Planet Migration in Planetesimal Disks: Effects of a Gas Disk

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

We report here on an extension of a previous study (Kirsh, Duncan, Brasser & Levison, 2008) of planetesimal-driven migration using our N-body code SyMBA (Duncan, Levison and Lee, 1998). The previous work focused on the case of a single planet of mass M, immersed in a planetesimal disk with a power-law surface density distribution and Rayleigh distributed eccentricities and inclinations. Typically 104 to 106 equal-mass planetesimals were used, where the gravitational force (and the back-reaction) on each planetesimal by the Sun and planet were included, while planetesimal-planetesimal interactions were neglected. The new runs incorporate the dynamical effects of a gas disk, where the Adachi et al. 1976 prescription of aerodynamic gas drag is implemented for all bodies, and the Papaloizou & Larwood (2000) prescription of Type-I migration for the planet are implemented.
In the gas-free cases, rapid planet migration was observed -- independent of the planet's mass -- provided the planet's mass was not large compared to the mass in planetesimals capable of entering its Hill sphere. In such cases, both inward and outward migrations could be self-sustaining, but there is a strong propensity for inward migration which is related to the small inherent asymmetry in outward versus inward scattering. When a gas disk is present, aerodynamic drag can substantially modify the dynamics of scattered planetesimals. For sufficiently large or small planetesimals, the planet typically migrates inward. However, for a range of plausible planetesimal sizes, outward migration is usually triggered, often accompanied by substantial planetary mass accretion. The effects of including Type-I planet migration, and a planetesimal size spectrum will also be discussed.

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