Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.6201w&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #62.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1089
Physics
Scientific paper
Masses and radii are the primary observables to characterise exoplanets today. A self-consistent theoretical approach is presented that allows to calculate mass- and radii-distributions of exoplanet populations from basic physical principles and avoids the usual parametrisation of a multitude of processes.
The theoretical strategy has two steps:
1) Calculate all planetary equilibria that satisfy hydrostatic and thermal equilibria with planetesimal accretion as energy source in arbitrary but gravitationally stable protoplanetary nebulae and
2) Calculate the quasi-hydrostatic evolution of the ensemble of planets found in step one, to the ages that are relevant for observations.
The resulting theoretical distributions of planetary masses and radii are presented for stars of 0.4-2 MSun and orbital periods from 1-128 days.
(1) Mass distributions are bi-modal with peaks near Jupiter's and Neptune's mass; the later usually containing more planets. The location of the peaks depends on host star mass and orbital radius.
(2) The bi-modality of the mass-distributions is enhanced in the radii-distributions by the planetary evolution from the formation era into the present.
(3) We discuss whether the observed planetary radii can be explained without the assumption of extra, non-standard energy sources.
(4) A wide gap is found in the distribution of the transit signals between those of Pegasi-planets (Hot Jupiters) and the next population towards smaller radii: the Hot Neptunes and Super-Earths.
A comparison with CoRoT, Kepler and ground-based results gives a first hint that the approach is useful to understand the observed planets and provides a concept for a basic-physics explanation of planetary mass.
The approach does not a-priori assume a core and whether planets migrate or not and thus provides a general framework to discuss planet formation. It does allow to test the respective hypothesis of core-instability and a possible dominating role of orbital migration by comparison with observations.
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