Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
May 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006a%26a...450..833c&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 450, Issue 2, May I 2006, pp.833-853
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
44
Scientific paper
Context: .Theory predicts that low mass protoplanets in a laminar protostellar disc will migrate into the central star prior to disc dispersal. It is known that protoplanets on orbits with eccentricity e ⪆ H/r, where H is the disc scale height and r is the radius, can halt or reverse their migration. Aims: .We examine whether a system of interacting protoplanetary cores can excite and sustain significant eccentricity of the population, allowing some planetary cores to survive in the disc over its lifetime. Methods: .We employ two distinct numerical schemes: an N-body code, adapted to include migration and eccentricity damping due to the gas disc via analytic prescriptions, and a hydrodynamics code that explicitly evolves a 2D protoplanetary disc model with embedded protoplanets. The former allows us to study the long term evolution, the latter to model the systems with greater fidelity but for shorter times. Results: .After a brief period of chaotic interaction between the protoplanets that involves scattering, orbital exchange, collisions and the formation of co-orbital planets, we find that the system settles into a quiescent state of inward migration. Differential migration causes the protoplanets to form a series of mean motion resonances, such that a planet is often in resonance with both its interior and exterior neighbours. This helps prevent close encounters and leads to the protoplanetary swarm, or subgroups within it, migrating inward at a uniform rate. In about 2 % of runs a single planet is scattered onto a distant orbit with significant eccentricity, allowing it to survive in the disc for ˜ 106 years. Over 20 % of runs produce co-orbital planets that survive for the duration of the simulation, occupying mutual horseshoe or tadpole orbits. Conclusions: .Disc-induced damping overwhelms eccentricity growth through planet-planet interactions, such that a protoplanetary swarm migrates inward. We suggest co-orbital planets may be observed in future exoplanet searches.
Cresswell Paul
Nelson Richard P.
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