Title: Dust Growth and Magnetic Fields: from Cores to Disks (even down to Planets),
Abstract: The recent rapid progress in observations of circumstellar disks and
extrasolar planets has reinforced the importance of understanding an intimate
coupling between star and planet formation. Under such a circumstance, it may
be invaluable to attempt to specify when and how planet formation begins in
star-forming regions and to identify what physical processes/quantities are the
most significant to make a link between star and planet formation. To this end,
we have recently developed a couple of projects. These include an observational
project about dust growth in Class 0 YSOs and a theoretical modeling project of
the HL Tauri disk. For the first project, we utilize the archive data of radio
interferometric observations, and examine whether dust growth, a first step of
planet formation, occurs in Class 0 YSOs. We find that while our observational
results can be reproduced by the presence of large ($\sim$ mm) dust grains for
some of YSOs under the single-component modified blackbody formalism, an
interpretation of no dust growth would be possible when a more detailed model
is used. For the second project, we consider an origin of the disk
configuration around HL Tauri, focusing on magnetic fields. We find that
magnetically induced disk winds may play an important role in the HL Tauri
disk. The combination of these attempts may enable us to move towards a
comprehensive understanding of how star and planet formation are intimately
coupled with each other.