2003/02/04 by I. Matsuyama, Isamu Matsuyama, Doug Johnstone +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/374406
published as Astrophys.J. 585 (2003) L143-L146 · 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2003/02/04 · openalex publication_date 2003/03/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The recent discovery of Jupiter-mass planets orbiting at a few AU from their stars compliments earlier detections of massive planets on very small orbits. The short period orbits strongly suggest that planet migration has occurred, with the likely mechanism being tidal interactions between the planets and the gas disks out of which they formed. The newly discovered long period planets, together with the gas giant planets in our solar system, show that migration is either absent or rapidly halted in at least some systems. We propose a mechanism for halting type-II migration at several AU in a gas disk. Photoevaporation of the disk by irradiation from the central star can produce a gap in the disk at a few AU, preventing planets outside the gap from migrating down to the star. This would result in an excess of systems with planets at or just outside the photoevaporation radius.