Simulations of Planet Migration Driven by Planetesimal Scattering

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

For a planet immersed in a disk of numerous, low-mass planetesimals, even a slight difference in the angular momentum transferred to planetesimals scattered inward versus outward can be amplified into a rapid, self-sustained planet migration through the disk (Ida et al. 2000; Gomes, Morbidelli & Levison 2004).
We have embarked on a systematic study of planetesimal-driven migration using our N-body code SyMBA (Duncan, Levison and Lee 1998). We are focussing initially on the case of a single planet of mass M, immersed in a planetesimal disk which is parametrized by an initial power-law surface density distribution and a Rayleigh distributed eccentricity and inclination distribution with prescribed rms values. We typically use 10^4 to 10^6 equal-mass disk particles and include the gravitational force (and back-reaction) on each disk particle by the Sun and planet but neglect planetesimal-planetesimal interactions. Recent runs include the dynamical effects of a gas disk (i.e. aerodynamic drag on all bodies and Type-I migration on the planet).
In gas-free cases, rapid planet migration (independent of the planet mass) is found provided the planet mass is not large compared to the total mass in planetesimals capable of entering the planet's Hill sphere. For example, a planet embedded near 20 AU in an initially low eccentricity minimum-mass planetesimal disk typically migrates about 1 AU every 20,000 years - faster than Type I migration for planets of less than an Earth mass. Although both inward and outward migrations can be self-sustaining, we find a strong propensity for initially inward migration which is related to a small inherent asymmetry in outward versus inward scattering. Our current focus is on understanding the effects of including aerodynamic drag, which we find can produce outward migration of the planet for sufficiently small planetesimals.

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