arXiv subjects

Wim van Westrenen

Publications and source records attributed to Wim van Westrenen.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Super-Earth Interiors Shrink by About 10% as They Crystallise

Super-Earth exoplanets are among the most abundant planets known, yet their bulk densities leave the interior state degenerate. The static structure models used to interpret them, and the interior retrievals built on them, typically describe the cold, solidified end state of an evolution that begins hot and molten. During this magma ocean stage the interior, the outgassed atmosphere, and the surface co-evolve and set the long-term climate and geophysics of super-Earths. We develop and validate a fully coupled model for the structural and thermal evolution of super-Earth exoplanets within the PROTEUS framework, including new and upgraded models of the interior structure, mantle energetics, and volatile outgassing. In volatile-poor super-Earths of 1 to 10 Earth masses, the silicate interior contracts by about 10 % of its molten radius through cooling and crystallisation, nearly independent of planet mass and driven by the thinning silicate shell alone. The solidified radius is set by planetary mass and core fraction, insensitive to the host star, irradiation, and initial thermal state. In contrast, volatile-rich super-Earths at and above about 5 Earth masses may not solidify: their thick outgassed atmospheres throttle the surface heat loss until the interior settles into a deep magma ocean, keeping the planet inflated and limiting the contraction to about half its volatile-poor value. Mantle contraction alone thus shapes the low-mass exoplanet transit population, motivating joint interpretation of atmospheric and geophysical signatures in upcoming exoplanet surveys.

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arXiv2026

LavAtmos 2.0: Incorporating Volatiles Species in Vaporization Models

Due to strong irradiation, hot rocky exoplanets are able to sustain lava oceans. Direct interaction between these oceans and overlying atmospheres can provide insight into planetary interiors. In order to fully understand how the composition of the atmosphere of such planets are affected by the properties of the oceans, comprehensive chemical equilibrium models are required. Thus far, most models have only taken non-volatile species into account when calculating lava vaporisation. We investigate the effect of including C-, H-, N-, S-, and P-bearing species in the equilibrium lava vaporisation calculations on the overall atmospheric composition of hot rocky exoplanets by expanding our LavAtmos code. In LavAtmos 2.0 we integrate the chemical equilibrium code FastChem to expand the considered gas phase species to 523. We apply this new approach to calculate the composition of "pure" atmospheres which contain only a single volatile element and more complex atmospheres which contain C, H, N, S, and P. We also test two proposed compositions for the atmosphere of 55-Cnc e. We find that the inclusion of volatile elements in vaporisation calculations increases the partial pressures of vaporised species for all tested atmospheric compositions. Our models indicate that the tested volatile atmospheres above a lava ocean have a relatively low C-O ratio. This demonstrates the utility of complex chemical models that better describe the chemical behavior of atmospheres across a wide range of pressures and temperatures. Volatile elements must be taken into account for comprehensive modeling of vaporisation from a surface lava ocean into a volatile atmosphere. Vaporised species such as SiO, TiO, and Na may be present in greater abundances than previously estimated. A low atmospheric C/O ratio may be able to function as a new tracer for the presence of surface lava oceans on hot rocky exoplanets.

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arXiv2026

Sensitivity of Dry Lava Planet Atmospheric Emission Spectra to Changes in Lava Compositions

The atmospheres of hot rocky exoplanets are among the first primary targets of the JWST. Interpreting their atmospheric spectra requires understanding the link between silicate lava compositions and overlying atmospheres. We investigate the sensitivity of simulated emission spectra of dry lava planets to variations in oxide abundances in silicate melt. Our goal is to determine which molten surface features could be distinguishable with future observations. We combine our vaporisation code with gas chemical equilibrium and radiative transfer codes to self-consistently compute atmospheric chemistry and thermal structure. Alongside varying lava compositions, we assess the impact of host star spectral type on emission spectra. TiO2 melt abundance dictates atmospheric TiO, which strongly influences surface temperature and emission spectra due to its short-wave opacity. This creates a degeneracy with heat redistribution efficiency, potentially broken by observing the optical TiO emission feature. Atmospheric SiO and SiO2 abundances depend on melt SiO2 content, with stronger SiO and SiO2 emission features at higher melt abundances. For the currently best observable HREs, changes in TiO2 and SiO2 abundance of about an order of magnitude with respect to BSE, could potentially be observable with 12 JWST eclipse observations.

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arXiv2025

The effects of transport processes on the bulk composition of the first generation of planetesimals interior to the water iceline

The CHNOS elemental budgets of rocky planets are crucial for their structure, evolution and potential chemical habitability. It is unclear how the nonlocal disk processes affecting dust in planet-forming disks affect the CHNOS elemental budgets of nascent planets both inside and outside the Solar System. We aim to quantify the coupled effect of dynamical and collisional processes on the initial refractory CHNOS budgets of planetesimals, forming interior to the water ice line for a Solar and non-Solar composition consistent with the star HIP 43393. Methods. We utilize the SHAMPOO code to track the effects of dynamical and collisional processes on 16000 individual dust monomers. Each monomer is here assigned a refractory chemical composition and mineralogy informed by the equilibrium condensation code GGCHEM given the P-T conditions at the initial position of the monomer. Monomers travel embedded in aggregates through a young class I disk, whose structure is calculated with the ProDiMo code. Furthermore, monomers are allowed to undergo dehydration and desulfurization. We find that solid material becomes well-mixed both radially and vertically. For both the Solar and HIP43393 compositions, the solid phase in the disk midplane regions interior to r~0.7AU can become enriched in hydrogen and sulfur by up to 10at% relative to predictions from purely local calculations. This originates from the inward radial transport of hydrated and sulfur-bearing minerals such as lizardite and iron sulfide. Nonlocal disk processing in a young turbulent, massive disk can lead to significant compositional homogenization of the midplane dust and by extension of the initial composition of planetesimals. Planetesimals forming at r<0.7AU may become enriched in hydrated minerals and sulfur, which could result in more widespread aqueous alteration interior to the water iceline compared to planetesimals that emerge...

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arXiv2024

The effect of nonlocal disk processes on the volatile CHNOS budgets of planetesimal-forming material

The abundances of volatile CHNOS have a profound effect on the interior structure and evolution of a planet. Therefore, it is key to investigate the behavior of the abundances of these elements in the solid phase in the earliest stages of planet formation. However, the processes in planet-forming disks that shape these abundances are highly coupled and nonlocal. We aim to quantify the effects of the interplay between dynamical, collision, ice processing on the abundances of CHNOS in local disk solids as a function of position throughout the planet-forming region. We used SHAMPOO (StocHAstic Monomer PrOcessOr), which tracks the ice budgets of CHNOS-bearing molecules of a dust monomer as it undergoes nonlocal disk processing in a Class I disk. We used a large set of individual monomer evolutionary trajectories to make inferences about the properties of the local dust populations. We find that spatially, monomers can travel larger distances farther out in the disk, leading to a larger spread in positions of origin for a dust population at, for example, r=50 AU compared to r=2 AU. However, chemically, the inner disk (r<10 AU) is more nonlocal due to the closer spacing of ice lines in this disk region. We find that the ice mass associated with individual chemical species can change significantly. The largest differences with local dust were found near ice lines where the collisional timescale is comparable to the adsorption and desorption timescales. Here, aggregates may become significantly depleted in ice as a consequence of microscopic collisional mixing, a previously unknown effect where monomers are stored away in aggregate interiors through rapid cycles of coagulation and fragmentation. This suggests that ice processing is highly coupled to collisional processing in this disk region, which implies that the interiors of dust aggregates must be considered and not just their surfaces.

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arXiv2023

LavAtmos: An open source chemical equilibrium vaporisation code for lava worlds

To date, over 500 short-period rocky planets with equilibrium temperatures above 1500 K have been discovered. Such planets are expected to support magma oceans, providing a direct interface between the interior and the atmosphere. This provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into their interior compositions through atmospheric observations. A key process in doing such work is the vapor outgassing from the lava surface. LavAtmos is an open-source code that calculates the equilibrium chemical composition of vapor above a dry melt for a given composition and temperature. Results show that the produced output is in good agreement with the partial pressures obtained from experimental laboratory data as well as with other similar codes from literature. LavAtmos allows for the modeling of vaporization of a wide range of different mantle compositions of hot rocky exoplanets. In combination with atmospheric chemistry codes, this enables the characterization of interior compositions through atmospheric signatures.

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arXiv2022

Observability of Evaporating Lava Worlds

Lava worlds belong to a class of short orbital period planets reaching dayside temperatures high enough to melt their silicate crust. Theory predicts that the resulting lava oceans outgas their volatile components, attaining equilibrium with the overlying vapour. This creates a tenuous, silicate-rich atmosphere that may be confined to the permanent dayside of the planet. The launch of JWST will provide the much needed sensitivity and spectral coverage to characterise these worlds. In this paper, we assess the observability of characterisable spectral features by self-consistently modelling silicate atmospheres for all the currently confirmed targets having sufficient substellar temperatures (> 1500 K). To achieve this we use outgassed equilibrium chemistry and radiative transfer methods to compute temperature-pressure profiles, atmospheric chemical compositions and emission spectra. We explore varying melt compositions, free of highly-volatile elements, accounting for possible atmospheric evolution. Our models include a large number of neutral and ionic species, as well as all up-to-date opacities. The results indicate that SiO and SiO2 infrared features are the best, unique identifiers of silicate atmospheres, detectable using MIRI instrument of JWST. Detection of these two species in emission would allow for strong constraints on atmospheric thermal structure and possibly the composition of the melt. We also propose that certain species, e.g., TiO, may be directly tied to different classes of melts, possibly revealing surface and interior dynamics. Currently, there are nearly a dozen confirmed lava planets ideal for characterisation of silicate atmospheres using JWST, with two of these already accepted for the initial General Observers program.

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arXiv2021

Carbon cycling and habitability of massive Earth-like exoplanets

As the number of detected rocky extrasolar planets increases, the question of whether their surfaces could be habitable is becoming more pertinent. On Earth, the long-term carbonate silicate cycle is able to regulate surface temperatures over timescales larger than one million years. Elevated temperatures enhance weathering, removing CO$_2$ from the atmosphere, which is subducted into the mantle. At mid-ocean ridges, CO$_2$ is supplied to the atmosphere from the interior. The carbon degassing flux is controlled by the melting depth beneath mid-ocean ridges and the spreading rate, influenced by the pressure- and temperature-dependent mantle viscosity. The influences of temperature and pressure on mantle degassing become increasingly important for more massive planets. Here, we couple a thermal evolution model of Earth-like planets of different masses with a model of the long-term carbon cycle and assess their surface temperature evolution. We find that the spreading rate at 4.5 Gyr increases with planetary mass up to 3 $M_\oplus$, since the temperature-dependence of viscosity dominates over its pressure-dependency. For higher mass planets, pressure-dependence dominates and the plates slow down. In addition, the effective melting depth at 4.5 Gyr as a function of planetary mass has its maximum at 3 $M_\oplus$. Altogether, at 4.5 Gyr, the degassing rate and therefore surface temperature have their maximum at 3 $M_\oplus$. This work emphasizes that both age and mass should be considered when predicting the habitability of exoplanets. Despite these effects, the long-term carbon cycle remains an effective mechanism that regulates the surface temperature of massive Earth-like planets.

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arXiv2019

Thermal evolution of rocky exoplanets with a graphite outer shell

The presence of rocky exoplanets with a large refractory carbon inventory is predicted by chemical evolution models of protoplanetary disks of stars with photospheric C/O >0.65, and by models studying the radial transport of refractory carbon. High-pressure high-temperature laboratory experiments show that most of the carbon in these exoplanets differentiates into a graphite outer shell. Our aim is to evaluate the effects of a graphite outer shell on the thermal evolution of rocky exoplanets containing a metallic core and a silicate mantle. We implement a parameterized model of mantle convection to determine the thermal evolution of rocky exoplanets with graphite layer thicknesses up to 1000 km. We find that, due to the high thermal conductivity of graphite, conduction is the dominant heat transport mechanism in a graphite layer for the long-term evolution (>200 Myr). The conductive graphite shell essentially behaves like a stagnant lid with a fixed thickness. Models of Kepler-37b (Mercury-size) and a Mars-sized exoplanet show that a planet with a graphite lid cools faster than a planet with a silicate lid, and a planet without a stagnant lid cools the fastest. A graphite lid needs to be approximately ten times thicker than a corresponding silicate lid in order to produce similar thermal evolution.

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arXiv2019

Mineralogy, structure and habitability of carbon-enriched rocky exoplanets: A laboratory approach

Carbon-enriched rocky exoplanets have been proposed around dwarf stars as well as around binary stars, white dwarfs and pulsars. However, the mineralogical make up of such planets is poorly constrained. We performed high-pressure high-temperature laboratory experiments ($P$ = 1$-$2 GPa, $T$ = 1523$-$1823 K) on carbon-enriched chemical mixtures to investigate the deep interiors of Pluto- to Mars-size planets the upper mantles of larger planets. Our results show that these exoplanets, when fully-differentiated, comprise a metallic core, a silicate mantle and a graphite layer on top of the silicate mantle. The silicate mineralogy (olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and spinel) is largely unaffected by the amount of carbon. Metals are either two immiscible iron-rich alloys (S-rich and S-poor) or a single iron-rich alloy in the Fe-C-S system with immiscibility depending on the S/Fe ratio and core pressure. Graphite is the dominant carbon-bearing phase at the conditions of our experiments with no traces of silicon carbide or carbonates. If the bulk carbon content is higher than needed to saturate the mantle and the core, graphite would be in the form of an additional layer on top of the silicate mantle assuming differentiation. For a thick enough graphite layer, diamonds would form at the bottom of this layer due to high pressures. We model the interior structure of Kepler-37b and show that a mere 10 wt% graphite layer would decrease its derived mass by 7%, suggesting future space missions that determine both radius and mass of rocky exoplanets with insignificant gaseous envelopes could provide quantitative limits on their carbon content. Future observations of rocky exoplanets with graphite-rich surfaces would show low albedos due to the low reflectance of graphite. The absence of life-bearing elements other than carbon on the surface likely makes them uninhabitable.

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arXiv2018

Capturing the oxidation of silicon carbide in rocky exoplanetary interiors

Theoretical models predict the condensation of silicon carbide around host stars with C/O ratios higher than 0.65 (cf. C/O$_{\mathrm{Sun}}$ = 0.54), in addition to its observations in meteorites, interstellar medium and protoplanetary disks. Consequently, the interiors of rocky exoplanets born from carbon-enriched refractory material are often assumed to contain large amounts of silicon carbide. Here we aim to investigate the stability of silicon carbide in the interior of carbon-enriched rocky exoplanets and to derive the reaction leading to its transformation. We performed a high-pressure high-temperature experiment to investigate the reaction between a silicon carbide layer and a layer representative of the bulk composition of a carbon-enriched rocky exoplanet. We report the reaction leading to oxidation of silicon carbide producing quartz, graphite, and molten iron silicide. Combined with previous studies, we show that in order to stabilize silicon carbide, carbon saturation is not sufficient, and a complete reduction of Fe$^{2+}$ to Fe$^{0}$ in a planetary mantle is required, suggesting that future spectroscopic detection of Fe$^{2+}$ or Fe$^{3+}$ on the surface of rocky exoplanets would imply the absence of silicon carbide in their interiors.

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arXiv2012

Toxicity of lunar dust

The formation, composition and physical properties of lunar dust are incompletely characterised with regard to human health. While the physical and chemical determinants of dust toxicity for materials such as asbestos, quartz, volcanic ashes and urban particulate matter have been the focus of substantial research efforts, lunar dust properties, and therefore lunar dust toxicity may differ substantially. In this contribution, past and ongoing work on dust toxicity is reviewed, and major knowledge gaps that prevent an accurate assessment of lunar dust toxicity are identified. Finally, a range of studies using ground-based, low-gravity, and in situ measurements is recommended to address the identified knowledge gaps. Because none of the curated lunar samples exist in a pristine state that preserves the surface reactive chemical aspects thought to be present on the lunar surface, studies using this material carry with them considerable uncertainty in terms of fidelity. As a consequence, in situ data on lunar dust properties will be required to provide ground truth for ground-based studies quantifying the toxicity of dust exposure and the associated health risks during future manned lunar missions.

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