arXiv subjects

Bertram Bitsch

Publications and source records attributed to Bertram Bitsch.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

How drifting and evaporating pebbles shape giant planets I: Heavy element content and atmospheric C/O

Recent observations of extrasolar gas giants suggest super-stellar C/O ratios in planetary atmospheres, while interior models of observed extrasolar giant planets additionally suggest high heavy element contents. Furthermore, recent observations of protoplanetary disks revealed super-solar C/H ratios, which are explained by inward drifting and evaporating pebbles, enhancing the volatile content of the disk. We investigate how the inward drift and evaporation of volatile rich pebbles influences the atmospheric C/O ratio and heavy element content of giant planets growing by pebble and gas accretion. To achieve this goal, we perform semi analytical 1D models of protoplanetary disks including the treatment of viscous evolution and heating, pebble drift and simple chemistry to simulate the growth of planets from planetary embryos to Jupiter mass objects by accretion of pebbles and gas while they migrate through the disk. Our simulations show that the composition of the planetary gas atmosphere is dominated by the accretion of vapour, originating from inward drifting evaporating pebbles. This process allows the giant planets to harbour large heavy element contents. In addition, our model reveals that giant planets originating further away from the central star have a higher C/O ratio on average due to the evaporation of methane rich pebbles in the outer disk. These planets can then also harbour super-solar C/O ratios, in line with exoplanet observations. However, planets formed in the outer disk harbour a smaller heavy element content, due to a smaller vapour enrichment of the outer disk. Our model predicts that giant planets with low/large atmospheric C/O should harbour a large/low total heavy element content. We further conclude that the inclusion of pebble evaporation at evaporation lines is a key ingredient to determine the heavy element content and composition of giant planets.

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arXiv2021

Detailed elemental abundances of binary stars: Searching for signatures of planet formation and atomic diffusion

Binary star systems are assumed to be co-natal and coeval, thus to have identical chemical composition. In this work we aim to test the hypothesis that there is a connection between observed element abundance patterns and the formation of planets using binary stars. Moreover, we also want to test how atomic diffusion might influence the observed abundance patterns. We conduct a strictly line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of 7 binary systems. Stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances are obtained with extremely high precision (< 3.5%) using the high quality spectra from VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES. We find that 4 of 7 binary systems show subtle abundance differences (0.01 - 0.03 dex) without clear correlations with the condensation temperature, including two planet-hosting pairs. The other 3 binary systems exhibit similar degree of abundance differences correlating with the condensation temperature. We do not find any clear relation between the abundance differences and the occurrence of known planets in our systems. Instead, the overall abundance offsets observed in the binary systems (4 of 7) could be due to the effects of atomic diffusion. Although giant planet formation does not necessarily imprint chemical signatures onto the host star, the differences in the observed abundance trends with condensation temperature, on the other hand, are likely associated with diverse histories of planet formation (e.g., formation location). Furthermore, we find a weak correlation between abundance differences and binary separation, which may provide a new constraint on the formation of binary systems.

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arXiv2021

A pair of warm giant planets near the 2:1 mean motion resonance around the K-dwarf star TOI-2202

TOI-2202 b is a transiting warm Jovian-mass planet with an orbital period of P=11.91 days identified from the Full Frame Images data of five different sectors of the TESS mission. Ten TESS transits of TOI-2202 b combined with three follow-up light curves obtained with the CHAT robotic telescope show strong transit timing variations (TTVs) with an amplitude of about 1.2 hours. Radial velocity follow-up with FEROS, HARPS and PFS confirms the planetary nature of the transiting candidate (a$_{\rm b}$ = 0.096 $\pm$ 0.002 au, m$_{\rm b}$ = 0.98 $\pm$ 0.06 M$_{\rm Jup}$), and dynamical analysis of RVs, transit data, and TTVs points to an outer Saturn-mass companion (a$_{\rm c}$ = 0.155 $\pm$ 0.003 au, m$_{\rm c}$= $0.37 \pm 0.10$ M$_{\rm Jup}$) near the 2:1 mean motion resonance. Our stellar modeling indicates that TOI-2202 is an early K-type star with a mass of 0.82 M$_\odot$, a radius of 0.79 R$_\odot$, and solar-like metallicity. The TOI-2202 system is very interesting because of the two warm Jovian-mass planets near the 2:1 MMR, which is a rare configuration, and their formation and dynamical evolution are still not well understood.

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arXiv2021

Dry or water world? How the water contents of inner sub-Neptunes constrain giant planet formation and the location of the water ice line

In the pebble accretion scenario, the pebbles that form planets drift inward from the outer disk regions, carrying water ice with them. At the water ice line, the water ice on the inward drifting pebbles evaporates and is released into the gas phase, resulting in water-rich gas and dry pebbles that move into the inner disk regions. Large planetary cores can block the inward drifting pebbles by forming a pressure bump outside their orbit in the protoplanetary disk. Depending on the relative position of a growing planetary core relative to the water ice line, water-rich pebbles might be blocked outside or inside the water ice line. Pebbles blocked outside the water ice line do not evaporate and thus do not release their water vapor into the gas phase, resulting in a dry inner disk, while pebbles blocked inside the water ice line release their water vapor into the gas phase, resulting in water vapor diffusing into the inner disk. As a consequence, close-in sub-Neptunes that accrete some gas from the disk should be dry or wet, respectively, if outer gas giants are outside or inside the water ice line, assuming that giant planets form fast, as has been suggested for Jupiter in our Solar System. Alternatively, a sub-Neptune could form outside the water ice line, accreting a large amount of icy pebbles and then migrating inward as a very wet sub-Neptune. We suggest that the water content of inner sub-Neptunes in systems with giant planets that can efficiently block the inward drifting pebbles could constrain the formation conditions of these systems, thus making these sub-Neptunes exciting targets for detailed characterization (e.g., with JWST, ELT, or ARIEL). In addition, the search for giant planets in systems with already characterized sub-Neptunes can be used to constrain the formation conditions of giant planets as well.

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arXiv2021

The effect of a strong pressure bump in the Sun's natal disk: Terrestrial planet formation via planetesimal accretion rather than pebble accretion

Mass-independent isotopic anomalies of carbonaceous and non-carbonaceous meteorites show a clear dichotomy suggesting an efficient separation of the inner and outer solar system. Observations show that ring-like structures in the distribution of mm-sized pebbles in protoplanetary disks are common. These structures are often associated with drifting pebbles being trapped by local pressure maxima in the gas disk. Similar structures may also have existed in the sun's natal disk, which could naturally explain the meteorite/planetary isotopic dichotomy. Here, we test the effects of a strong pressure bump in the outer disk (e.g. $\sim$5~au) on the formation of the inner solar system. We model dust coagulation and evolution, planetesimal formation, as well as embryo's growth via planetesimal and pebble accretion. Our results show that terrestrial embryos formed via planetesimal accretion rather than pebble accretion. In our model, the radial drift of pebbles foster planetesimal formation. However, once a pressure bump forms, pebbles in the inner disk are lost via drift before they can be efficiently accreted by embryos growing at $\gtrapprox$1~au. Embryos inside $\sim$0.5-1.0au grow relatively faster and can accrete pebbles more efficiently. However, these same embryos grow to larger masses so they should migrate inwards substantially, which is inconsistent with the current solar system. Therefore, terrestrial planets most likely accreted from giant impacts of Moon to roughly Mars-mass planetary embryos formed around $\gtrapprox$1.0~au. Finally, our simulations produce a steep radial mass distribution of planetesimals in the terrestrial region which is qualitatively aligned with formation models suggesting that the asteroid belt was born low-mass.

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arXiv2021

The water-ice line as a birthplace of planets: Implications of a species-dependent dust fragmentation threshold

The thermodynamic structure of protoplanetary discs is determined by dust opacities, which depend on the size of the dust grains and their chemical composition. In the inner regions, the grain sizes are regulated by the level of turbulence (e.g. $α$ viscosity) and by the dust fragmentation velocity that represents the maximal velocity that grains can have at a collision before they fragment. Here, we perform self-consistently calculated 2D hydrodynamical simulations that consider a full grain size distribution of dust grains with a transition in the dust fragmentation velocity at the water-ice line. This approach accounts for the results of previous particle collision laboratory experiments, in which silicate particles typically have a lower dust fragmentation velocity than water-ice particles. Furthermore, we probe the effects of variations in the water abundance, the dust-to-gas ratio, and the turbulence parameter on the disc structure. For the discs with a transition in the dust fragmentation velocity at the water-ice line, we find a narrow but striking zone of planetary outward migration, including for low viscosities. In addition, we find a bump in the radial pressure gradient profile that tends to be located slightly inside the ice line. Both of these features are present for all tested disc parameters. Thus, we conclude that the ice line can function both as a migration trap, which can extend the growth times of planets before they migrate to the inner edge of the protoplanetary disc, and as a pressure trap, where planetesimal formation can be initiated or enhanced.

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arXiv2021

Formation of planetary systems by pebble accretion and migration: Hot super-Earth systems from breaking compact resonant chains

At least 30\% of main sequence stars host planets with sizes of between 1 and 4 Earth radii and orbital periods of less than 100 days. We use N-body simulations including a model for gas-assisted pebble accretion and disk--planet tidal interaction to study the formation of super-Earth systems. We show that the integrated pebble mass reservoir creates a bifurcation between hot super-Earths or hot-Neptunes ($\lesssim15M_{\oplus}$) and super-massive planetary cores potentially able to become gas giant planets ($\gtrsim15M_{\oplus}$). Simulations with moderate pebble fluxes grow multiple super-Earth-mass planets that migrate inwards and pile up at the inner edge of the disk forming long resonant chains. We follow the long-term dynamical evolution of these systems and use the period ratio distribution of observed planet-pairs to constrain our model. Up to $\sim$95\% of resonant chains become dynamically unstable after the gas disk dispersal, leading to a phase of late collisions that breaks the original resonant configurations. Our simulations naturally match observations when they produce a dominant fraction ($\gtrsim95\%$) of unstable systems with a sprinkling ($\lesssim5\%$) of stable resonant chains (the Trappist-1 system represents one such example). Our results demonstrate that super-Earth systems are inherently multiple (${\rm N\geq2}$) and that the observed excess of single-planet transits is a consequence of the mutual inclinations excited by the planet--planet instability. In simulations in which planetary seeds are initially distributed in the inner and outer disk, close-in super-Earths (abridged).

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arXiv2021

The growth of super-Earths: the importance of a self-consistent treatment of disc structures and pebble accretion

The conditions in the protoplanetary disc are determinant for the various planet formation mechanisms. We present a framework which combines self-consistent disc structures with the calculations of the growth rates of planetary embryos via pebble accretion, in order to study the formation of Super-Earths. We first perform 2D hydrodynamical simulations of the inner discs, considering a grain size distribution with multiple chemical species and their corresponding size and composition dependent opacities. The resulting aspect ratios are almost constant with orbital distance, resulting in radially constant pebble isolation masses, the mass where pebble accretion stops. This supports the "peas-in-a-pod" constraint from the Kepler observations. The derived pebble sizes are used to calculate the growth rates of planetary embryos via pebble accretion. Discs with low levels of turbulence (expressed through the $α$-viscosity) and/or high dust fragmentation velocities allow larger particles, hence lead to smaller pebble isolation masses, and the contrary. At the same time, small pebble sizes lead to low accretion rates. We find that there is a trade-off between the pebble isolation mass and the growth timescale with the best set of parameters being an $α$-viscosity of $10^{-3}$ and a dust fragmentation velocity of 10 m/s, mainly for an initial gas surface density (at 1 AU) greater than 1000 $\rm{g/cm^2}$. A self-consistent treatment between the disc structures and the pebble sizes is thus of crucial importance for planet formation simulations.

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arXiv2021

Influence of grain sizes and composition on the contraction rates of planetary envelopes and on planetary migration

A crucial phase during planetary growth is the migration when the planetary core has been assembled, but the planet did not open a deep gap yet. During this phase the planet is subject to fast type-I migration, which is mostly directed inwards, and the planet can lose a significant fraction of its semi-major axis. The duration of this phase is set by how long the planetary envelope needs to contract until it reaches a mass similar to the mass of the planetary core, which is when runaway gas accretion can set in and the planet can open a deeper gap in the disc, transitioning into the slower type-II migration. This envelope contraction phase depends crucially on the planetary mass and on the opacity inside the planetary envelope. Here we study how different opacity prescriptions influence the envelope contraction time and how this in turn influences how far the planet migrates through the disc. We find within our simulations that the size distribution of the grains as well as the chemical composition of the grains crucially influences how far the planet migrates before it can reach the runaway gas accretion phase. Grain size distributions with larger grain sizes result in less inward migration of the growing planet, due to faster gas accretion enabled by more efficient cooling. In addition, we find that planets forming in water poor environments can contract their envelope faster and thus migrate less, implying that gas giants forming in water poor environments might be located further away from their central star compared to gas giants forming in water rich environments. Future studies of planet formation that aim to investigate the chemical composition of formed gas giants need to take these effects self consistently into account.

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arXiv2020

Probing the impact of varied migration and gas accretion rates for the formation of giant planets in the pebble accretion scenario

The final orbital position of growing planets is determined by their migration speed, which is essentially set by the planetary mass. Small mass planets migrate in type I migration, while more massive planets migrate in type II migration, which is thought to depend mostly on the viscous evolution rate of the disc. A planet is most vulnerable to inward migration before it reaches type II migration and can lose a significant fraction of its semi-major axis at this stage. We investigated the influence of different disc viscosities, the dynamical torque and gas accretion from within the horseshoe region as mechanisms for slowing down planet migration. Our study confirms that planets growing in low viscosity environments migrate less, due to the earlier gap opening and slower type II migration rate. We find that taking the gas accretion from the horseshoe region into account allows an earlier gap opening and this results in less inward migration of growing planets. Furthermore, this effect increases the planetary mass compared to simulations that do not take the effect of gas accretion from the horseshoe region. Moreover, combining the effect of the dynamical torque with the effect of gas accretion from the horseshoe region, significantly slows down inward migration. Taking these effects into account could allow the formation of cold Jupiters (a > 1 au) closer to the water ice line region compared to previous simulations that did not take these effects into account. We thus conclude that gas accretion from within the horseshoe region and the dynamical torque play crucial roles in shaping planetary systems.

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arXiv2020

The eccentricity distribution of giant planets and their relation to super-Earths in the pebble accretion scenario

Observations of the population of cold Jupiter planets ($r>$1 AU) show that nearly all of these planets orbit their host star on eccentric orbits. For planets up to a few Jupiter masses, eccentric orbits are thought to be the outcome of planet-planet scattering events taking place after gas dispersal. We simulate the growth of planets via pebble and gas accretion as well as the migration of multiple planetary embryos in their gas disc. We then follow the long-term dynamical evolution of our formed planetary system up to 100 Myr after gas disc dispersal. We investigate the importance of the initial number of protoplanetary embryos and different damping rates of eccentricity and inclination during the gas phase for the final configuration of our planetary systems. We constrain our model by comparing the final dynamical structure of our simulated planetary systems to that of observed exoplanet systems. Our results show that the initial number of planetary embryos has only a minor impact on the final orbital eccentricity distribution of the giant planets, as long as damping of eccentricity and inclination is efficient. If damping is inefficient (slow), systems with a larger initial number of embryos harbor larger average eccentricities. In addition, for slow damping rates, we observe that scattering events already during the gas disc phase are common and that the giant planets formed in these simulations match the observed giant planet eccentricity distribution best. These simulations also show that massive giant planets (above Jupiter mass) on eccentric orbits are less likely to host inner super-Earths as these get lost during the scattering phase, while systems with less massive giant planets on nearly circular orbits should harbor systems of inner super-Earths. Finally, our simulations predict that giant planets are on average not single, but live in multi-planet systems.

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arXiv2020

The origins of nearly coplanar, non-resonant systems of close-in super-Earths

Some systems of close-in "super-Earths" contain five or more planets on non-resonant but compact and nearly coplanar orbits. The Kepler-11 system is an iconic representative of this class of system. It is challenging to explain their origins given that planet-disk interactions are thought to be essential to maintain such a high degree of coplanarity, yet these same interactions invariably cause planets to migrate into chains of mean motion resonances. Here we mine a large dataset of dynamical simulations of super-Earth formation by migration. These simulations match the observed period ratio distribution as long as the vast majority of planet pairs in resonance become dynamically unstable. When instabilities take place resonances are broken during a late phase of giant impacts, and typical surviving systems have planet pairs with significant mutual orbital inclinations. However, a subset of our unstable simulations matches the Kepler-11 system in terms of coplanarity, compactness, planet-multiplicity and non-resonant state. This subset have dynamical instability phases typically much shorter than ordinary systems. Unstable systems may keep a high degree of coplanarity post-instability if planets collide at very low orbital inclinations ($\lesssim1^\circ$) or if collisions promote efficient damping of orbital inclinations. If planetary scattering during the instability takes place at low orbital inclinations ($\text{i}\lesssim1^\circ$), orbital inclinations are barely increased by encounters before planets collide.When planetary scattering pumps orbital inclinations to higher values ($\gtrsim 1^\circ$) planets tend to collide at higher mutual orbital inclinations, but depending on the geometry of collisions mergers' orbital inclinations may be efficiently damped. Each of these formation pathways can produce analogues to the Kepler-11 system.

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arXiv2020

Influence of grain growth on the thermal structure of protoplanetary discs

The thermal structure of a protoplanetary disc is regulated by the opacity that dust grains provide. However, previous works have often considered simplified prescriptions for the dust opacity in hydrodynamical disc simulations, e.g. by considering only a single particle size. In the present work we perform 2D hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary discs where the opacity is self-consistently calculated for the dust population, taking into account the particle size, composition and abundance. We first compare simulations using single grain sizes to two different multi-grain size distributions at different levels of turbulence strengths, parameterized through the $α$-viscosity, and different gas surface densities. Assuming a single dust size leads to inaccurate calculations of the thermal structure of discs, because the grain size dominating the opacity increases with orbital radius. Overall the two grain size distributions, one limited by fragmentation only and the other determined from a more complete fragmentation-coagulation equilibrium, give similar results for the thermal structure. We find that both grain size distributions give less steep opacity gradients that result in less steep aspect ratio gradients, in comparison to discs with only micrometer sized dust. Moreover, in the discs with a grain size distribution, the innermost outward migration region is removed and planets embedded is such discs experience lower migration rates. We also investigate the dependency of the water iceline position on the alpha-viscosity, the initial gas surface density at 1 AU and the dust-to-gas ratio and find $r_{ice} \propto α^{0.61} Σ_{g,0}^{0.8} f_{DG}^{0.37}$ independently of the distribution used. The inclusion of the feedback loop between grain growth, opacities and disc thermodynamics allows for more self-consistent simulations of accretion discs and planet formation.

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arXiv2020

Influence of migration models and thermal torque on planetary growth in the pebble accretion scenario

Low-mass planets that are in the process of growing larger within protoplanetary disks exchange torques with the disk and change their semi-major axis accordingly. This process is called type I migration and is strongly dependent on the underlying disk structure. As a result, there are many uncertainties about planetary migration in general. In a number of simulations, the current type I migration rates lead to planets reaching the inner edge of the disk within the disk lifetime. A new kind of torque exchange between planet and disk, the thermal torque, aims to slow down inward migration via the heating torque. The heating torque may even cause planets to migrate outwards, if the planetary luminosity is large enough. Here, we study the influence on planetary migration of the thermal torque on top of previous type I models. We find that the formula of Paardekooper et al. (2011) allows for more outward migration than that of Jiménez & Masset (2017) in most configurations, but we also find that planets evolve to very similar mass and final orbital radius using both formulae in a single planet-formation scenario, including pebble and gas accretion. Adding the thermal torque can introduce new, but small, regions of outwards migration if the accretion rates onto the planet correspond to typical solid accretion rates following the pebble accretion scenario. If the accretion rates onto the planets become very large, as could be the case in environments with large pebble fluxes (e.g., high-metallicity environments), the thermal torque can allow more efficient outward migration. However, even then, the changes for the final mass and orbital positions in our planet formation scenario are quite small. This implies that for single planet evolution scenarios, the influence of the heating torque is probably negligible.

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arXiv2020

On the structure and mass delivery towards circumplanetary discs

Circumplanetary discs (CPDs) form around young gas giants and are thought to be the sites of moon formation as well as an intermediate reservoir of gas that feeds the growth of the gas giant. How the physical properties of such CPDs are affected by the planetary mass and the overall opacity is relatively poorly understood. In order to clarify this, we use the global radiation hydrodynamics code FARGOCA, with a grid structure that allows resolving the planetary gravitational potential sufficiently well for a CPD to form. We then study the gas flows and density/temperature structures that emerge as a function of planet mass, opacity and potential depth. Our results indicate interesting structure formation for Jupiter-mass planets at low opacities, which we subsequently analyse in detail. Using an opacity level that is 100 times lower than that of ISM dust, our Jupiter-mass protoplanet features an envelope that is sufficiently cold for a CPD to form, and a free-fall region separating the CPD and the circumstellar disc emerges. Interestingly, this free-fall region appears to be a result of supersonic erosion of outer envelope material, as opposed to the static structure formation that one would expect at low opacities. Our analysis reveals that the planetary spiral arms seem to pose a significant pressure barrier that needs to be overcome through radiative cooling in order for gas to free-fall onto the CPD. The circulation inside the CPD is near-keplerian and modified by the presence of CPD spiral arms. For high opacities we recover results from the literature, finding an essentially featureless hot envelope. With this work, we demonstrate the first simulation and analysis of a complete detachment process of a protoplanet from its parent disc in a 3D radiation hydrodynamics setting.

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arXiv2019

Influence of sub- and super-solar metallicities on the compositions of solid planetary building blocks

The composition of the protoplanetary disc is linked to the composition of the host star, where a higher overall metallicity of the host star provides more building blocks for planets. However, most planet formation simulations only link the stellar iron abundance [Fe/H] to planet formation and [Fe/H] in itself is used as a proxy to scale all elements. But large surveys of stellar abundances show that this is not true. We use here stellar abundances from the GALAH surveys to determine the average detailed abundances of Fe, Si, Mg, O, and C for a broad range of [Fe/H] spanning from -0.4 to +0.4. Using an equilibrium chemical model that features the most important rock forming molecules as well as volatile contributions of H$_2$O, CO$_2$, CH$_4$ and CO, we calculate the chemical composition of solid planetary building blocks. Solid building blocks that are formed entirely interior to the water ice line (T>150K) only show an increase in Mg$_2$SiO$_4$ and a decrease in MgSiO$_3$ for increasing host star metallicity, related to the increase of Mg/Si for higher [Fe/H]. Solid planetary building blocks forming exterior to the water ice line (T<150K) show dramatic changes in their composition. The water ice content decreases from around $\sim$50\% at [Fe/H]=-0.4 to $\sim$6\% at [Fe/H]=0.4 in our chemical model. This is mainly caused by the increasing C/O ratio with increasing [Fe/H], which binds most of the oxygen in gaseous CO and CO$_2$, resulting in a small water ice fraction. Planet formation simulations coupled with the chemical model confirm these results by showing that the water ice content of super-Earths decreases with increasing host star metallicity due to the increased C/O ratio. This decrease of the water ice fraction has important consequences for planet formation, planetary composition and the eventual habitability of planetary systems formed around these high metallicity stars.

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arXiv2019

Exploring the conditions for forming cold gas giants through planetesimal accretion

The formation of cold gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn in orbit and mass is a great challenge for planetesimal-driven core accretion models because the core growth rates far from the star are low. Here we model the growth and migration of single protoplanets that accrete planetesimals and gas. We integrated the core growth rate using fits in the literature to $N$-body simulations, which provide the efficiency of accreting the planetesimals that a protoplanet migrates through. We take into account three constraints from the solar system and from protoplanetary discs: (1) the masses of the terrestrial planets and the comet reservoirs in Neptune's scattered disc and the Oort cloud are consistent with a primordial planetesimal population of a few Earth masses per AU, (2) evidence from the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt indicates that the characteristic planetesimal diameter is 100 km, and (3) observations of protoplanetary discs indicate that the dust is stirred by weak turbulence; this gas turbulence also excites the inclinations of planetesimals. Our nominal model built on these constraints results in maximum protoplanet masses of $0.1$ Earth masses. Ignoring constraint (1) above, we show that even a planetesimal population of 1,000 Earth masses, corresponding to 50 Earth masses per AU, fails to produce cold gas giants (although it successfully forms hot and warm gas giants). We conclude that a massive planetesimal reservoir is in itself insufficient to produce cold gas giants. The formation of cold gas giants by planetesimal accretion additionally requires that planetesimals are small and that the turbulent stirring is very weak, thereby violating all three above constraints.

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arXiv2019

Planet formation and migration near the silicate sublimation front in protoplanetary disks

The increasing number of newly detected exoplanets at short orbital periods raises questions about their formation and migration histories. A particular puzzle that requires explanation arises from one of the key results of the Kepler mission, namely the increase in the planetary occurrence rate with orbital period up to 10 days for F, G, K and M stars. We investigate the conditions for planet formation and migration near the dust sublimation front in protostellar disks around young Sun-like stars. For this analysis we use iterative 2D radiation hydrostatic disk models which include irradiation by the star, and dust sublimation and deposition depending on the local temperature and vapor pressure. We perform a parameter study by varying the magnetized turbulence onset temperature, the accretion stress, the dust mass fraction, and the mass accretion rate. Our models feature a gas-only inner disk, a silicate sublimation front and dust rim starting at around 0.08 au, an ionization transition zone with a corresponding density jump, and a pressure maximum which acts as a pebble trap at around 0.12 au. Migration torque maps show Earth- and super-Earth-mass planets halt in our model disks at orbital periods ranging from 10 to 22 days. Such periods are in good agreement with both the inferred location of the innermost planets in multiplanetary systems, and the break in planet occurrence rates from the Kepler sample at 10 days. In particular, models with small grains depleted produce a trap located at a 10-day orbital period, while models with a higher abundance of small grains present a trap at around a 17-day orbital period. The snow line lies at 1.6 au, near where the occurrence rate of the giant planets peaks. We conclude that the dust sublimation zone is crucial for forming close-in planets, especially when considering tightly packed super-Earth systems.

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