Rapid Formation of Super-Earths around M Dwarf Stars

Details Rapid Formation of Super-Earths around M Dwarf Stars Rapid Formation of Super-Earths around M Dwarf Stars

2006-05-02

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605061v1

Astrophys.J. 644 (2006) L79-L82

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

13 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Astrophysical Journal (Letters), in press

Scientific paper

10.1086/505533

While the recent microlensing discoveries of super-Earths orbiting two M dwarf stars have been taken as support for the core accretion mechanism of giant planet formation, we show here that these planets could also have been formed by the competing mechanism of disk instability, coupled with photoevaporative loss of their gaseous envelopes by a strong external source of UV radiation, i.e., an O star. M dwarfs that form in regions of future high-mass star formation would then be expected to have super-Earths orbiting at distances of several AU and beyond, while those that form in regions of low-mass star formation would be expected to have gas giants at those distances. Given that most stars are born in the former rather than in the latter regions, M dwarfs should have significantly more super-Earths than gas giants, as seems to be indicated by the microlensing surveys.

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