Possible Stellar Metallicity Enhancements from the Accretion of Planets

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

14 pages, AAS LaTeX, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

Scientific paper

10.1086/311056

A number of recently discovered extrasolar planet candidates have surprisingly small orbits, which may indicate that considerable orbital migration takes place in protoplanetary systems. A natural consequence of orbital migration is for a series of planets to be accreted, destroyed, and then thoroughly mixed into the convective envelope of the central star. We study the ramifications of planet accretion for the final main sequence metallicity of the star. If maximum disk lifetimes are on the order of 10 Myr, stars with masses near 1 solar mass are predicted to have virtually no metallicity enhancement. On the other hand, early F and late A type stars with masses of 1.5--2.0 solar masses can experience significant metallicity enhancements due to their considerably smaller convection zones during the first 10 Myr of pre-main-sequence evolution. We show that the metallicities of an aggregate of unevolved F stars are consistent with an average star accreting about 2 Jupiter-mass planets from a protoplanetary disk having a 10 Myr dispersal time.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Possible Stellar Metallicity Enhancements from the Accretion of Planets does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Possible Stellar Metallicity Enhancements from the Accretion of Planets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Possible Stellar Metallicity Enhancements from the Accretion of Planets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-106042

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.