Fate of the Runner in Hit-and-run Collisions Emsenhuber, Alexandre; Asphaug, Erik
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
04/2019, Volume:
875, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In similar-sized planetary collisions, a significant part of the impactor often misses the target and continues downrange. We follow the dynamical evolution of "runners" from giant impacts to ...determine their ultimate fate. Surprisingly, runners reimpact their target planets only about half of the time for realistic collisional and dynamical scenarios. Otherwise, they remain in orbit for tens of millions of years (the limit of our N-body calculations) and longer, or they sometimes collide with a different planet than the first one. When the runner does return to collide again with the same target planet, its impact velocity is mainly constrained by the outcome of the prior collision. Impact angle and orientation, however, are unconstrained by the prior collision.
The orbital distribution of giant planets is crucial for understanding how terrestrial planets form and predicting yields of exoplanet surveys. Here, we derive giant planets occurrence rates as a ...function of orbital period by taking into account the detection efficiency of the Kepler and radial velocity (RV) surveys. The giant planet occurrence rates for Kepler and RV show the same rising trend with increasing distance from the star. We identify a break in the RV giant planet distribution between ∼2 and 3 au-close to the location of the snow line in the solar system-after which the occurrence rate decreases with distance from the star. Extrapolating a broken power-law distribution to larger semimajor axes, we find good agreement with the ∼1% planet occurrence rates from direct imaging surveys. Assuming a symmetric power law, we also estimate that the occurrence of giant planets between 0.1 and 100 au is for planets with masses 0.1-20 MJ and decreases to for planets more massive than Jupiter. This implies that only a fraction of the structures detected in disks around young stars can be attributed to giant planets. Various planet population synthesis models show good agreement with the observed distribution, and we show how a quantitative comparison between model and data can be used to constrain planet formation and migration mechanisms.
Graze-and-merge collisions are common multi-step mergers occurring in low-velocity, off-axis impacts between similar-sized planetary bodies. The first impact happens at somewhat faster than the ...mutual escape velocity; for typical impact angles this does not result in immediate accretion, but the smaller body is slowed down so that it loops back around and collides again, ultimately accreting. The scenario changes in the presence of a third major body, i.e., planets accreting around a star, or satellites around a planet. We find that when the loop-back orbit remains inside roughly one third of the Hill radius from the target, then the overall process is not strongly affected. As the loop-back orbit increases in radius, the return velocity and angle of the second collision become increasingly random, with no record of the first collision's orientation. When the loop-back orbit gets to about three quarters of the Hill radius, the path of smaller body is disturbed up to the point that it will usually escape the target.
•Large scale (∼2000 km) impacts on a Mars-like planet are performed using the SPH technique.•Material strength affects post-impact material and temperature distribution.•Equation of State effects are ...more subtle and present only at very high temperatures.
We model large-scale ( ≈ 2000 km) impacts on a Mars-like planet using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code. The effects of material strength and of using different Equations of State on the post-impact material and temperature distributions are investigated. The properties of the ejected material in terms of escaping and disc mass are analysed as well. We also study potential numerical effects in the context of density discontinuities and rigid body rotation. We find that in the large-scale collision regime considered here (with impact velocities of 4 km/s), the effect of material strength is substantial for the post-impact distribution of the temperature and the impactor material, while the influence of the Equation of State is more subtle and present only at very high temperatures.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The collection of planetary system properties derived from large surveys such as Kepler provides critical constraints on planet formation and evolution. These constraints can only be applied to ...planet formation models, however, if the observational biases and selection effects are properly accounted for. Here we show how epos, the Exoplanet Population Observation Simulator, can be used to constrain planet formation models by comparing the Bern planet population synthesis models to the Kepler exoplanetary systems. We compile a series of diagnostics, based on occurrence rates of different classes of planets and the architectures of multiplanet systems within 1 au, that can be used as benchmarks for future and current modeling efforts. Overall, we find that a model with 100-seed planetary cores per protoplanetary disk provides a reasonable match to most diagnostics. Based on these diagnostics we identify physical properties and processes that would result in the Bern model more closely matching the known planetary systems. These are as follows: moving the planet trap at the inner disk edge outward; increasing the formation efficiency of mini-Neptunes; and reducing the fraction of stars that form observable planets. We conclude with an outlook on the composition of planets in the habitable zone, and highlight that the majority of simulated planets smaller than 1.7 Earth radii in this zone are predicted to have substantial hydrogen atmospheres. The software used in this paper is available online for public scrutiny at https://github.com/GijsMulders/epos.
Planet formation simulations are capable of directly integrating the evolution of hundreds to thousands of planetary embryos and planetesimals as they accrete pairwise to become planets. In ...principle, these investigations allow us to better understand the final configuration and geochemistry of the terrestrial planets, and also to place our solar system in the context of other exosolar systems. While these simulations classically prescribe collisions to result in perfect mergers, recent computational advances have begun to allow for more complex outcomes to be implemented. Here we apply machine learning to a large but sparse database of giant impact studies, which allows us to streamline the simulations into a classifier of collision outcomes and a regressor of accretion efficiency. The classifier maps a four-dimensional (4D) parameter space (target mass, projectile-to-target mass ratio, impact velocity, impact angle) into the four major collision types: merger, graze-and-merge, hit-and-run, and disruption. The definition of the four regimes and their boundary is fully data-driven. The results do not suffer from any model assumption in the fitting. The classifier maps the structure of the parameter space and it provides insights into the outcome regimes. The regressor is a neural network that is trained to closely mimic the functional relationship between the 4D space of collision parameters, and a real-variable outcome, the mass of the largest remnant. This work is a prototype of a more complete surrogate model, that will be based on extended sets of simulations (big data), that will quickly and reliably predict specific collision outcomes for use in realistic N-body dynamical studies of planetary formation.
Context. Planetary formation and evolution is a combination of multiple interlinked processes. Constraining the mechanisms observationally requires statistical comparison to a large diversity of ...planetary systems. Aims. We want to understand global observable consequences of different physical processes (accretion, migration, and interactions) and initial properties (like disc masses and metallicities) on the demographics of the planetary population. We also want to study the convergence of our scheme with respect to one initial condition, the initial number of planetary embryo in each disc. Methods. We selected distributions of initial conditions that are representative of known protoplanetary discs. Then, we used the Generation III Bern model to perform planetary population synthesis. We synthesise five populations with each a different initial number of Moon-mass embryos per disc: 1, 10, 20, 50, and 100. The last is our nominal population consisting of 1000 stars (systems) that was used for an extensive statistical analysis of planetary systems around 1 M⊙ stars. Results. The properties of giant planets do not change much as long as there are at least ten embryos in each system. The study of giants can thus be done with simulations requiring less computational resources. For inner terrestrial planets, only the 100-embryos population is able to attain the giant-impact stage. In that population, each planetary system contains, on average, eight planets more massive than 1 M⊕. The fraction of systems with giants planets at all orbital distances is 18%, but only 1.6% are at >10 au. Systems with giants contain on average 1.6 such planets. The planetary mass function varies as M−2 between 5 and 50 M⊕. Both at lower and higher masses, it follows approximately M−1. The frequency of terrestrial and super-Earth planets peaks at a stellar Fe/H of −0.2 and 0.0, respectively, being limited at lower Fe/H by a lack of building blocks, and by (for them) detrimental growth of more massive dynamically active planets at higher Fe/H. The frequency of more massive planets (Neptunian, giants) increases monotonically with Fe/H. The fast migration of planets in the 5–50 M⊕ range is reduced by the presence of multiple lower-mass inner planets in the multi-embryos populations. To assess the impact of parameters and model assumptions, we also study two non-nominal populations: insitu formation without gas-driven migration, and a different initial planetesimal surface density. Conclusions. We present one of the most comprehensive simulations of (exo)planetary system formation and evolution to date. For observations, the syntheses provides a large data set to search for comparison synthetic planetary systems that show how these systems have come into existence. The systems, including their full formation and evolution tracks are available online. For theory, they provide the framework to observationally test the global statistical consequences of theoretical models for specific physical processes. This is an important ingredient towards the development of a standard model of planetary formation and evolution.
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Context. The explosion of observational data on exoplanets gives many constraints on theoretical models of planet formation and evolution. Observational data probe very large areas of the parameter ...space and many different planet properties. Aims. Comparing theoretical models with observations allows one to take a key step forward towards understanding planetary systems. It however requires a model able to (i) predict all the necessary observable quantities (not only masses and orbits, but also radii, luminosities, magnitudes, or evaporation rates) and (ii) address the large range in relevant planetary masses (from Mars mass to super-Jupiters) and distances (from stellar-grazing to wide orbits). Methods. We have developed a combined global end-to-end planetary formation and evolution model, the Generation III Bern model, based on the core accretion paradigm. This model solves as directly as possible the underlying differential equations for the structure and evolution of the gas disc, the dynamical state of the planetesimals, the internal structure of the planets yielding their planetesimal and gas accretion rates, disc-driven orbital migration, and the gravitational interaction of concurrently forming planets via a full N-body calculation. Importantly, the model also follows the long-term evolution of the planets on gigayear timescales after formation including the effects of cooling and contraction, atmospheric escape, bloating, and stellar tides. Results. To test the model, we compared it with classical scenarios of Solar System formation. For the terrestrial planets, we find that we obtain a giant impact phase of protoplanet-protoplanet collisions provided enough embryos (~100) are initially emplaced in the disc. For the giant planets, we find that Jupiter-mass planets must accrete their core shortly before the dispersal of the gas disc to prevent strong inward migration that would bring them to the inner edge of the disc. Regarding the emergence of entire planetary systems, many aspects can be understood with the comparison of the timescales of growth and migration, the capture into resonances, and the consequences of large-scale dynamical instabilities caused by the gravitational interactions of protoplanets, including the situation when a second core starts runaway gas accretion. Conclusions. The Generation III Bern model provides one of the most comprehensive global end-to-end models of planetary system formation and evolution developed so far, linking a multitude of crucial physical processes self-consistently. The model can form planetary systems with a wide range of properties. We find that systems with only terrestrial planets are often well-ordered (in period, mass, and radius), while giant-planet bearing systems show no such similarity. In a series of papers, the model will be used to perform extensive planetary population syntheses, putting the current theoretical understanding of planet formation and evolution to the observational test.
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Abstract In the late stage of terrestrial planet formation, planets are predicted to undergo pairwise collisions known as giant impacts. Here, we present a high-resolution database of giant impacts ...for differentiated colliding bodies of iron–silicate composition, with target masses ranging from 1 × 10 −4 M ⊕ up to super-Earths (5 M ⊕ ). We vary the impactor-to-target mass ratio, core–mantle (iron–silicate) fraction, impact velocity, and impact angle. Strength in the form of friction is included in all simulations. We find that, due to strength, the collisions with bodies smaller than about 2 ×10 −3 M ⊕ can result in irregular shapes, compound-core structures, and captured binaries. We observe that the characteristic escaping velocity of smaller remnants (debris) is approximately half of the impact velocity, significantly faster than currently assumed in N -body simulations of planet formation. Incorporating these results in N -body planet formation studies would provide more realistic debris–debris and debris–planet interactions.
Context.
Current research has established magnetised disc winds as a promising way of driving accretion in protoplanetary discs.
Aims.
We investigate the evolution of large protoplanetary disc ...populations under the influence of magnetically driven disc winds as well as internal and external photoevaporation. We aim to constrain magnetic disc wind models through comparisons with observations.
Methods.
We ran 1D vertically integrated evolutionary simulations for low-viscosity discs, including magnetic braking and various outflows. The initial conditions were varied and chosen to produce populations that are representative of actual disc populations inferred from observations. We then compared the observables from the simulations (e.g. stellar accretion rate, disc mass evolution, disc lifetime, etc.) with observational data.
Results.
Our simulations show that to reach stellar accretion rates comparable to those found by observations (~10
−8
M
⊙
yr
−1
), it is necessary to have access not only to strong magnetic torques, but weak magnetic winds as well. The presence of a strong magnetic disc wind, in combination with internal photoevaporation, leads to the rapid opening of an inner cavity early on, allowing the stellar accretion rate to drop while the disc is still massive. Furthermore, our model supports the notion that external photoevaporation via the ambient far-ultraviolet radiation of surrounding stars is a driving force in disc evolution and could potentially exert a strong influence on planetary formation.
Conclusions.
Our disc population syntheses show that for a subset of magnetohydrodynamic wind models (weak disc wind, strong torque), it is possible to reproduce important statistical observational constraints. The magnetic disc wind paradigm thus represents a novel and appealing alternative to the classical
α
-viscosity scenario.
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