arXiv subjects

Paul Mollière

Publications and source records attributed to Paul Mollière.

62 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Evolutionary models of cold and low-mass planets: Cooling curves, magnitudes, and detectability

Future instruments like NIRCam and MIRI on JWST or METIS at the ELT will be able to image exoplanets that are too faint for current direct imaging instruments. Evolutionary models predicting the planetary intrinsic luminosity as a function of time have traditionally concentrated on gas-dominated giant planets. We extend these cooling curves to Saturnian and Neptunian planets. We simulate the cooling of isolated core-dominated and gas giant planets with masses of 5 Earthmasses to 2 Jupitermasses. The luminosity includes the contribution from the cooling and contraction of the core and of the H/He envelope, as well as radiogenic decay. For the atmosphere we use grey, AMES-Cond, petitCODE, and HELIOS models. We consider solar and non-solar metallicities as well as cloud-free and cloudy atmospheres. The most important initial conditions, namely the core-to-envelope ratio and the initial luminosity are taken from planet formation simulations based on the core accretion paradigm. We first compare our cooling curves for Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, GJ 436b, and a 5 Earthmass-planet with a 1% H/He envelope with other evolutionary models. We then present the temporal evolution of planets with masses between 5 Earthmasses and 2 Jupitermasses in terms of their luminosity, effective temperature, radius, and entropy. We discuss the impact of different post formation entropies. For the different atmosphere types and initial conditions magnitudes in various filter bands between 0.9 and 30 micrometer wavelength are provided. Using black body fluxes and non-grey spectra, we estimate the detectability of such planets with JWST. It is found that a 20 (100) Earthmass-planet can be detected with JWST in the background limit up to an age of about 10 (100) Myr with NIRCam and MIRI, respectively.

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arXiv2019

From cold to hot irradiated gaseous exoplanets: Toward an observation-based classification scheme

A carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) of around unity is believed to act as a natural separator of water- and methane-dominated spectra when characterizing exoplanet atmospheres. In this paper we quantify the C/O ratios at which this separation occurs by calculating a large self-consistent grid of cloud-free atmospheric models in chemical equilibrium, using the latest version of petitCODE. Our study covers a broad range of parameter space: 400 K$<$T$_{eff}<$2600 K, 2.0$<$log(g)$<$5.0, -1.0$<$[Fe/H]$<$2.0, 0.25$<$C/O$<$1.25, and stellar types from M to F. We make the synthetic transmission and emission spectra, as well as the temperature structures publicly available. We find that the transition C/O ratio depends on many parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and spectral type of the host star, and could have values less, equal, or higher than unity. By mapping all the transition C/O ratios we propose a "four-class" classification scheme for irradiated planets in this temperature range. We find a parameter space where methane always remains the cause of dominant spectral features. CH$_4$ detection in this region, or the lack of it, provides a diagnostic tool to identify the prevalence of cloud formation and non-equilibrium chemistry. As another diagnostic tool, we construct synthetic Spitzer IRAC color-diagrams showing two distinguishable populations of planets. Since most of the exoplanet atmospheres appear cloudy when studied in transmission, we regard this study as a starting point of how such a C/O-sensitive observation-based classification scheme should be constructed. This preparatory work will have to be refined by future cloudy and non-equilibrium modeling, to further investigate the existence and exact location of the classes, as well as the color-diagram analysis.

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arXiv2018

Polarized scattered light from self-luminous exoplanets. Three-dimensional scattering radiative transfer with ARTES

Direct imaging has paved the way for atmospheric characterization of young and self-luminous gas giants. Scattering in a horizontally-inhomogeneous atmosphere causes the disk-integrated polarization of the thermal radiation to be linearly polarized, possibly detectable with the newest generation of high-contrast imaging instruments. We aim to investigate the effect of latitudinal and longitudinal cloud variations, circumplanetary disks, atmospheric oblateness, and cloud particle properties on the integrated degree and direction of polarization in the near-infrared. We have developed a three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code (ARTES) for scattered light simulations in (exo)planetary atmospheres. The code is applicable to calculations of reflected light and thermal radiation in a spherical grid with a parameterized distribution of gas, clouds, hazes, and circumplanetary material. The disk-integrated degree of polarization of a horizontally-inhomogeneous atmosphere is maximal when the planet is flattened, the optical thickness of the equatorial clouds is large compared to the polar clouds, and the clouds are located at high altitude. For a flattened planet, the integrated polarization can both increase or decrease with respect to a spherical planet which depends on the horizontal distribution and optical thickness of the clouds. The direction of polarization can be either parallel or perpendicular to the projected direction of the rotation axis when clouds are zonally distributed. Rayleigh scattering by submicron-sized cloud particles will maximize the polarimetric signal whereas the integrated degree of polarization is significantly reduced with micron-sized cloud particles as a result of forward scattering. The presence of a cold or hot circumplanetary disk may also produce a detectable degree of polarization ($\lesssim$1%) even with a uniform cloud layer in the atmosphere.

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arXiv2016

Observing transiting planets with JWST -- Prime targets and their synthetic spectral observations

The James Webb Space Telescope will enable astronomers to obtain exoplanet spectra of unprecedented precision. Especially the MIRI instrument may shed light on the nature of the cloud particles obscuring planetary transmission spectra in the optical and near-infrared. We provide self-consistent atmospheric models and synthetic JWST observations for prime exoplanet targets in order to identify spectral regions of interest and estimate the number of transits needed to distinguish between model setups. We select targets which span a wide range in planetary temperature and surface gravity, ranging from super-Earths to giant planets, and have a high expected SNR. For all targets we vary the enrichment, C/O ratio, presence of optical absorbers (TiO/VO) and cloud treatment. We calculate atmospheric structures and emission and transmission spectra for all targets and use a radiometric model to obtain simulated observations. We analyze JWST's ability to distinguish between various scenarios. We find that in very cloudy planets such as GJ 1214b less than 10 transits with NIRSpec may be enough to reveal molecular features. Further, the presence of small silicate grains in atmospheres of hot Jupiters may be detectable with a single JWST MIRI transit. For a more detailed characterization of such particles less than 10 transits are necessary. Finally, we find that some of the hottest hot Jupiters are well fitted by models which neglect the redistribution of the insolation and harbor inversions, and that 1-4 eclipse measurements with NIRSpec are needed to distinguish between the inversion models. Wet thus demonstrate the capabilities of JWST for solving some of the most intriguing puzzles in current exoplanet atmospheric research. Further, by publishing all models calculated for this study we enable the community to carry out similar or retrieval analyses for all planets included in our target list.

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arXiv2016

The imprint of exoplanet formation history on observable present-day spectra of hot Jupiters

The composition of a planet's atmosphere is determined by its formation, evolution, and present-day insolation. A planet's spectrum therefore may hold clues on its origins. We present a "chain" of models, linking the formation of a planet to its observable present-day spectrum. The chain links include (1) the planet's formation and migration, (2) its long-term thermodynamic evolution, (3) a variety of disk chemistry models, (4) a non-gray atmospheric model, and (5) a radiometric model to obtain simulated spectroscopic observations with JWST and ARIEL. In our standard chemistry model the inner disk is depleted in refractory carbon as in the Solar System and in white dwarfs polluted by extrasolar planetesimals. Our main findings are: (1) Envelope enrichment by planetesimal impacts during formation dominates the final planetary atmospheric composition of hot Jupiters. We investigate two, under this finding, prototypical formation pathways: a formation inside or outside the water iceline, called "dry" and "wet" planets, respectively. (2) Both the "dry" and "wet" planets are oxygen-rich (C/O<1) due to the oxygen-rich nature of the solid building blocks. The "dry" planet's C/O ratio is <0.2 for standard carbon depletion, while the "wet" planet has typical C/O values between 0.1 and 0.5 depending mainly on the clathrate formation efficiency. Only non-standard disk chemistries without carbon depletion lead to carbon-rich C/O ratios >1 for the "dry" planet. (3) While we consistently find C/O ratios <1, they still vary significantly. To link a formation history to a specific C/O, a better understanding of the disk chemistry is thus needed.

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arXiv2016

Formation, Orbital and Internal Evolutions of Young Planetary Systems

The growing body of observational data on extrasolar planets and protoplanetary disks has stimulated intense research on planet formation and evolution in the past few years. The extremely diverse, sometimes unexpected physical and orbital characteristics of exoplanets lead to frequent updates on the mainstream scenarios for planet formation and evolution, but also to the exploration of alternative avenues. The aim of this review is to bring together classical pictures and new ideas on the formation, orbital and internal evolutions of planets, highlighting the key role of the protoplanetary disk in the various parts of the theory. We begin by briefly reviewing the conventional mechanism of core accretion by the growth of planetesimals, and discuss a relatively recent model of core growth through the accretion of pebbles. We review the basic physics of planet-disk interactions, recent progress in this area, and discuss their role in observed planetary systems. We address the most important effects of planets internal evolution, like cooling and contraction, the mass-luminosity relation, and the bulk composition expressed in the mass-radius and mass-mean density relations.

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arXiv2015

Model atmospheres of irradiated exoplanets: The influence of stellar parameters, metallicity, and the C/O ratio

Many parameters constraining the spectral appearance of exoplanets are still poorly understood. We therefore study the properties of irradiated exoplanet atmospheres over a wide parameter range including metallicity, C/O ratio and host spectral type. We calculate a grid of 1-d radiative-convective atmospheres and emission spectra. We perform the calculations with our new Pressure-Temperature Iterator and Spectral Emission Calculator for Planetary Atmospheres (PETIT) code, assuming chemical equilibrium. The atmospheric structures and spectra are made available online. We find that atmospheres of planets with C/O ratios $\sim$ 1 and $T_{\rm eff}$ $\gtrsim$ 1500 K can exhibit inversions due to heating by the alkalis because the main coolants CH$_4$, H$_2$O and HCN are depleted. Therefore, temperature inversions possibly occur without the presence of additional absorbers like TiO and VO. At low temperatures we find that the pressure level of the photosphere strongly influences whether the atmospheric opacity is dominated by either water (for low C/O) or methane (for high C/O), or both (regardless of the C/O). For hot, carbon-rich objects this pressure level governs whether the atmosphere is dominated by methane or HCN. Further we find that host stars of late spectral type lead to planetary atmospheres which have shallower, more isothermal temperature profiles. In agreement with prior work we find that for planets with $T_{\rm eff}$ $<$ 1750 K the transition between water or methane dominated spectra occurs at C/O $\sim$ 0.7, instead of $\sim$ 1, because condensation preferentially removes oxygen.

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arXiv2012

Deuterium burning in objects forming via the core accretion scenario - Brown dwarfs or planets?

Aims. Our aim is to study deuterium burning in objects forming according to the core accretion scenario in the hot and cold start assumption and what minimum deuterium burning mass limit is found for these objects. We also study how the burning process influences the structure and luminosity of the objects. Furthermore we want to test and verify our results by comparing them to already existing hot start simulations which did not consider, however, the formation process. Methods. We present a new method to calculate deuterium burning of objects in a self-consistently coupled model of planet formation and evolution. We discuss which theory is used to describe the process of deuterium burning and how it was implemented. Results. We find that the objects forming according to a hot start scenario behave approximately in the same way as found in previous works of evolutionary calculations, which did not consider the formation. However, for cold start objects one finds that the objects expand during deuterium burning instead of being partially stabilized against contraction. In both cases, hot and cold start, the mass of the solid core has an influence on the minimum mass limit of deuterium burning. The general position of the mass limit, 13 MJ, stays however approximately the same. None of the investigated parameters was able to change this mass limit by more than 0.8 MJ. Due to deuterium burning, the luminosity of hot and cold start objects becomes comparable after ~ 200 Myrs.

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