arXiv subjects

Willy Benz

Publications and source records attributed to Willy Benz.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

The New Generation Planetary Population Synthesis (NGPPS). I. Bern global model of planet formation and evolution, model tests, and emerging planetary systems

Aims. Comparing theoretical models with observations allows one to make key step forward towards an understanding of planetary systems. It however requires a model able to (i) predict all the necessary observable quantities (not only masses and orbits, but also radii, luminosities, magnitudes, or evaporation rates) and (ii) address the large range in relevant planetary masses (from Mars mass to super-Jupiters) and distances (from stellar-grazing to wide orbits). Methods. We have developed a combined global end-to-end planetary formation and evolution model, the Generation III Bern model, based on the core accretion paradigm. This model solves as directly as possible the underlying differential equations for the structure and evolution of the gas disc, the dynamical state of the planetesimals, the internal structure of the planets yielding their planetesimal and gas accretion rates, disc-driven orbital migration, and the gravitational interaction of concurrently forming planets via a full N-body calculation. Importantly, the model also follows the long-term evolution of the planets on Gigayear timescales after formation including the effects of cooling and contraction, atmospheric escape, bloating, and stellar tides. Results. To test the model, we compared it with classical scenarios of Solar System formation. For the terrestrial planets, we find that we obtain a giant impact phase provided enough embryos (~100) are initially emplaced in the disc. For the giant planets, we find that Jupiter-mass planets must accrete their core shortly before the dispersal of the gas disc to prevent strong inward migration that would bring them to the inner edge of the disc. Conclusions. The model can form planetary systems with a wide range of properties. We find that systems with only terrestrial planets are often well-ordered while giant-planet bearing systems show no such similarity.

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arXiv2021

Transit detection of the long-period volatile-rich super-Earth $ν^2$ Lupi d with $CHEOPS$

Exoplanets transiting bright nearby stars are key objects for advancing our knowledge of planetary formation and evolution. The wealth of photons from the host star gives detailed access to the atmospheric, interior, and orbital properties of the planetary companions. $ν^2$ Lupi (HD 136352) is a naked-eye ($V = 5.78$) Sun-like star that was discovered to host three low-mass planets with orbital periods of 11.6, 27.6, and 107.6 days via radial velocity monitoring (Udry et al. 2019). The two inner planets (b and c) were recently found to transit (Kane et al. 2020), prompting a photometric follow-up by the brand-new $CHaracterising\:ExOPlanets\:Satellite\:(CHEOPS)$. Here, we report that the outer planet d is also transiting, and measure its radius and mass to be $2.56\pm0.09$ $R_{\oplus}$ and $8.82\pm0.94$ $M_{\oplus}$, respectively. With its bright Sun-like star, long period, and mild irradiation ($\sim$5.7 times the irradiation of Earth), $ν^2$ Lupi d unlocks a completely new region in the parameter space of exoplanets amenable to detailed characterization. We refine the properties of all three planets: planet b likely has a rocky mostly dry composition, while planets c and d seem to have retained small hydrogen-helium envelopes and a possibly large water fraction. This diversity of planetary compositions makes the $ν^2$ Lupi system an excellent laboratory for testing formation and evolution models of low-mass planets.

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arXiv2020

The CHEOPS mission

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) was selected in 2012, as the first small mission in the ESA Science Programme and successfully launched in December 2019. CHEOPS is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland with important contributions by ten additional ESA Member States. CHEOPS is the first mission dedicated to search for transits of exoplanets using ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. As a follow-up mission, CHEOPS is mainly dedicated to improving, whenever possible, existing radii measurements or provide first accurate measurements for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys and to following phase curves. CHEOPS will provide prime targets for future spectroscopic atmospheric characterisation. Requirements on the photometric precision and stability have been derived for stars with magnitudes ranging from 6 to 12 in the V band. In particular, CHEOPS shall be able to detect Earth-size planets transiting G5 dwarf stars in the magnitude range between 6 and 9 by achieving a photometric precision of 20 ppm in 6 hours of integration. For K stars in the magnitude range between 9 and 12, CHEOPS shall be able to detect transiting Neptune-size planets achieving a photometric precision of 85 ppm in 3 hours of integration. This is achieved by using a single, frame-transfer, back-illuminated CCD detector at the focal plane assembly of a 33.5 cm diameter telescope. The 280 kg spacecraft has a pointing accuracy of about 1 arcsec rms and orbits on a sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit at 700 km altitude. The nominal mission lifetime is 3.5 years. During this period, 20% of the observing time is available to the community through a yearly call and a discretionary time programme managed by ESA.

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arXiv2020

AQUA: A Collection of H$_2$O Equations of State for Planetary Models

Water is one of the key chemical elements in planetary structure modelling. Due to its complex phase diagram, equations of state cover often only parts of the pressure - temperature space needed in planetary modelling. We construct an equation of state of H$_2$O spanning a very wide range from 0.1 Pa to 400 TPa and 150 K to $10^{5}$ K, which can be used to model the interior of planets. We combine equations of state valid in localised regions to form a continuous equation of state spanning over said pressure and temperature range. We provide tabulated values for the most important thermodynamic quantities, i.e., density, adiabatic temperature gradient, entropy, internal energy and bulk speed of sound of water over this pressure and temperature range. For better usability we also calculated density - temperature and density - internal energy grids. We discuss further the impact of this equation of state on the mass radius relation of planets compared to other popular equation of states like ANEOS and QEOS. AQUA is a combination of existing equation of state useful for planetary models. We show that AQUA is in most regions a thermodynamic consistent description of water. At pressures above 10 GPa AQUA predicts systematic larger densities than ANEOS or QEOS. A feature which was already present in a previously proposed equation of state, which is the main underlying equation of this work. We show that the choice of the equation of state can have a large impact on the mass-radius relation, which highlights the importance of future developments in the field of equation of states and regarding experimental data of water at high pressures.

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arXiv2020

Pebbles versus planetesimals: the outcomes of population synthesis models

In the core accretion scenario, a massive core forms first and then accretes an envelope. When discussing how this core forms some divergences appear. First scenarios of planet formation predict the accretion of km-sized bodies, called planetesimals, while more recent works suggest growth by accretion of pebbles, which are cm-sized objects. These two accretion models are often discussed separately and we aim here at comparing the outcomes of the two models with identical initial conditions. We use two distinct codes: one computing planetesimal accretion, the other pebble accretion. Using a population synthesis approach, we compare planet simulations and study the impact of the two solid accretion models, focussing on the formation of single planets. We find that the planetesimal model predicts the formation of more giant planets, while the pebble accretion model forms more super-Earth mass planets. This is due to the pebble isolation mass concept, which prevents planets formed by pebble accretion to accrete gas efficiently before reaching Miso. This translates into a population of planets that are not heavy enough to accrete a consequent envelope but that are in a mass range where type I migration is very efficient. We also find higher gas mass fractions for a given core mass for the pebble model compared to the planetesimal one caused by luminosity differences. This also implies planets with lower densities which could be confirmed observationally. Focusing on giant planets, we conclude that the sensitivity of their formation differs: for the pebble accretion model, the time at which the embryos are formed, as well as the period over which solids are accreted strongly impact the results, while for the planetesimal model it depends on the planetesimal size and on the splitting in the amount of solids available to form planetesimals.

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arXiv2020

Nightside condensation of iron in an ultra-hot giant exoplanet

Ultra-hot giant exoplanets receive thousands of times Earth's insolation. Their high-temperature atmospheres (>2,000 K) are ideal laboratories for studying extreme planetary climates and chemistry. Daysides are predicted to be cloud-free, dominated by atomic species and substantially hotter than nightsides. Atoms are expected to recombine into molecules over the nightside, resulting in different day-night chemistry. While metallic elements and a large temperature contrast have been observed, no chemical gradient has been measured across the surface of such an exoplanet. Different atmospheric chemistry between the day-to-night ("evening") and night-to-day ("morning") terminators could, however, be revealed as an asymmetric absorption signature during transit. Here, we report the detection of an asymmetric atmospheric signature in the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-76b. We spectrally and temporally resolve this signature thanks to the combination of high-dispersion spectroscopy with a large photon-collecting area. The absorption signal, attributed to neutral iron, is blueshifted by -11+/-0.7 km s-1 on the trailing limb, which can be explained by a combination of planetary rotation and wind blowing from the hot dayside. In contrast, no signal arises from the nightside close to the morning terminator, showing that atomic iron is not absorbing starlight there. Iron must thus condense during its journey across the nightside.

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arXiv2020

Expected performances of the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) II. The CHEOPS simulator

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a mission dedicated to the search for exoplanetary transits through high precision photometry of bright stars already known to host planets. The telescope will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for planets whose masses have already been measured from ground-based spectroscopic surveys. This will allow a first-order characterisation of the planets' internal structure through the determination of the bulk density, providing direct insight into their composition. The CHEOPS simulator has been developed to perform detailed simulations of the data which is to be received from the CHEOPS satellite. It generates accurately simulated images that can be used to explore design options and to test the on-ground data processing, in particular, the pipeline producing the photometric time series. It is, thus, a critical tool for estimating the photometric performance expected in flight and to guide photometric analysis. It can be used to prepare observations, consolidate the noise budget, and asses the performance of CHEOPS in realistic astrophysical fields that are difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Images generated by CHEOPSim take account of many detailed effects, including variations of the incident signal flux and backgrounds, and detailed modelling of the satellite orbit, pointing jitter and telescope optics, as well as the CCD response, noise and readout. The simulator results presented in this paper have been used in the context of validating the data reduction processing chain, in which image time series generated by CHEOPSim were used to generate light curves for simulated planetary transits across real and simulated targets. Independent analysts were successfully able to detect the planets and measure their radii to an accuracy within the science requirements of the mission.

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arXiv2019

Pebbles versus Planetesimals: The case of Trappist-1

We present a study on the formation of planetary systems around low mass stars similar to Trappist-1, through the accretion of either planetesimals or pebbles. The aim is to determine if the currently observed systems around low mass stars favour one scenario over the other. We ran numerous N-body simulations, coupled to a thermally evolving viscous disc model, including prescriptions for planet migration and photoevaporation. We examine the differences between the pebble and planetesimal accretion scenarios, but also look at the influences of disc mass, planetesimal size, and the percentage of solids locked up within pebbles. When comparing the resulting planetary systems to Trappist-1, we find that a wide range of initial conditions for both accretion scenarios can form planetary systems similar to Trappist-1, in terms of planet mass, periods, and resonant configurations. Typically these planets formed exterior to the water iceline and migrated in resonant convoys to close to the central star. When comparing the planetary systems formed from pebbles to those formed from planetesimals, we find a large number of similarities, including average planet masses, eccentricities, inclinations and period ratios. One major difference was that of the water content of the planets. When including the effects of ablation and full recycling of the planets envelope with the disc, planets formed from pebbles were extremely dry, whilst those formed from planetesimals were extremely wet. If the water content is not fully recycled and instead falls to the planets core, or if ablation of the water is neglected, then the planets formed from pebbles are extremely wet, similar to those formed from planetesimals. Should the water content of the Trappist-1 planets be determined accurately, this could point to a preferred formation pathway for planetary systems, or to specific physics that may be at play.

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arXiv2019

Radial Drift and Concurrent Ablation of Boulder-Sized Objects

Context. The composition of a protoplanetary disk at a given location does not only depend on temperature and pressure but also on the time dependent transport of matter, such as radial drift of solid bodies, which could release water and other volatile species before disintegration or accretion onto a larger body with potentially considerable implications for the composition of planets. Aims. We perform a parameter study focused on the water depletion of different sized bodies able to cross the water snowline by gas induced radial drift. Methods. Either the analytical Hertz-Knudsen-Langmuir sublimation formula assuming equilibrium temperature within the body or a more involved, numerical model for the internal thermal evolution is coupled with an alpha-disk model. Different properties of the disk and the embedded body are explored. Results. Bodies with radii up to 100 meter drift faster towards the central star than the water snowline, hence, cross it. The region that can be reached before complete disintegration - and is therefore polluted with H2O ice - extends to 10 percent closer to the star than the snowline location. The extent of this polluted region could be multiple times larger in the presence of a dust mantle, which is, however, unlikely to form due to frequent collisions with smaller-than centimeter sized objects. Conclusions. Given a significant abundance of meter sized boulders in protoplanetary disks, the transport of water by radial drift of these bodies towards regions closer to the star than the snowline is not negligible and this flux of volatiles can be estimated for a given distribution of solid body sizes and compositions. A simple expression for surface sublimation is applicable for a homogeneous body consisting of only dust and water ice without a dust mantle.

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arXiv2019

ESA Voyage 2050 White Paper: Detecting life outside our solar system with a large high-contrast-imaging mission

In this white paper, we recommend the European Space Agency plays a proactive role in developing a global collaborative effort to construct a large high-contrast imaging space telescope, e.g. as currently under study by NASA. Such a mission will be needed to characterize a sizable sample of temperate Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of nearby Sun-like stars and to search for extraterrestrial biological activity. We provide an overview of relevant European expertise, and advocate ESA to start a technology development program towards detecting life outside the Solar system.

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arXiv2019

Expected performances of the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS). I. Photometric performances from ground-based calibration

The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a space mission designed to perform photometric observations of bright stars to obtain precise radii measurements of transiting planets. The high-precision photometry of CHEOPS relies on careful on-ground calibration of its payload. For that purpose, intensive pre-launch campaigns of measurements were carried out to calibrate the instrument and characterise its photometric performances. We report on main results of these campaigns, provide a complete analysis of data sets and estimate in-flight photometric performance by mean of end-to-end simulation. The on-ground photometric stability of the instrument is found to be of the order of 15 parts per million over 5 hours. Our end-to-end simulation shows that measurements of planet-to-star radii ratio with CHEOPS can be determined with a precision of 2% for a Neptune-size planet transiting a K-dwarf star and 5% for an Earth-size planet orbiting a Sun-like star. It corresponds to signal-to-noise ratios on the transit depths of 25 and 10 respectively, allowing the characterisation and detection of these planets. The pre-launch CHEOPS performances are shown to be compliant with the mission requirements.

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arXiv2018

The formation of Jupiter by hybrid pebble-planetesimal accretion

The standard model for giant planet formation is based on the accretion of solids by a growing planetary embryo, followed by rapid gas accretion once the planet exceeds a so-called critical mass. The dominant size of the accreted solids (cm-size particles named pebbles or km to hundred km-size bodies named planetesimals) is, however, unknown. Recently, high-precision measurements of isotopes in meteorites provided evidence for the existence of two reservoirs in the early Solar System. These reservoirs remained separated from ~1 until ~ 3 Myr after the beginning of the Solar System's formation. This separation is interpreted as resulting from Jupiter growing and becoming a barrier for material transport. In this framework, Jupiter reached ~20 Earth masses within ~1 Myr and slowly grew to ~50 Earth masses in the subsequent 2 Myr before reaching its present-day mass. The evidence that Jupiter slowed down its growth after reaching 20 Earth masses for at least 2 Myr is puzzling because a planet of this mass is expected to trigger fast runaway gas accretion. Here, we use theoretical models to describe the conditions allowing for such a slow accretion and show that Jupiter grew in three distinct phases. First, rapid pebble accretion brought the major part of Jupiter's core mass. Second, slow planetesimal accretion provided the energy required to hinder runaway gas accretion during 2 Myr. Third, runaway gas accretion proceeded. Both pebbles and planetesimals therefore have an important role in Jupiter's formation.

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arXiv2018

Metallicity effect and planet mass function in pebble-based planet formation models

One of the main scenarios of planet formation is the core accretion model where a massive core forms first and then accretes a gaseous envelope. This core forms by accreting solids, either planetesimals, or pebbles. A key constraint in this model is that the accretion of gas must proceed before the dissipation of the gas disc. Classical planetesimal accretion scenario predicts that the time needed to form a giant planets core is much longer than the time needed to dissipate the disc. This difficulty led to the development of another accretion scenario, in which cores grow by accretion of pebbles, which are much smaller and thus more easily accreted, leading to a more rapid formation. The aim of this paper is to compare our updated pebble-based planet formation model with observations, in particular the well studied metallicity effect. We adopt the Bitsch et al. 2015a disc model and the Bitsch et al. 2015b pebble model and use a population synthesis approach to compare the formed planets with observations. We find that keeping the same parameters as in Bitsch et al. 2015b leads to no planet growth due to a computation mistake in the pebble flux (Bitsch et al. 2017). Indeed a large fraction of the heavy elements should be put into pebbles (Zpeb/Ztot = 0.9) in order to form massive planets using this approach. The resulting mass functions show a huge amount of giants and a lack of Neptune mass planets, which are abundant according to observations. To overcome this issue we include the computation of the internal structure for the planetary atmosphere to our model. This leads to the formation of Neptune mass planets but no observable giants. Reducing the opacity of the planetary envelope finally matches observations better. We conclude that modeling the internal structure for the planetary atmosphere is necessary to reproduce observations.

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arXiv2018

SUPERSHARP - Segmented Unfolding Primary for Exoplanet Research via Spectroscopic High Angular Resolution Photography

We propose to search for biosignatures in the spectra of reflected light from about 100 Earth-sized planets that are already known to be orbiting in their habitable zones (HZ). For a sample of G and K type hosts, most of these planets will be between 25 and 50 milli-arcsec (mas) from their host star and 1 billion to 10 billion times fainter. To separate the planet's image from that of its host star at the wavelength (763nm) of the oxygen biosignature we need a telescope with an aperture of 16 metres. Furthermore, the intensity of the light from the host star at the position in the image of the exoplanet must be suppressed otherwise the exoplanet will be lost in the glare. This presents huge technical challenges. The Earth's atmosphere is turbulent which makes it impossible to achieve the required contrast from the ground at 763nm. The telescope therefore needs to be in space and to fit the telescope in the rocket fairing it must be a factor of 4 or more times smaller when folded than when operational. To obtain spectroscopy of the planet's biosignature at 763nm we need to use an integral field spectrometer (IFS) with a field of view (FOV) of 1000 x 1000 milli-arcsec (mas) and a spectral resolution of 100. This is a device that simultaneously takes many pictures of the exoplanet each at a slightly different wavelength which are then recorded as a data cube with two spatial dimensions and one wavelength dimension. In every data cube wavelength slice, the background light from the host star at the location of the planet image must be minimised. This is achieved via a coronagraph which blocks the light from the host star and active/adaptive optics techniques which continuously maintain very high accuracy optical alignment to make the images as sharp as possible. These are the technical challenges to be addressed in a design study.

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arXiv2017

SPH calculations of Mars-scale collisions: the role of the Equation of State, material rheologies, and numerical effects

We model large-scale ($\approx$2000km) impacts on a Mars-like planet using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code. The effects of material strength and of using different Equations of State on the post-impact material and temperature distributions are investigated. The properties of the ejected material in terms of escaping and disc mass are analysed as well. We also study potential numerical effects in the context of density discontinuities and rigid body rotation. We find that in the large-scale collision regime considered here (with impact velocities of 4km/s), the effect of material strength is substantial for the post-impact distribution of the temperature and the impactor material, while the influence of the Equation of State is more subtle and present only at very high temperatures.

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arXiv2017

Retrieval Analysis of the Emission Spectrum of WASP-12b: Sensitivity of Outcomes to Prior Assumptions and Implications for Formation History

We analyze the emission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-12b using our HELIOS-R retrieval code and HELIOS-K opacity calculator. When interpreting Hubble and Spitzer data, the retrieval outcomes are found to be prior-dominated. When the prior distributions of the molecular abundances are assumed to be log-uniform, the volume mixing ratio of HCN is found to be implausibly high. A VULCAN chemical kinetics model of WASP-12b suggests that chemical equilibrium is a reasonable assumption even when atmospheric mixing is implausibly rigorous. Guided by (exo)planet formation theory, we set Gaussian priors on the elemental abundances of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen with the Gaussian peaks being centered on the measured C/H, O/H and N/H values of the star. By enforcing chemical equilibrium, we find substellar O/H and stellar to slightly superstellar C/H for the dayside atmosphere of WASP-12b. The superstellar carbon-to-oxygen ratio is just above unity, regardless of whether clouds are included in the retrieval analysis, consistent with Madhusudhan et al. (2011). Furthermore, whether a temperature inversion exists in the atmosphere depends on one's assumption for the Gaussian width of the priors. Our retrieved posterior distributions are consistent with the formation of WASP-12b in a solar-composition protoplanetary disk, beyond the water iceline, via gravitational instability or pebble accretion (without core erosion) and migration inwards to its present orbital location via a disk-free mechanism, and are inconsistent with both in-situ formation and core accretion with disk migration, as predicted by Madhusudhan et al. (2017). We predict that the interpretation of James Webb Space Telescope WASP-12b data will not be prior-dominated.

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arXiv2016

Formation and composition of planets around very low mass stars

The recent detection of planets around very low mass stars raises the question of the formation, composition and potential habitability of these objects. We use planetary system formation models to infer the properties, in particular their radius distribution and water content, of planets that may form around stars ten times less massive than the Sun. Our planetary system formation and composition models take into account the structure and evolution of the protoplanetary disk, the planetary mass growth by accretion of solids and gas, as well as planet-planet, planet-star and planet-disk interactions. We show that planets can form at small orbital period in orbit about low mass stars. We show that the radius of the planets is peaked at about 1 rearth and that they are, in general, volatile rich especially if proto-planetary discs orbiting this type of stars are long-lived. Close-in planets orbiting low-mass stars similar in terms of mass and radius to the ones recently detected can be formed within the framework of the core accretion paradigm as modeled here. The properties of protoplanetary disks, and their correlation with the stellar type, are key to understand their composition.

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arXiv2016

Planet formation with envelope enrichment: new insights on planetary diversity

We compute, for the first time, self-consistent models of planet growth including the effect of envelope enrichment. The change of envelope metallicity is assumed to be the result of planetesimal disruption or icy pebble sublimation. We solve internal structure equations taking into account global energy conservation for the envelope to compute in-situ planetary growth. We consider different opacities and equations of state suited for a wide range of metallicities. We find that envelope enrichment speeds up the formation of gas giants. It also explains naturally the formation of low and intermediate mass objects with large fractions of H-He (~ 20 - 30 % in mass). High opacity models explain well the metallicity of the giant planets of the solar system, whereas low opacity models are suited for forming small mass objects with thick H-He envelopes and gas giants with sub-solar envelope metallicities. We find good agreement between our models and the estimated water abundance for WASP-43b. For HD 189733b, HD 209458b and WASP-12b we predict fractions of water larger than what is estimated from observations, by at least a factor ~ 2. Envelope enrichment by icy planetesimals is the natural scenario to explain the formation of a large variety of objects, ranging from mini-Neptunes, to gas giants. We predict that the total and envelope metallicity decrease with planetary mass.

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