2018/01/29 by Alexander W. Wise, Sarah Dodson-Robinson, Sarah E. Dodson-Robinson · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Biology #Exoplanet #Gas giant #Giant planet #Photoevaporation #Physics #Planet #Planetary migration #Planetary system #Protoplanetary disk #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaaae5
Main text: 31 pages including 10 figures, Appendix + Bibliography: 10 pages. Accepted to ApJ January 24, 2018
arxiv created 2018/01/29 · openalex publication_date 2018/03/10 · arxiv updated 2018/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract The semimajor axis distribution of giant exoplanets appears to have a pileup near 1 au. Photoevaporation opens a gap in the inner few au of gaseous disks before dissipating them. Here, we investigate if photoevaporation can significantly affect the final distribution of giant planets by modifying gas surface density and hence Type II migration rates near the photoevaporation gap. We first use an analytic disk model to demonstrate that newly formed giant planets have a long migration epoch before photoevaporation can significantly alter their migration rates. Next, we present new 2D hydrodynamic simulations of planets migrating in photoevaporating disks, in which each are paired with a control simulation of migration in an otherwise identical disk without photoevaporation. We show that in disks with surface densities near the minimum threshold for forming giant planets, photoevaporation alters the final semimajor axis of a migrating gas giant by at most 5% over the course of 0.1 Myr of migration. Once the disk mass has become low enough for photoevaporation to carve a sharp gap, migration has almost completely stalled due to the low surface density of gas at the Lindblad resonances. We find that photoevaporation modifies migration rates so little that it is unlikely to leave a significant signature on the distribution of giant exoplanets.