Published July 1, 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

N-BODY SIMULATIONS OF PLANETARY ACCRETION AROUND M DWARF STARS

  • 1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan)

Description

We have investigated planetary accretion from planetesimals in terrestrial planet regions inside the ice line around M dwarf stars through N-body simulations including tidal interactions with disk gas. Because of low luminosity of M dwarfs, habitable zones (HZs) are located in inner regions (∼0.1 AU). In the close-in HZ, type-I migration and the orbital decay induced by eccentricity damping are efficient according to the high disk gas density in the small orbital radii. Since the orbital decay is terminated around the disk inner edge and the disk edge is close to the HZ, the protoplanets accumulated near the disk edge affect formation of planets in the HZ. Ice lines are also in relatively inner regions at ∼0.3 AU. Due to the small orbital radii, icy protoplanets accrete rapidly and undergo type-I migration before disk depletion. The rapid orbital decay, the proximity of the disk inner edge, and large amount of inflow of icy protoplanets are characteristic in planetary accretion in terrestrial planet regions around M dwarfs. In the case of full efficiency of type-I migration predicted by the linear theory, we found that protoplanets that migrate to the vicinity of the host star undergo close scatterings and collisions, and four to six planets eventually remain in mutual mean-motion resonances and their orbits have small eccentricities (∼<0.01) and they are stable both before and after disk gas decays. In the case of slow migration, the resonant capture is so efficient that densely packed ∼40 small protoplanets remain in mutual mean-motion resonances. In this case, they start orbit crossing, after the disk gas decays and eccentricity damping due to tidal interaction with gas is no more effective. Through merging of the protoplanets, several planets in widely separated non-resonant orbits with relatively large eccentricities (∼0.05) are formed. Thus, the final orbital configurations (separations, resonant or non-resonant, eccentricity, and distribution) of the terrestrial planets around M dwarfs sensitively depend on strength of type-I migration. We also found that large amount of water-ice is delivered by type-I migration from outer regions and final planets near the inner disk edge around M dwarfs are generally abundant in water-ice except for the innermost one that is shielded by the outer planets, unless type-I migration speed is reduced by a factor of more than 100 from that predicted by the linear theory.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/699/1/824

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
699
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
p. 824-838
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOAB

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
41051524
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
DWARF STARS; ICE; LUMINOSITY; MASS; ORBITS; PLANETS; PROTOPLANETS; SIMULATION; WATER
Descriptors DEC
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; STARS