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Voelkel, Oliver, Hubert Klahr, Christoph Mordasini, Alexandre Emsenhuber, and Christian Lenz. "Effect of pebble flux-regulated planetesimal formation on giant planet formation." Astronomy & Astrophysics 642 (October 2020): A75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038085.
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Context. The formation of gas giant planets by the accretion of 100 km diameter planetesimals is often thought to be inefficient. A diameter of this size is typical for planetesimals and results from self-gravity. Many models therefore use small kilometer-sized planetesimals, or invoke the accretion of pebbles. Furthermore, models based on planetesimal accretion often use the ad hoc assumption of planetesimals that are distributed radially in a minimum-mass solar-nebula way. Aims. We use a dynamical model for planetesimal formation to investigate the effect of various initial radial density distributions on the resulting planet population. In doing so, we highlight the directive role of the early stages of dust evolution into pebbles and planetesimals in the circumstellar disk on the subsequent planet formation. Methods. We implemented a two-population model for solid evolution and a pebble flux-regulated model for planetesimal formation in our global model for planet population synthesis. This framework was used to study the global effect of planetesimal formation on planet formation. As reference, we compared our dynamically formed planetesimal surface densities with ad hoc set distributions of different radial density slopes of planetesimals. Results. Even though required, it is not the total planetesimal disk mass alone, but the planetesimal surface density slope and subsequently the formation mechanism of planetesimals that enables planetary growth through planetesimal accretion. Highly condensed regions of only 100 km sized planetesimals in the inner regions of circumstellar disks can lead to gas giant growth. Conclusions. Pebble flux-regulated planetesimal formation strongly boosts planet formation even when the planetesimals to be accreted are 100 km in size because it is a highly effective mechanism for creating a steep planetesimal density profile. We find that this leads to the formation of giant planets inside 1 au already by pure 100 km planetesimal accretion. Eventually, adding pebble accretion regulated by pebble flux and planetesimal-based embryo formation as well will further complement this picture.
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San Sebastián, I. L., O. M. Guilera, and M. G. Parisi. "Planetesimal fragmentation and giant planet formation." Astronomy & Astrophysics 625 (May 2019): A138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834168.
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Context. Most planet formation models that incorporate planetesimal fragmentation consider a catastrophic impact energy threshold for basalts at a constant velocity of 3 km s−1 throughout the process of the formation of the planets. However, as planets grow, the relative velocities of the surrounding planetesimals increase from velocities of the order of meters per second to a few kilometers per second. In addition, beyond the ice line where giant planets are formed, planetesimals are expected to be composed roughly of 50% ices. Aims. We aim to study the role of planetesimal fragmentation on giant planet formation considering the planetesimal catastrophic impact energy threshold as a function of the planetesimal relative velocities and compositions. Methods. We improved our model of planetesimal fragmentation incorporating a functional form of the catastrophic impact energy threshold with the planetesimal relative velocities and compositions. We also improved in our model the accretion of small fragments produced by the fragmentation of planetesimals during the collisional cascade considering specific pebble accretion rates. Results. We find that a more accurate and realistic model for the calculation of the catastrophic impact energy threshold tends to slow down the formation of massive cores. Only for reduced grain opacity values at the envelope of the planet is the cross-over mass achieved before the disk timescale dissipation. Conclusions. While planetesimal fragmentation favors the quick formation of massive cores of 5–10 M⊕ the cross-over mass could be inhibited by planetesimal fragmentation. However, grain opacity reduction or pollution by the accreted planetesimals together with planetesimal fragmentation could explain the formation of giant planets with low-mass cores.
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Gerbig, Konstantin, Christian T. Lenz, and Hubert Klahr. "Linking planetesimal and dust content in protoplanetary disks via a local toy model." Astronomy & Astrophysics 629 (September 2019): A116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935278.
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Context. If planetesimal formation is an efficient process, as suggested by several models involving gravitational collapse of pebble clouds, then, not before long, a significant part of the primordial dust mass should be absorbed in many km-sized objects. A good understanding of the total amount of solids in the disk around a young star is crucial for planet formation theory. However, as the mass of particles above the mm size cannot be assessed observationally, one must ask how much mass is hidden in bigger objects. Aims. We performed 0-d local simulations to study how the planetesimal to dust and pebble ratio evolves in time and to develop an understanding of the potentially existing mass in planetesimals for a certain amount of dust and pebbles at a given disk age. Methods. We performed a parameter study based on a model considering dust growth, planetesimal formation, and collisional fragmentation of planetesimals, while neglecting radial transport processes. Results. While at early times, dust is the dominant solid particle species, there is a phase during which planetesimals make up a significant portion of the total mass starting at approximately 104–106 yr. The time of this phase and the maximal total planetesimal mass strongly depend on the distance to the star R, the initial disk mass, and the efficiency of planetesimal formation ɛ. Planetesimal collisions are more significant in more massive disks, leading to lower relative planetesimal fractions compared to less massive disks. After approximately 106 yr, our model predicts planetesimal collisions to dominate, which resupplies small particles. Conclusions. In our model, planetesimals form fast and everywhere in the disk. For a given ɛ, we are able to relate the dust content and mass of a given disk to its planetesimal content, providing us with some helpful basic intuition about mass distribution of solids and its dependence on underlying physical processes.
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Coleman, Gavin A. L. "From dust to planets – I. Planetesimal and embryo formation." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 506, no. 3 (July 6, 2021): 3596–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1904.
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ABSTRACT Planet formation models begin with proto-embryos and planetesimals already fully formed, missing out a crucial step, the formation of planetesimals/proto-embryos. In this work, we include prescriptions for planetesimal and proto-embryo formation arising from pebbles becoming trapped in short-lived pressure bumps, in thermally evolving viscous discs to examine the sizes and distributions of proto-embryos and planetesimals throughout the disc. We find that planetesimal sizes increase with orbital distance, from ∼10 km close to the star to hundreds of kilometres further away. Proto-embryo masses are also found to increase with orbital radius, ranging from $10^{-6}{\, {\rm M}_{\oplus }}$ around the iceline, to $10^{-3}{\, {\rm M}_{\oplus }}$ near the orbit of Pluto. We include prescriptions for pebble and planetesimal accretion to examine the masses that proto-embryos can attain. Close to the star, planetesimal accretion is efficient due to small planetesimals, whilst pebble accretion is efficient where pebble sizes are fragmentation limited, but inefficient when drift dominated due to low accretion rates before the pebble supply diminishes. Exterior to the iceline, planetesimal accretion becomes inefficient due to increasing planetesimal eccentricities, whilst pebble accretion becomes more efficient as the initial proto-embryo masses increase, allowing them to significantly grow before the pebble supply is depleted. Combining both scenarios allows for more massive proto-embryos at larger distances, since the accretion of planetesimals allows pebble accretion to become more efficient, allowing giant planet cores to form at distances upto $10{\, {\rm au}}$. By including more realistic initial proto-embryo and planetesimal sizes, as well as combined accretion scenarios, should allow for a more complete understanding in the beginning to end process of how planets and planetary systems form.
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Schaffer, Noemi, Anders Johansen, Lukas Cedenblad, Bernhard Mehling, and Dhrubaditya Mitra. "Erosion of planetesimals by gas flow." Astronomy & Astrophysics 639 (July 2020): A39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935763.
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The first stages of planet formation take place in protoplanetary disks that are largely made up of gas. Understanding how the gas affects planetesimals in the protoplanetary disk is therefore essential. In this paper, we discuss whether or not gas flow can erode planetesimals. We estimated how much shear stress is exerted onto the planetesimal surface by the gas as a function of disk and planetesimal properties. To determine whether erosion can take place, we compared this with previous measurements of the critical stress that a pebble-pile planetesimal can withstand before erosion begins. If erosion took place, we estimated the erosion time of the affected planetesimals. We also illustrated our estimates with two-dimensional numerical simulations of flows around planetesimals using the lattice Boltzmann method. We find that the wall shear stress can overcome the critical stress of planetesimals in an eccentric orbit within the innermost regions of the disk. The high eccentricities needed to reach erosive stresses could be the result of shepherding by migrating planets. We also find that if a planetesimal erodes, it does so on short timescales. For planetesimals residing outside of 1 au, we find that they are mainly safe from erosion, even in the case of highly eccentric orbits.
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Liu, Beibei, Chris W. Ormel, and Anders Johansen. "Growth after the streaming instability." Astronomy & Astrophysics 624 (April 2019): A114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834174.
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Context. Streaming instability is a key mechanism in planet formation, clustering pebbles into planetesimals with the help of self-gravity. It is triggered at a particular disk location where the local volume density of solids exceeds that of the gas. After their formation, planetesimals can grow into protoplanets by feeding from other planetesimals in the birth ring as well as by accreting inwardly drifting pebbles from the outer disk. Aims. We aim to investigate the growth of planetesimals into protoplanets at a single location through streaming instability. For a solar-mass star, we test the conditions under which super-Earths are able to form within the lifetime of the gaseous disk. Methods. We modified the Mercury N-body code to trace the growth and dynamical evolution of a swarm of planetesimals at a distance of 2.7 AU from the star. The code simulates gravitational interactions and collisions among planetesimals, gas drag, type I torque, and pebble accretion. Three distributions of planetesimal sizes were investigated: (i) a mono-dispersed population of 400 km radius planetesimals, (ii) a poly-dispersed population of planetesimals from 200 km up to 1000 km, (iii) a bimodal distribution with a single runaway body and a swarm of smaller, 100 km size planetesimals. Results. The mono-dispersed population of 400 km size planetesimals cannot form protoplanets of a mass greater than that of the Earth. Their eccentricities and inclinations are quickly excited, which suppresses both planetesimal accretion and pebble accretion. Planets can form from the poly-dispersed and bimodal distributions. In these circumstances, it is the two-component nature that damps the random velocity of the large embryo through the dynamical friction of small planetesimals, allowing the embryo to accrete pebbles efficiently when it approaches 10−2 M⊕. Accounting for migration, close-in super-Earth planets form. Super-Earth planets are likely to form when the pebble mass flux is higher, the disk turbulence is lower, or the Stokes number of the pebbles is higher. Conclusions. For the single site planetesimal formation scenario, a two-component mass distribution with a large embryo and small planetesimals promotes planet growth, first by planetesimal accretion and then by pebble accretion of the most massive protoplanet. Planetesimal formation at single locations such as ice lines naturally leads to super-Earth planets by the combined mechanisms of planetesimal accretion and pebble accretion.
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Johansen, Anders, and Bertram Bitsch. "Exploring the conditions for forming cold gas giants through planetesimal accretion." Astronomy & Astrophysics 631 (October 23, 2019): A70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936351.
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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 1000 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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Shibata, Sho, Ravit Helled, and Masahiro Ikoma. "The origin of the high metallicity of close-in giant exoplanets." Astronomy & Astrophysics 633 (January 2020): A33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936700.
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Context. Recent studies suggest that in comparison to their host star, many giant exoplanets are highly enriched with heavy elements and can contain several tens of Earth masses of heavy elements or more. Such enrichment is considered to have been delivered by the accretion of planetesimals in late formation stages. Previous dynamical simulations, however, have shown that planets cannot accrete such high masses of heavy elements through “in situ” planetesimal accretion. Aims. We investigate whether a giant planet migrating inward can capture planetesimals efficiently enough to significantly increase its metallicity. Methods. We performed orbital integrations of a migrating giant planet and planetesimals in a protoplanetary gas disc to infer the planetesimal mass that is accreted by the planet. Results. We find that the two shepherding processes of mean motion resonance trapping and aerodynamic gas drag inhibit the planetesimal capture of a migrating planet. However, the amplified libration allows the highly-excited planetesimals in the resonances to escape from the resonance trap and to be accreted by the planet. Consequently, we show that a migrating giant planet captures planetesimals with total mass of several tens of Earth masses if the planet forms at a few tens of AU in a relatively massive disc. We also find that planetesimal capture occurs efficiently in a limited range of semi-major axis and that the total captured planetesimal mass increases with increasing migration distances. Our results have important implications for understanding the relation between giant planet metallicity and mass, as we suggest that it reflects the formation location of the planet – or more precisely, the location where runaway gas accretion occurred. We also suggest the observed metal-rich close-in Jupiters migrated to their present locations from afar, where they had initially formed.
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Wallace, Spencer C., and Thomas R. Quinn. "N-body simulations of terrestrial planet growth with resonant dynamical friction." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 489, no. 2 (August 19, 2019): 2159–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2284.
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ABSTRACT We investigate planetesimal accretion via a direct N-body simulation of an annulus at 1 au orbiting a 1 M$\odot$ star. The planetesimal ring, which initially contains N = 106 bodies is evolved into the oligarchic growth phase. Unlike previous lower resolution studies, we find that the mass distribution of planetesimals develops a bump at intermediate mass after the oligarchs form. This feature marks a boundary between growth modes. The smallest planetesimals are packed tightly enough together to populate mean motion resonances with the oligarchs, which heats the small bodies, enhancing their growth. If we depopulate most of the resonances by decreasing the width of the annulus, this effect becomes weaker. To clearly demonstrate the dynamics driving these growth modes, we also examine the evolution of a planetary embryo embedded in an annulus of collisionless planetesimals. In this case, we find that the resonances push planetesimals away from the embryo, decreasing the surface density of the bodies adjacent to the embryo. This effect only occurs when the annulus is wide enough and the mass resolution of the planetesimals is fine enough to populate the resonances. The bump we observe in the mass distribution resembles the 100 km power-law break seen in the size distribution of asteroid belt objects. Although the bump produced in our simulations occurs at a size larger than 100 km, we show that the bump location is sensitive to the initial planetesimal mass, which implies that this feature is potentially useful for constraining planetesimal formation models.
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Guilera, Octavio Miguel, Zsolt Sándor, María Paula Ronco, Julia Venturini, and Marcelo Miguel Miller Bertolami. "Giant planet formation at the pressure maxima of protoplanetary disks." Astronomy & Astrophysics 642 (October 2020): A140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038458.
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Context. Recent high-resolution observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed ring-like structures that can be associated to pressure maxima. Pressure maxima are known to be dust collectors and planet migration traps. The great majority of planet formation studies are based either on the pebble accretion model or on the planetesimal accretion model. However, recent studies proposed hybrid accretion of pebbles and planetesimals as a possible formation mechanism for Jupiter. Aims. We aim to study the full process of planet formation consisting of dust evolution, planetesimal formation, and planet growth at a pressure maximum in a protoplanetary disk. Methods. We compute, through numerical simulations, the gas and dust evolution in a protoplanetary disk, including dust growth, fragmentation, radial drift, and particle accumulation at a pressure maximum. The pressure maximum appears due to an assumed viscosity transition at the water ice line. We also consider the formation of planetesimals by streaming instability and the formation of a moon-size embryo that grows into a giant planet by the hybrid accretion of pebbles and planetesimals, all within the pressure maximum. Results. We find that the pressure maximum is an efficient collector of dust drifting inwards. The condition of planetesimal formation by streaming instability is fulfilled due to the large amount of dust accumulated at the pressure bump. Subsequently, a massive core is quickly formed (in ~104 yr) by the accretion of pebbles. After the pebble isolation mass is reached, the growth of the core slowly continues by the accretion of planetesimals. The energy released by planetesimal accretion delays the onset of runaway gas accretion, allowing a gas giant to form after ~1 Myr of disk evolution. The pressure maximum also acts as a migration trap. Conclusions. Pressure maxima generated by a viscosity transition at the water ice line are preferential locations for dust traps, planetesimal formation by streaming instability, and planet migration traps. All these conditions allow the fast formation of a giant planet by the hybrid accretion of pebbles and planetesimals.
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Dra̧żkowska, J., and C. P. Dullemond. "Planetesimal formation during protoplanetary disk buildup." Astronomy & Astrophysics 614 (June 2018): A62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201732221.
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Context. Models of dust coagulation and subsequent planetesimal formation are usually computed on the backdrop of an already fully formed protoplanetary disk model. At the same time, observational studies suggest that planetesimal formation should start early, possibly even before the protoplanetary disk is fully formed. Aims. In this paper we investigate under which conditions planetesimals already form during the disk buildup stage, in which gas and dust fall onto the disk from its parent molecular cloud. Methods. We couple our earlier planetesimal formation model at the water snow line to a simple model of disk formation and evolution. Results. We find that under most conditions planetesimals only form after the buildup stage, when the disk becomes less massive and less hot. However, there are parameters for which planetesimals already form during the disk buildup. This occurs when the viscosity driving the disk evolution is intermediate (αv ~ 10−3−10−2) while the turbulent mixing of the dust is reduced compared to that (αt ≲ 10−4), and with the assumption that the water vapor is vertically well-mixed with the gas. Such a αt ≪ αv scenario could be expected for layered accretion, where the gas flow is mostly driven by the active surface layers, while the midplane layers, where most of the dust resides, are quiescent. Conclusions. In the standard picture where protoplanetary disk accretion is driven by global turbulence, we find that no planetesimals form during the disk buildup stage. Planetesimal formation during the buildup stage is only possible in scenarios in which pebbles reside in a quiescent midplane while the gas and water vapor are diffused at a higher rate.
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Rucska, J. J., and J. W. Wadsley. "Streaming instability on different scales – I. Planetesimal mass distribution variability." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500, no. 1 (October 24, 2020): 520–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3295.
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ABSTRACT We present numerical simulations of dust clumping and planetesimal formation initiated by the streaming instability (SI) with self-gravity. We examine the variability in the planetesimal formation process by employing simulation domains with large radial and azimuthal extents and a novel approach of re-running otherwise identical simulations with different random initializations of the dust density field. We find that the planetesimal mass distribution and the total mass of dust that is converted into planetesimals can vary substantially between individual small simulations and within the domains of larger simulations. Our results show that the non-linear nature of the developed SI introduces substantial variability in the planetesimal formation process that has not been previously considered and suggests larger scale dynamics may affect the process.
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Charnoz, Sébastien, Francesco C. Pignatale, Ryuki Hyodo, Brandon Mahan, Marc Chaussidon, Julien Siebert, and Frédéric Moynier. "Planetesimal formation in an evolving protoplanetary disk with a dead zone." Astronomy & Astrophysics 627 (July 2019): A50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833216.
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Context. When and where planetesimals form in a protoplanetary disk are highly debated questions. Streaming instability is considered the most promising mechanism, but the conditions for its onset are stringent. Disk studies show that the planet forming region is not turbulent because of the lack of ionization forming possibly dead zones (DZs). Aims. We investigate planetesimal formation in an evolving disk, including the DZ and thermal evolution. Methods. We used a 1D time-evolving stratified disk model with composite chemistry grains, gas and dust transport, and dust growth. Results. Accretion of planetesimals always develops in the DZ around the snow line, due to a combination of water recondensation and creation of dust traps caused by viscosity variations close to the DZ. The width of the planetesimal forming region depends on the disk metallicity. For Z = Z⊙, planetesimals form in a ring of about 1 au width, while for Z > 1.2 Z⊙ planetesimals form from the snow line up to the outer edge of the DZ ≃ 20 au. The efficiency of planetesimal formation in a disk with a DZ is due to the very low effective turbulence in the DZ and to the efficient piling up of material coming from farther away; this material accumulates in region of positive pressure gradients forming a dust trap due to viscosity variations. For Z = Z⊙ the disk is always dominated in terms of mass by pebbles, while for Z > 1.2 Z⊙ planetesimals are always more abundant than pebbles. If it is assumed that silicate dust is sticky and grows up to impact velocities ~10 m s−1, then planetesimals can form down to 0.1 au (close to the inner edge of the DZ). In conclusion the DZ seems to be a sweet spot for the formation of planetesimals: wide scale planetesimal formation is possible for Z > 1.2 Z⊙. If hot silicate dust is as sticky as ice, then it is also possible to form planetesimals well inside the snow line.
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Shibaike, Y., and Y. Alibert. "Planetesimal formation at the gas pressure bump following a migrating planet." Astronomy & Astrophysics 644 (December 2020): A81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039086.
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Context. Many scenarios have been proposed to avoid known difficulties in planetesimal formation such as drift or fragmentation barriers. However, in these scenarios planetesimals in general only form at some specific locations in protoplanetary discs. On the other hand, it is generally assumed in planet formation models and population synthesis models that planetesimals are broadly distributed in the protoplanetary disc. Aims. We propose a new scenario in which planetesimals can form in broad areas of these discs. Planetesimals form at the gas pressure bump formed by a first-generation planet (e.g. formed by pebble accretion) and the formation region spreads inward in the disc as the planet migrates. Methods. We used a simple 1D Lagrangian particle model to calculate the radial distribution of pebbles in the gas disc perturbed by a migrating embedded planet. We consider that planetesimals form by streaming instability at the points where the pebble-to-gas density ratio on the mid-plane becomes larger than unity. In this work, we fixed the Stokes number of pebbles and the mass of the planet to study the basic characteristics of this new scenario. We also studied the effect of some key parameters, such as the gas disc model, the pebble mass flux, the migration speed of the planet, and the strength of turbulence. Results. We find that planetesimals form in wide areas of protoplanetary discs provided the flux of pebbles is typical and the turbulence is not too strong. The planetesimal surface density depends on the pebble mass flux and the migration speed of the planet. The total mass of the planetesimals and the orbital position of the formation area strongly depend on the pebble mass flux. We also find that the profile of the planetesimal surface density and its slope can be estimated by very simple equations. Conclusions. We show that our new scenario can explain the formation of planetesimals in broad areas. The simple estimates we provide for the planetesimal surface density profile can be used as initial conditions for population synthesis models.
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Silsbee, Kedron, and Roman R. Rafikov. "Planet formation in stellar binaries: global simulations of planetesimal growth." Astronomy & Astrophysics 652 (August 2021): A104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202141139.
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Planet formation around one component of a tight, eccentric binary system such as γ Cephei (with semimajor axis around 20 AU) is theoretically challenging because of destructive high-velocity collisions between planetesimals. Despite this fragmentation barrier, planets are known to exist in such (so-called S-type) orbital configurations. Here we present a novel numerical framework for carrying out multi-annulus coagulation-fragmentation calculations of planetesimal growth, which fully accounts for the specifics of planetesimal dynamics in binaries, details of planetesimal collision outcomes, and the radial transport of solids in the disk due to the gas drag-driven inspiral. Our dynamical inputs properly incorporate the gravitational effects of both the eccentric stellar companion and the massive non-axisymmetric protoplanetary disk in which planetesimals reside, as well as gas drag. We identify a set of disk parameters that lead to successful planetesimal growth in systems such as γ Cephei or α Centauri starting from 1 to 10 km size objects. We identify the apsidal alignment of a protoplanetary disk with the binary orbit as one of the critical conditions for successful planetesimal growth: It naturally leads to the emergence of a dynamically quiet location in the disk (as long as the disk eccentricity is of order several percent), where favorable conditions for planetesimal growth exist. Accounting for the gravitational effect of a protoplanetary disk plays a key role in arriving at this conclusion, in agreement with our previous results. These findings lend support to the streaming instability as the mechanism of planetesimal formation. They provide important insights for theories of planet formation around both binary and single stars, as well as for the hydrodynamic simulations of protoplanetary disks in binaries (for which we identify a set of key diagnostics to verify).
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Chiang, Eugene, Ruth Murray-Clay, and Ji-Ming Shi. "Problems and Prospects in Planetesimal Formation." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 8, S299 (June 2013): 136–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921313008119.
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Janson, Markus, Yanqin Wu, Gianni Cataldi, and Alexis Brandeker. "Tidal disruption versus planetesimal collisions as possible origins for the dispersing dust cloud around Fomalhaut." Astronomy & Astrophysics 640 (August 2020): A93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038589.
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Recent analysis suggests that the faint optical point source observed around Fomalhaut from 2004–2014 (Fomalhaut b) is gradually fading and expanding, supporting the case that it may be a dispersing dust cloud resulting from the sudden disruption of a planetesimal. These types of disruptions may arise from catastrophic collisions of planetesimals, which are perturbed from their original orbits in the Fomalhaut dust ring by nearby giant planets. However, disruptions can also occur when the planetesimals pass within the tidal disruption field of the planet(s) that perturbed them in the first place, similar to the Shoemaker-Levy event observed in the Solar System. Given that a gravitationally focusing giant planet has a much larger interaction cross-section than a planetesimal, tidal disruption events can match or outnumber planetesimal collision events in realistic regions of parameter space. Intriguingly, the Fomalhaut dust cloud offers an opportunity to directly distinguish between these scenarios. A tidal disruption scenario leads to a very specific prediction of ephemerides for the planet causing the event. At a most probable mass of 66 M⊕, a semi-major axis of 117 AU, and a system age of 400–500 Myr, this planet would be readily detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope. The presence or absence of this planet at the specific, predicted position is therefore a distinctive indicator of whether the dispersing cloud originated from a collision of two planetesimals or from the disruption of a planetesimal in the tidal field of a giant planet.
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Guilera, O. M., D. Swoboda, Y. Alibert, G. C. de Elía, P. J. Santamaría, and A. Brunini. "Planetesimal fragmentation and giant planet formation: the role of planet migration." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 9, S310 (July 2014): 204–7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921314008266.
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AbstractIn the standard model of core accretion, the cores of the giant planets form by the accretion of planetesimals. In this scenario, the evolution of the planetesimal population plays an important role in the formation of massive cores. Recently, we studied the role of planetesimal fragmentation in the in situ formation of a giant planet. However, the exchange of angular momentum between the planet and the gaseous disk causes the migration of the planet in the disk. In this new work, we incorporate the migration of the planet and study the role of planet migration in the formation of a massive core when the population of planetesimals evolves by planet accretion, migration, and fragmentation.
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Demirci, Tunahan, Niclas Schneider, Jens Teiser, and Gerhard Wurm. "Destruction of eccentric planetesimals by ram pressure and erosion." Astronomy & Astrophysics 644 (November 24, 2020): A20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039312.
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Small, pebble-sized objects and large bodies of planetesimal size both play important roles in planet formation. They form the evolutionary steps of dust growth in their own respect. However, at later times, they are also thought to provide background populations of mass that larger bodies might feed upon. What we suggest in this work is that starting at times of viscous stirring, planetesimals on eccentric orbits could simply explode as they become supersonic in comparison to small, porous planetary bodies entering Earth’s atmosphere. We present a toy model of planetesimal motion and destruction to show the key aspects of this process. The consequences are quite severe. At all times, it is shown that only planetesimals on more or less circular orbits exist in the inner disk. After the destruction of a planetesimal, the remaining matter is continuously redistributed to the pebble reservoir of the protoplanetary disk. Since destruction typically occurs at small stellar distances due to supersonic speeds, it is expected to boost pebble accretion in the inner protoplanetary disk as one of its main effects.
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Hirschmann, Marc M., Edwin A. Bergin, Geoff A. Blake, Fred J. Ciesla, and Jie Li. "Early volatile depletion on planetesimals inferred from C–S systematics of iron meteorite parent bodies." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 13 (March 22, 2021): e2026779118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2026779118.
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During the formation of terrestrial planets, volatile loss may occur through nebular processing, planetesimal differentiation, and planetary accretion. We investigate iron meteorites as an archive of volatile loss during planetesimal processing. The carbon contents of the parent bodies of magmatic iron meteorites are reconstructed by thermodynamic modeling. Calculated solid/molten alloy partitioning of C increases greatly with liquid S concentration, and inferred parent body C concentrations range from 0.0004 to 0.11 wt%. Parent bodies fall into two compositional clusters characterized by cores with medium and low C/S. Both of these require significant planetesimal degassing, as metamorphic devolatilization on chondrite-like precursors is insufficient to account for their C depletions. Planetesimal core formation models, ranging from closed-system extraction to degassing of a wholly molten body, show that significant open-system silicate melting and volatile loss are required to match medium and low C/S parent body core compositions. Greater depletion in C relative to S is the hallmark of silicate degassing, indicating that parent body core compositions record processes that affect composite silicate/iron planetesimals. Degassing of bare cores stripped of their silicate mantles would deplete S with negligible C loss and could not account for inferred parent body core compositions. Devolatilization during small-body differentiation is thus a key process in shaping the volatile inventory of terrestrial planets derived from planetesimals and planetary embryos.
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Coleman, G. A. L., A. Leleu, Y. Alibert, and W. Benz. "Pebbles versus planetesimals: the case of Trappist-1." Astronomy & Astrophysics 631 (October 14, 2019): A7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935922.
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We present a study into 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 could favour one scenario over the other. To determine these differences, we ran numerous N-body simulations, coupled to a thermally evolving viscous 1D disc model, and including prescriptions for planet migration, photoevaporation, and pebble and planetesimal dynamics. We mainly examine the differences between the pebble and planetesimal accretion scenarios, but we also look at the influences of disc mass, size of planetesimals, 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 the pebble and planetesimal 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 into the inner region close to the central star. When comparing the planetary systems formed through pebble accretion to those formed through planetesimal accretion, we find a large number of similarities, including average planet masses, eccentricities, inclinations, and period ratios. One major difference between the two scenarios 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, the planets formed through pebble accretion were extremely dry, whilst those formed through planetesimal accretion 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 through pebble accretion are extremely wet, similar to those formed through planetesimal accretion. 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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Lenz, Christian T., Hubert Klahr, Tilman Birnstiel, Katherine Kretke, and Sebastian Stammler. "Constraining the parameter space for the solar nebula." Astronomy & Astrophysics 640 (August 2020): A61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202037878.
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Context. When we wish to understand planetesimal formation, the only data set we have is our own Solar System. The Solar System is particularly interesting because so far, it is the only planetary system we know of that developed life. Understanding the conditions under which the solar nebula evolved is crucial in order to understand the different processes in the disk and the subsequent dynamical interaction between (proto-)planets after the gas disk has dissolved. Aims. Protoplanetary disks provide a plethora of different parameters to explore. The question is whether this parameter space can be constrained, allowing simulations to reproduce the Solar System. Methods. Models and observations of planet formation provide constraints on the initial planetesimal mass in certain regions of the solar nebula. By making use of pebble flux-regulated planetesimal formation, we performed a parameter study with nine different disk parameters such as the initial disk mass, the initial disk size, the initial dust-to-gas ratio, the turbulence level, and others. Results. We find that the distribution of mass in planetesimals in the disk depends on the timescales of planetesimal formation and pebble drift. Multiple disk parameters can affect the pebble properties and thus planetesimal formation. However, it is still possible to draw some conclusions on potential parameter ranges. Conclusions. Pebble flux-regulated planetesimal formation appears to be very robust, allowing simulations with a wide range of parameters to meet the initial planetesimal constraints for the solar nebula. This means that it does not require much fine-tuning.
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Rafikov, R. R. "Planetesimal Disk Evolution Driven by Planetesimal-Planetesimal Gravitational Scattering." Astronomical Journal 125, no. 2 (February 2003): 906–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/345969.
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Venturini, Julia, and Ravit Helled. "Jupiter’s heavy-element enrichment expected from formation models." Astronomy & Astrophysics 634 (February 2020): A31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936591.
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Aims. The goal of this work is to investigate Jupiter’s growth by focusing on the amount of heavy elements accreted by the planet, and to compare this with recent structure models of Jupiter. Methods. Our model assumes an initial core growth dominated by pebble accretion, and a second growth phase that is characterised by a moderate accretion of both planetesimals and gas. The third phase is dominated by runaway gas accretion during which the planet becomes detached from the disc. The second and third phases were computed in detail, considering two different prescriptions for the planetesimal accretion and fits from hydrodynamical studies to compute the gas accretion in the detached phase. Results. In order for Jupiter to consist of ~20–40 M⊕ of heavy elements as suggested by structure models, we find that Jupiter’s formation location is preferably at an orbital distance of 1 ≲ a ≲ 10 au once the accretion of planetesimals dominates. We find that Jupiter could accrete between ~1 and ~15 M⊕ of heavy elements during runaway gas accretion, depending on the assumed initial surface density of planetesimals and the prescription used to estimate the heavy-element accretion during the final stage of the planetary formation. This would yield an envelope metallicity of ~0.5 to ~3 times solar. By computing the solid (heavy-element) accretion during the detached phase, we infer a planetary mass-metallicity (MP–MZ) relation of MZ ~ MP2/5, when a gap in the planetesimal disc is created, and of MZ ~ MP1/6 without a planetesimal gap. Conclusions. Our hybrid pebble-planetesimal model can account for Jupiter’s bulk and atmospheric enrichment. The high bulk metallicity inferred for many giant exoplanets is difficult to explain from standard formation models. This might suggest a migration history for such highly enriched giant exoplanets and/or giant impacts after the disc’s dispersal.
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Eriksson, Linn E. J., Thomas Ronnet, and Anders Johansen. "The fate of planetesimals formed at planetary gap edges." Astronomy & Astrophysics 648 (April 2021): A112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039889.
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The presence of rings and gaps in protoplanetary disks are often ascribed to planet–disk interactions, where dust and pebbles are trapped at the edges of planetary-induced gas gaps. Recent works have shown that these are likely sites for planetesimal formation via the streaming instability. Given the large amount of planetesimals that potentially form at gap edges, we address the question of their fate and their ability to radially transport solids in protoplanetary disks. We performed a series of N-body simulations of planetesimal orbits, taking into account the effect of gas drag and mass loss via ablation. We considered two planetary systems: one that is akin to the young Solar System and another inspired by the structures observed in the protoplanetary disk around HL Tau. In both systems, the proximity to the gap-opening planets results in large orbital excitations, causing the planetesimals to leave their birth locations and spread out across the disk soon after formation. We find that collisions between pairs of planetesimals are rare and should not affect the outcome of our simulations. Collisions with planets occur for ~1% of the planetesimals in the Solar System and for ~20% of the planetesimals in the HL Tau system. Planetesimals that end up on eccentric orbits interior of ~10 au experience efficient ablation and lose all mass before they reach the innermost disk region. In our nominal Solar System simulation, with a stellar gas accretion rate of Ṁ0 = 10−7 M⊙ yr−1 and α = 10−2, we find that 70% of the initial planetesimal mass has been ablated after 500 kyr. Since the protoplanets are located further away from the star in the HL Tau system, the ablation rate is lower and only 11% of the initial planetesimal mass has been ablated after 1 Myr using the same disk parameters. The ablated material consist of a mixture of solid grains and vaporized ices, where a large fraction of the vaporized ices re-condense to form solid ice. Assuming that the solid grains and ices grow to pebbles in the disk midplane, this results in a pebble flux of ~10−100 M⊕ Myr−1 through the inner disk. This occurred in the Solar System at a time so early in its evolution that there is not likely to be any record of it. Our results demonstrate that scattered planetesimals can carry a significant flux of solids past planetary-induced gaps in young and massive protoplanetary disks.
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Maurel, Clara, James F. J. Bryson, Richard J. Lyons, Matthew R. Ball, Rajesh V. Chopdekar, Andreas Scholl, Fred J. Ciesla, William F. Bottke, and Benjamin P. Weiss. "Meteorite evidence for partial differentiation and protracted accretion of planetesimals." Science Advances 6, no. 30 (July 2020): eaba1303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba1303.
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Modern meteorite classification schemes assume that no single planetary body could be source of both unmelted (chondritic) and melted (achondritic) meteorites. This dichotomy is a natural outcome of formation models assuming that planetesimal accretion occurred nearly instantaneously. However, it has recently been proposed that the accretion of many planetesimals lasted over ≳1 million years (Ma). This could have resulted in partially differentiated internal structures, with individual bodies containing iron cores, achondritic silicate mantles, and chondritic crusts. This proposal can be tested by searching for a meteorite group containing evidence for these three layers. We combine synchrotron paleomagnetic analyses with thermal, impact, and collisional evolution models to show that the parent body of the enigmatic IIE iron meteorites was such a partially differentiated planetesimal. This implies that some chondrites and achondrites simultaneously coexisted on the same planetesimal, indicating that accretion was protracted and that apparently undifferentiated asteroids may contain melted interiors.
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SAFFET YEŞİLYURT, İ., E. NİHAL ERCAN, and A. DEL POPOLO. "PLANETARY MIGRATION IN EVOLVING PLANETESIMAL DISKS." International Journal of Modern Physics D 12, no. 08 (September 2003): 1399–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s021827180300389x.
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In the current paper, we further improved the model for the migration of planets introduced and extended to time-dependent planetesimal accretion disks by Del Popolo. In the current study, the assumption of Del Popolo, that the surface density in planetesimals is proportional to that of gas, is relaxed. In order to obtain the evolution of planetesimal density, we use a method developed by Stepinski and Valageas which is able to simultaneously follow the evolution of gas and solid particles for up to 107 years. Then, the disk model is coupled to migration model introduced by Del Popolo in order to obtain the migration rate of the planet in the planetesimal. We find that the properties of solids known to exist in protoplanetary systems, together with reasonable density profiles for the disk, lead to a characteristic radius in the range 0.03–0.2 AU for the final semi-major axis of the giant planet.Hence our model can explain the properties of discovered extrasolar giant planets.
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Kominami, Junko D., Junichiro Makino, and Hiroshi Daisaka. "Binary Formation in Planetesimal Disks. I. Equal Mass Planetesimals." Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 63, no. 6 (December 25, 2011): 1331–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pasj/63.6.1331.
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Pichierri, Gabriele, Alessandro Morbidelli, and Dong Lai. "Extreme secular excitation of eccentricity inside mean motion resonance." Astronomy & Astrophysics 605 (September 2017): A23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201730936.
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Context. It is well known that asteroids and comets fall into the Sun. Metal pollution of white dwarfs and transient spectroscopic signatures of young stars like β-Pic provide growing evidence that extra solar planetesimals can attain extreme orbital eccentricities and fall into their parent stars. Aims. We aim to develop a general, implementable, semi-analytical theory of secular eccentricity excitation of small bodies (planetesimals) in mean motion resonances with an eccentric planet valid for arbitrary values of the eccentricities and including the short-range force due to General Relativity. Methods. Our semi-analytic model for the restricted planar three-body problem does not make use of series expansion and therefore is valid for any eccentricity value and semi-major axis ratio. The model is based on the application of the adiabatic principle, which is valid when the precession period of the longitude of pericentre of the planetesimal is much longer than the libration period in the mean motion resonance. In resonances of order larger than 1 this is true except for vanishingly small eccentricities. We provide prospective users with a Mathematica notebook with implementation of the model allowing direct use. Results. We confirm that the 4:1 mean motion resonance with a moderately eccentric (e′ ≲ 0.1) planet is the most powerful one to lift the eccentricity of planetesimals from nearly circular orbits to star-grazing ones. However, if the planet is too eccentric, we find that this resonance is unable to pump the planetesimal’s eccentricity to a very high value. The inclusion of the General Relativity effect imposes a condition on the mass of the planet to drive the planetesimals into star-grazing orbits. For a planetesimal at ~ 1 AU around a solar mass star (or white dwarf), we find a threshold planetary mass of about 17 Earth masses. We finally derive an analytical formula for this critical mass. Conclusions. Planetesimals can easily fall into the central star even in the presence of a single moderately eccentric planet, but only from the vicinity of the 4:1 mean motion resonance. For sufficiently high planetary masses the General Relativity effect does not prevent the achievement of star-grazing orbits.
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Chatterjee, Sourav, Seth O. Krantzler, and Eric B. Ford. "Period Ratio Distribution of Near-Resonant Planets Indicates Planetesimal Scattering." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 11, A29A (August 2015): 30–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921316002350.
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AbstractAn intriguing trend among it Kepler's multi-planet systems is an overabundance of planet pairs with period ratios just wide of mean motion resonances (MMR) and a dearth of systems just narrow of them. In a recently published paper Chatterjee & Ford (2015; henceforth CF15) has proposed that gas-disk migration traps planets in a MMR. After gas dispersal, orbits of these trapped planets are altered through interaction with a residual planetesimal disk. They found that for massive enough disks planet-planetesimal disk interactions can break resonances and naturally create moderate to large positive offsets from the initial period ratio for large ranges of planetesimal disk and planet properties. Divergence from resonance only happens if the mass of planetesimals that interact with the planets is at least a few percent of the total planet mass. This threshold, above which resonances are broken and the offset from resonances can grow, naturally explains why the asymmetric large offsets were not seen in more massive planet pairs found via past radial velocity surveys. In this article we will highlight some of the key findings of CF15. In addition, we report preliminary results from an extension of this study, that investigates the effects of planet-planetesimal disk interactions on initially non-resonant planet pairs. We find that planetesimal scattering typically increases period ratios of non-resonant planets. If the initial period ratios are below and in proximity of a resonance, under certain conditions, this increment in period ratios can create a deficit of systems with period ratios just below the exact integer corresponding to the MMR and an excess just above. From an initially uniform distribution of period ratios just below a 2:1 MMR, planetesimal interactions can create an asymmetric distribution across this MMR similar to what is observed for the kepler planet pairs.
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Brügger, N., R. Burn, G. A. L. Coleman, Y. Alibert, and W. Benz. "Pebbles versus planetesimals." Astronomy & Astrophysics 640 (August 2020): A21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038042.
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Context. In the core accretion scenario of giant planet formation, a massive core forms first and then accretes a gaseous envelope. In the discussion of how this core forms, some divergences appear. The first scenarios of planet formation predict the accretion of kilometre-sized bodies called planetesimals, while more recent works suggest growth by the accretion of pebbles, which are centimetre-sized objects. Aims. These two accretion models are often discussed separately and our aim here is to compare the outcomes of the two models with identical initial conditions. Methods. The comparison is done using two distinct codes, one that computes the planetesimal accretion and the other the pebble accretion. All the other components of the simulated planet growth are computed identically in the two models: the disc, the accretion of gas, and the migration. Using a population synthesis approach, we compare planet simulations and study the impact of the two solid accretion models, focusing on the formation of single planets. Results. We find that the outcomes of the populations are strongly influenced by the accretion model. 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 (Miso) 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 model, caused by luminosity differences. This also implies planets with lower densities, which could be confirmed observationally. Conclusions. We conclude that the two models produce different outputs. Focusing on giant planets, the sensitivity of their formation differs: for the pebble accretion model, the time at which the embryos are formed and the period over which solids are accreted strongly impact the results, while the population of giant planets formed by planetesimal accretion depends on the planetesimal size and on the splitting in the amount of solids available to form planetesimals.
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Ouyed, Rachid. "Can D-D fusion contribute to Jupiter's excess heat?" Symposium - International Astronomical Union 202 (2004): 280–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0074180900218068.
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We explore the highly speculative idea of Deuterium - Deuterium (D-D) fusion inside Jupiter as an internal heating source. We suggest that D could have been brought deep inside the planet by planetesimals (during the process of planet formation) and deposited through planetesimal/ices vaporization. Here, the general aspects of the model are presented.
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Kóspál, Á., and A. Moór. "Debris Disks in Nearby Young Moving Groups in the ALMA Era." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 10, S314 (November 2015): 183–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921315006614.
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AbstractMany members of nearby young moving groups exhibit infrared excess attributed to circumstellar debris dust, formed via erosion of planetesimals. With their proximity and well-dated ages, these groups are excellent laboratories for studying the early evolution of debris dust and of planetesimal belts. ALMA can spatially resolve the disk emission, revealing the location and extent of these belts, putting constraints on planetesimal evolution models, and allowing us to study planet-disk interactions. While the main trends of dust evolution in debris disks are well-known, there is almost no information on the evolution of gas. During the transition from protoplanetary to debris state, even the origin of gas is dubious. Here we review the exciting new results ALMA provided by observing young debris disks, and discuss possible future research directions.
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Klahr, Hubert, and Andreas Schreiber. "Linking the Origin of Asteroids to Planetesimal Formation in the Solar Nebula." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 10, S318 (August 2015): 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921315010406.
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AbstractThe asteroids (more precisely: objects of the main asteroid belt) and Kuiper Belt objects (more precisely: objects of the cold classical Kuiper Belt) are leftovers of the building material for our earth and all other planets in our solar system from more than 4.5 billion years ago. At the time of their formation those were typically 100 km large objects. They were called planetesimals, built up from icy and dusty grains. In our current paradigm of planet formation it was turbulent flows and metastable flow patterns, like zonal flows and vortices, that concentrated mm to cm sized icy dust grains in sufficient numbers that a streaming instability followed by a gravitational collapse of these particle clump was triggered. The entire picture is sometimes referred to as gravoturbulent formation of planetesimals. What was missing until recently, was a physically motivated prediction on the typical sizes at which planetesimals should form via this process. Our numerical simulations in the past had only shown a correlation between numerical resolution and planetesimal size and thus no answer was possible (Johansen et al.2011). But with the lastest series of simulations on JUQUEEN (Stephan & Doctor 2015), covering all the length scales down to the physical size of actual planetesimals, we were able to obtain values for the turbulent particle diffusion as a function of the particle load in the gas. Thus, we have all necessary data at hand to feed a 'back of the envelope' calculation that predicts the size of planetesimals as result of a competition between gravitational concentration and turbulent diffusion. Using the diffusion values obtained in the numerical simulations it predicts planetesimal sizes on the order of 100 km, which suprisingly coincides with the measured data from both asteroids (Bottke et al.2005) as well from Kuiper Belt objects (Nesvorny et al.2011).
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Lenz, Christian T., Hubert Klahr, and Tilman Birnstiel. "Planetesimal Population Synthesis: Pebble Flux-regulated Planetesimal Formation." Astrophysical Journal 874, no. 1 (March 19, 2019): 36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab05d9.
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Xie, Ji-Wei, and Ji-Lin Zhou. "Effects of dissipating gas drag on planetesimal accretion in binary systems." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 3, S249 (October 2007): 419–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921308016931.
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AbstractWe numerically investigate the conditions for planetesimal accretion in the circumprimary disk under the perturbing presence of a companion star, with focus on the γ Cephei system. Gas drag is included with a dissipating time scale of 105years. We show at the beginning(within 103∼ 104years), gas drag damps the ΔVbetween planetesimals of same sizes and increases ΔVbetween planetesimals of different sizes. However, after increasing to high values(300∼800m/s), we find the ΔVbetween bodies of different sizes decrease to very low values (below 10m/s) in a few 105yrs(depending on the gas-dissipating time scaleTdamp, radial sizeRpand semi-major axisapof planetesimals). Hence, the high ΔVis somewhat short-lived, and runaway accretion can be turned on later. We conclude that the conditions for planetary formation in binary systems (even close binary systems) are much better than what we expected before.
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Johansen, Anders, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Pedro Lacerda, and Martin Bizzarro. "Growth of asteroids, planetary embryos, and Kuiper belt objects by chondrule accretion." Science Advances 1, no. 3 (April 2015): e1500109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500109.
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Chondrules are millimeter-sized spherules that dominate primitive meteorites (chondrites) originating from the asteroid belt. The incorporation of chondrules into asteroidal bodies must be an important step in planet formation, but the mechanism is not understood. We show that the main growth of asteroids can result from gas drag–assisted accretion of chondrules. The largest planetesimals of a population with a characteristic radius of 100 km undergo runaway accretion of chondrules within ~3 My, forming planetary embryos up to Mars’s size along with smaller asteroids whose size distribution matches that of main belt asteroids. The aerodynamical accretion leads to size sorting of chondrules consistent with chondrites. Accretion of millimeter-sized chondrules and ice particles drives the growth of planetesimals beyond the ice line as well, but the growth time increases above the disc lifetime outside of 25 AU. The contribution of direct planetesimal accretion to the growth of both asteroids and Kuiper belt objects is minor. In contrast, planetesimal accretion and chondrule accretion play more equal roles in the formation of Moon-sized embryos in the terrestrial planet formation region. These embryos are isolated from each other and accrete planetesimals only at a low rate. However, the continued accretion of chondrules destabilizes the oligarchic configuration and leads to the formation of Mars-sized embryos and terrestrial planets by a combination of direct chondrule accretion and giant impacts.
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Kominami, Junko D., and Junichiro Makino. "Binary formation in planetesimal disks. II. Planetesimals with a mass spectrum." Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 66, no. 6 (December 1, 2014): 123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psu119.
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Demirci, Tunahan, Niclas Schneider, Tobias Steinpilz, Tabea Bogdan, Jens Teiser, and Gerhard Wurm. "Planetesimals in rarefied gas: wind erosion in slip flow." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 493, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 5456–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa607.
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ABSTRACT A planetesimal moves through the gas of its protoplanetary disc where it experiences a head wind. Though the ambient pressure is low, this wind can erode and ultimately destroy the planetesimal if the flow is strong enough. For the first time, we observe wind erosion in ground-based and microgravity experiments at pressures relevant in protoplanetary discs, i.e. down to $10^{-1}\, \rm mbar$. We find that the required shear stress for erosion depends on the Knudsen number related to the grains at the surface. The critical shear stress to initiate erosion increases as particles become comparable to or larger than the mean free path of the gas molecules. This makes pebble pile planetesimals more stable at lower pressure. However, it does not save them as the experiments also show that the critical shear stress to initiate erosion is very low for sub-millimetre-sized grains.
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Eriksson, Linn E. J., Anders Johansen, and Beibei Liu. "Pebble drift and planetesimal formation in protoplanetary discs with embedded planets." Astronomy & Astrophysics 635 (March 2020): A110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201937037.
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Nearly axisymmetric gaps and rings are commonly observed in protoplanetary discs. The leading theory regarding the origin of these patterns is that they are due to dust trapping at the edges of gas gaps induced by the gravitational torques from embedded planets. If the concentration of solids at the gap edges becomes high enough, it could potentially result in planetesimal formation by the streaming instability. We tested this hypothesis by performing global 1D simulations of dust evolution and planetesimal formation in a protoplanetary disc that is perturbed by multiple planets. We explore different combinations of particle sizes, disc parameters, and planetary masses, and we find that planetesimals form in all of these cases. We also compare the spatial distribution of pebbles from our simulations with protoplanetary disc observations. Planets larger than one pebble isolation mass catch drifting pebbles efficiently at the edge of their gas gaps, and depending on the efficiency of planetesimal formation at the gap edges, the protoplanetary disc transforms within a few 100 000 yr to either a transition disc with a large inner hole devoid of dust or to a disc with narrow bright rings. For simulations with planetary masses lower than the pebble isolation mass, the outcome is a disc with a series of weak ring patterns but there is no strong depletion between the rings. By lowering the pebble size artificially to a 100 micrometer-sized “silt”, we find that regions between planets get depleted of their pebble mass on a longer time-scale of up to 0.5 million years. These simulations also produce fewer planetesimals than in the nominal model with millimeter-sized particles and always have at least two rings of pebbles that are still visible after 1 Myr.
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Rafikov, R. R. "Planetesimal Disk Evolution Driven by Embryo-Planetesimal Gravitational Scattering." Astronomical Journal 125, no. 2 (February 2003): 922–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/345970.
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Moro-Martín, Amaya. "Characterizing planetesimal belts through the study of debris dust." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 6, S276 (October 2010): 54–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921311019934.
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AbstractMain sequence stars are commonly surrounded by disks of dust. From lifetime arguments, it is inferred that the dust particles are not primordial but originate from the collision of planetesimals, similar to the asteroids, comets and KBOs in our Solar system. The presence of these debris disks around stars with a wide range of masses, luminosities, and metallicities, with and without binary companions, is evidence that planetesimal formation is a robust process that can take place under a wide range of conditions. Debris disks can help us learn about the formation, evolution and diversity of planetary systems.
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Veras, Dimitri, Katja Reichert, Francesco Flammini Dotti, Maxwell X. Cai, Alexander J. Mustill, Andrew Shannon, Catriona H. McDonald, Simon Portegies Zwart, M. B. N. Kouwenhoven, and Rainer Spurzem. "Linking the formation and fate of exo-Kuiper belts within Solar system analogues." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 493, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 5062–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa559.
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ABSTRACT Escalating observations of exo-minor planets and their destroyed remnants both passing through the Solar system and within white dwarf planetary systems motivate an understanding of the orbital history and fate of exo-Kuiper belts and planetesimal discs. Here, we explore how the structure of a 40–1000 au annulus of planetesimals orbiting inside of a Solar system analogue that is itself initially embedded within a stellar cluster environment varies as the star evolves through all of its stellar phases. We attempt this computationally challenging link in four parts: (1) by performing stellar cluster simulations lasting 100 Myr, (2) by making assumptions about the subsequent quiescent 11 Gyr main-sequence evolution, (3) by performing simulations throughout the giant branch phases of evolution, and (4) by making assumptions about the belt’s evolution during the white dwarf phase. Throughout these stages, we estimate the planetesimals’ gravitational responses to analogues of the four Solar system giant planets, as well as to collisional grinding, Galactic tides, stellar flybys, and stellar radiation. We find that the imprint of stellar cluster dynamics on the architecture of ≳100 km-sized exo-Kuiper belt planetesimals is retained throughout all phases of stellar evolution unless violent gravitational instabilities are triggered either (1) amongst the giant planets, or (2) due to a close (≪103 au) stellar flyby. In the absence of these instabilities, these minor planets simply double their semimajor axis while retaining their primordial post-cluster eccentricity and inclination distributions, with implications for the free-floating planetesimal population and metal-polluted white dwarfs.
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Wallace, Spencer C., Thomas R. Quinn, and Aaron C. Boley. "Collision rates of planetesimals near mean-motion resonances." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 503, no. 4 (March 19, 2021): 5409–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab792.
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ABSTRACT In circumstellar discs, collisional grinding of planetesimals produces second-generation dust. While it remains unclear whether this ever becomes a major component of the total dust content, the presence of such dust, and potentially the substructure within it, can be used to explore a disc’s physical conditions. A perturbing planet produces non-axisymmetric structures and gaps in the dust, regardless of its origin. The dynamics of planetesimals, however, will be very different than that of small dust grains due to weaker gas interactions. Therefore, planetesimal collisions could create dusty disc structures that would not exist otherwise. In this work, we use N-body simulations to investigate the collision rate profile of planetesimals near mean-motion resonances. We find that a distinct bump or dip feature is produced in the collision profile, the presence of which depends on the libration width of the resonance and the separation between the peri- and apocentre distances of the edges of the resonance. The presence of one of these two features depends on the mass and eccentricity of the planet. Assuming that the radial dust emission traces the planetesimal collision profile, the presence of a bump or dip feature in the dust emission at the 2:1 mean-motion resonance can constrain the orbital properties of the perturbing planet. This assumption is valid, so long as radial drift does not play a significant role during the collisional cascade process. Under this assumption, these features in the dust emission should be marginally observable in nearby protoplanetary discs with ALMA.
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Heng, Kevin, and Charles R. Keeton. "PLANETESIMAL DISK MICROLENSING." Astrophysical Journal 707, no. 1 (November 24, 2009): 621–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/707/1/621.
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Klahr, H., and A. Johansen. "Gravoturbulent planetesimal formation." Physica Scripta T130 (July 16, 2008): 014018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0031-8949/2008/t130/014018.
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Krivov, Alexander V., and Mark C. Wyatt. "Solution to the debris disc mass problem: planetesimals are born small?" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500, no. 1 (September 3, 2020): 718–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2385.
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ABSTRACT Debris belts on the periphery of planetary systems, encompassing the region occupied by planetary orbits, are massive analogues of the Solar system’s Kuiper belt. They are detected by thermal emission of dust released in collisions amongst directly unobservable larger bodies that carry most of the debris disc mass. We estimate the total mass of the discs by extrapolating up the mass of emitting dust with the help of collisional cascade models. The resulting mass of bright debris discs appears to be unrealistically large, exceeding the mass of solids available in the systems at the preceding protoplanetary stage. We discuss this ‘mass problem’ in detail and investigate possible solutions to it. These include uncertainties in the dust opacity and planetesimal strength, variation of the bulk density with size, steepening of the size distribution by damping processes, the role of the unknown ‘collisional age’ of the discs, and dust production in recent giant impacts. While we cannot rule out the possibility that a combination of these might help, we argue that the easiest solution would be to assume that planetesimals in systems with bright debris discs were ‘born small’, with sizes in the kilometre range, especially at large distances from the stars. This conclusion would necessitate revisions to the existing planetesimal formation models, and may have a range of implications for planet formation. We also discuss potential tests to constrain the largest planetesimal sizes and debris disc masses.
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Arena, Serena E., and Roland Speith. "Porosity models for pre-planetesimals: modified P-α like models and the effect of dissipated energy." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 6, S276 (October 2010): 395–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921311020497.
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AbstractThe outcome of collisions between pre-planetesimals is important in the theory of planetesimal formation by collisional growth and strongly depends on their internal structure. Since pre-planetesimals are highly porous, reaching 90% porosity, they could show the so called anomalous behaviour (decrease of density during shock compression, e.g. Bolkhovitinov & Khvostov 1978). Due to involved sizes (>dm), laboratory experiments are unfeasible therefore numerical simulations equipped with adequate porosity models are necessary.Here we focus on the P-α model and its variations. We found that they are suitable for applications in the high porosity range only after a modification of the basic equations, that avoids an inconsistency and takes into account the effect of dissipated energy, is performed.
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Greenberg, Richard. "The origin of comets among the accreting outer planets." International Astronomical Union Colloquium 83 (1985): 3–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0252921100083755.
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AbstractThe hypothesis of formation of comets as an accompaniment to formation of Uranus and Neptune from icy planetesimals is attractive for several reasons, but has suffered from long-standing problems regarding formation of the planets themselves. The history of this problem is reviewed, and recent results are described that may help solve it. Numerical simulations of planet growth show that when the system of planetesimals is no longer artificially constrained to a power-law size distribution, growth of planets may occur in reasonable time. An adeguate number of comet-sized bodies to populate the Oort cloud is not produced as collisional debris during the planet-building process. Rather, the comets are probably a remnant of the original planetesimal “building blocks” from which the planets grew.
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Drążkowska, Joanna, Fredrik Windmark, and Satoshi Okuzumi. "Rapid planetesimal formation in the inner protoplanetary disk." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 9, S310 (July 2014): 208–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921314008278.
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AbstractGrowth barriers, including the bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift problems, are still a big issue in planetesimal and thus planet formation theory. We present a new mechanism for very rapid planetesimal formation by sweep-up growth. Planetesimal formation is extremely fast in the inner protoplanetary disk where the growth rate exceeds the radial drift rate, leading to local planetesimal formation and pile-up inside of 1 AU. This scenario is very appealing particularly in the context of explaining the low mass of Mars, as well as the formation of recently discovered multi-transiting systems with tightly-packed inner planets.