dust rings close to the pericenter and apocenter radii before its circularization .
This offers alternative scenarios for explaining the observed dust rings and gaps in protoplanetary disks .
A lower disk viscosity is favored to produce brighter rings in observations .
An eccentric planet can also potentially slow down the dust radial drift in the outer region of the disk when the disk viscosity is low ( \alpha \lesssim 2 \times 10 ^ { -4 } ) and the circularization is faster than the dust radial drift .