Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21536706c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #367.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.557
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
While hundreds of extrasolar planetary systems have been discovered, only a small fraction of them contain more than one known planet. An even smaller fraction of known multi-planet systems are relatively compact, containing giant planet pairs with period ratios below three or four (the Saturn-to-Jupiter period ratio is about 2.5). Most multi-planet systems contain planet pairs on eccentric orbits, with orbital periods varying by orders of magnitude. Current theories of planet formation suggest that there are two epochs of giant planet migration: one caused by interactions with the gas disk within the first few Myr of the system's history, and a later one (possibly lasting for tens to hundreds of Myr), driven by gravitational interaction between the planets and solid planetesimals. Planets with smaller masses are expected to be affected more by interactions with planetesimals, due to the limited amount of mass available as solids (cf. Raymond and Armitage 2009). We point out that very massive known compact exoplanet pairs tend to occupy resonances more often than those with masses similar to Jupiter and Saturn. Using numerical simulations, we show that the non-resonant compact pairs can be plausibly derived from an initial resonant or near-resonant configuration, much like the Nice model (Tsiganis et al. 2005) proposes for our solar system. We conclude that gas-driven migration might often end with giant planets in resonances, despite the effects of turbulence (Adams et al. 2008). For lower-mass giants, subsequent interactions with planetesimals can break the resonant lock, either by damping the planets' eccentricities or causing them to migrate out of resonance. More massive planet pairs are affected by planetesimals more weakly, and those that survive are likely to remain in resonance and on eccentric orbits, in agreement with observations.
Cuk Matija
Murray-Clay Ruth A.
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