Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Runaway gas accretion and gap opening versus type I migration

Crida, A. and Bitsch, B. LU (2017) In Icarus 285. p.145-154
Abstract

Growing planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disc, which exerts a torque onto them allowing them to migrate in the disc. Small mass planets do not affect the gas profile and migrate in the fast type-I migration. Although type-I migration can be directed outwards for planets smaller than 20−30M in some regions of the disc, planets above this mass should be lost into the central star long before the disc disperses. Massive planets push away material from their orbit and open a gap. They subsequently migrate in the slower, type II migration, which could save them from migrating all the way to the star. Hence, growing giant planets can be saved if and only if they can reach the gap opening mass, because this extends... (More)

Growing planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disc, which exerts a torque onto them allowing them to migrate in the disc. Small mass planets do not affect the gas profile and migrate in the fast type-I migration. Although type-I migration can be directed outwards for planets smaller than 20−30M in some regions of the disc, planets above this mass should be lost into the central star long before the disc disperses. Massive planets push away material from their orbit and open a gap. They subsequently migrate in the slower, type II migration, which could save them from migrating all the way to the star. Hence, growing giant planets can be saved if and only if they can reach the gap opening mass, because this extends their migration timescale, allowing them to eventually survive at large orbits until the disc itself disperses. However, most of the previous studies only measured the torques on planets with fixed masses and orbits to determine the migration rate. Additionally, the transition between type-I and type-II migration itself is not well studied, especially when taking the growth mechanism of rapid gas accretion from the surrounding disc into account. Here we use isothermal 2D disc simulations with FARGO-2D1D to study the migration behaviour of gas accreting protoplanets in discs. We find that migrating giant planets always open gaps in the disc. We further show analytically and numerically that in the runaway gas accretion regime, the growth time-scale is comparable to the type-I migration time-scale, indicating that growing planets will reach gap opening masses before migrating all the way to the central star in type-I migration if the disc is not extremely viscous and/or thick. An accretion rate limited to the radial gas flow in the disc, in contrast, is not fast enough. When gas accretion by the planet is taken into account, the gap opening process is accelerated because the planet accretes material originating from its horseshoe region. This allows an accreting planet to transition to type-II migration before being lost even if gas fails to be provided for a rapid enough growth and the classical gap opening mass is not reached.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Accretion, Migration, Planet-disk interactions, Planetary formation, Planets
in
Icarus
volume
285
pages
10 pages
publisher
Academic Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000393257200012
  • scopus:85006172813
ISSN
0019-1035
DOI
10.1016/j.icarus.2016.10.017
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
00c77260-99d2-4e1e-b501-5d35fa91819b
date added to LUP
2017-02-03 07:49:21
date last changed
2024-04-05 15:53:04
@article{00c77260-99d2-4e1e-b501-5d35fa91819b,
  abstract     = {{<p>Growing planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disc, which exerts a torque onto them allowing them to migrate in the disc. Small mass planets do not affect the gas profile and migrate in the fast type-I migration. Although type-I migration can be directed outwards for planets smaller than 20−30M<sub>⊕</sub> in some regions of the disc, planets above this mass should be lost into the central star long before the disc disperses. Massive planets push away material from their orbit and open a gap. They subsequently migrate in the slower, type II migration, which could save them from migrating all the way to the star. Hence, growing giant planets can be saved if and only if they can reach the gap opening mass, because this extends their migration timescale, allowing them to eventually survive at large orbits until the disc itself disperses. However, most of the previous studies only measured the torques on planets with fixed masses and orbits to determine the migration rate. Additionally, the transition between type-I and type-II migration itself is not well studied, especially when taking the growth mechanism of rapid gas accretion from the surrounding disc into account. Here we use isothermal 2D disc simulations with FARGO-2D1D to study the migration behaviour of gas accreting protoplanets in discs. We find that migrating giant planets always open gaps in the disc. We further show analytically and numerically that in the runaway gas accretion regime, the growth time-scale is comparable to the type-I migration time-scale, indicating that growing planets will reach gap opening masses before migrating all the way to the central star in type-I migration if the disc is not extremely viscous and/or thick. An accretion rate limited to the radial gas flow in the disc, in contrast, is not fast enough. When gas accretion by the planet is taken into account, the gap opening process is accelerated because the planet accretes material originating from its horseshoe region. This allows an accreting planet to transition to type-II migration before being lost even if gas fails to be provided for a rapid enough growth and the classical gap opening mass is not reached.</p>}},
  author       = {{Crida, A. and Bitsch, B.}},
  issn         = {{0019-1035}},
  keywords     = {{Accretion; Migration; Planet-disk interactions; Planetary formation; Planets}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  pages        = {{145--154}},
  publisher    = {{Academic Press}},
  series       = {{Icarus}},
  title        = {{Runaway gas accretion and gap opening versus type I migration}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2016.10.017}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.icarus.2016.10.017}},
  volume       = {{285}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}