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arXiv · 1101.4025

Migration of planets embedded in a circumstellar disk

Benjamin C. Bromley·Scott J. Kenyon
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Abstract

Planetary migration poses a serious challenge to theories of planet formation. In gaseous and planetesimal disks, migration can remove planets as quickly as they form. To explore migration in a planetesimal disk, we combine analytic and numerical approaches. After deriving general analytic migration rates for isolated planets, we use N-body simulations to confirm these results for fast and slow migration modes. Migration rates scale as 1/m (for massive planets) and 1/(1+(e_H/3)^3), where m is the mass of a planet and e_H is the eccentricity of the background planetesimals in Hill units. When multiple planets stir the disk, our simulations yield the new result that large-scale migration ceases. Thus, growing planets do not migrate through planetesimal disks. To extend these results to migration in gaseous disks, we compare physical interactions and rates. Although migration through a gaseous disk is an important issue for the formation of gas giants, we conclude that migration has little impact on the formation of terrestrial planets.

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Benjamin C. Bromley, Scott J. Kenyon. 2011-01-20. Migration of planets embedded in a circumstellar disk. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x%2F735%2F1%2F29

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